Acid Rain: Humanity's Future Is At Stake

Acid Rain: Humanity's Future Is At Stake

Jared Rogerson

Mr. Youell

Science 9S

Acid Rain

Acid rain is one of the most serious problems in our world today, and the longer we don’t do enough to fix it the worse it continues to get. Scientists predict that now is our last chance to act, as they foreshadow that if we do nothing now, there will be nothing we can  do to fix the problem in the decades to come. In other words, very soon the process of acid rain as well as ozone destruction and global climate change will be irreversible if we do nothing to fix it now. There is no more procrastinating, we must act.

In order to take steps to get rid of acid rain, we have to know what exactly acid rain is, and how it comes to be (see Figure 1). Acid rain is fairly self explanatory, being any precipitation that is acidic. This means that it shows up at a number lower than 7, or neutral, on the PH scale. The lower on the PH scale the rain, or any other liquid shows up, the more acidic it is. The most acidic rain ever recorded had a PH of 2.4, which is about the same acidity as vinegar.

As you may or may not know, rain with this level of acidity is terrible for the environment, which in turn harms us and all other life on earth. One way that acid rain affects the environment is that it literally eats away plants like trees (see Figure 2), which are important food and oxygen sources to animals including humans. Another huge way that acid rain effects the environment is through the acidification of our oceans (see Figure 3). In other words, acid rain causes the oceans to become acidic which kills of a lot of plant and animal life that can’t survive under acidic conditions. This disrupts the entire food chain, by making larger animals have to find other food or die out, which in turn lessens our food supply.

Acid rain doesn't just affect the environment, it also affects things that we humans have built. The acidity slowly erodes statues and buildings that we find to have historical importance, as well as making buildings that are important to life today last a less and less amount of time. This in turn costs countries, companies, and us, a lot of money to repair and rebuild these buildings that are literally being slowly dissolved.

One fairly common misconception in our consumer based society is that the factories are in another country, so we don’t have to worry about its effects. The reality of the matter is that the pollution and acid rain gets passed to the entire rest of the world, as hardly any chemicals ever leave earth. We are living under the same atmosphere, and even if it takes a few days for the water cycle or wind to get it to us, it still eventually causes extreme environmental and physical damage, thus affecting our lives in quite a large way.

Even throughout all of these terrible side effects, there are things we can do to lessen the amount of acid rain, thus reducing all of these terrible effects. Some governments have already implemented different laws that restrict the amount of emissions factories are allowed to produce, as well as making it so that factories have to use special filters to stop the most harmful of the chemicals from getting into the air, and causing acidic rain. One such example of this is the Clean Air Act established by the United States of America. This act imposes the things stated above, which although doesn't get rid of the problem, certainly helps to make it even slightly less terrible.

In order to eradicate the issue of acid rain, there are still things that we must do. The most common way that countries reduce the amount of pollution is by using renewable energy sources like solar and wind power, instead of only using fossil fuel sources like coal and gasoline. The only major problem with renewable methods of energy is that they are not usually very efficient, and they are extremely expensive to mass produce and use. The good thing about this is that these technologies are readily becoming cheaper and more efficient, which should help reduce the amount of pollution, and therefore also reduce the amount acid rain.




Figure 1: The Acid Rain Cycle

Figure 2: Effects of Acid Rain on wildlife (especially trees)

Figure 3: The acidification of oceans, partially caused by acid rain