Acid Rain

Acid Rain

Jovana Kovac

                  One worldwide issue that strikes our Earth is acid rain. This form of precipitation causes many severe and harmful issues. As a result of air pollution, acid rain leaves harmful effects on plants, animals and infrastructure.

                  What exactly is acid rain? According to EPA acid rain is the type of rain that is made acidic by pollutants in our atmosphere. It can appear in many forms such as snow, sleet, and fog and also in dry forms. What mainly causes acid rain is a chemical reaction that usually beings when compounds such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the air. These substances can easily become even more acidic when they mix with water, oxygen and other sorts of chemicals. This is a natural cause of acid rain that we as humans cannot really control. What we can control is what humans do; human activities are the main cause of acid rain. What is being released by humans into our atmosphere in the past years is many different kinds of chemicals that have changed and irritated the gases in our atmosphere. Many things that humans have created such as power plants, which release a majority of sulfur dioxide, have destroyed our air in which we basically live in. Another very common pollutant that causes acid rain is the exhaust from cars, which basically happens trillions of times each day.

                  Due to severe pollution in our atmosphere caused by humans and nature itself, there are many effects along. Also according to EPA Acid rain can leave serious effects on soil, plants, building, trees and water. The living parts of out Earth are dying. For examples, the precious land of Scandinavia, their lakes are dead with no living creature inside them. Fish, as seen in figure 1, are being affected and there are even deformed fish around because of the serious acid rain causing the chaos.  The three main things in the world that are being affected are forests, river/lakes and buildings. When acid rain falls on trees it washes away all the substantial nutrients and minerals responsible for the growth of trees. Acid rain also damages leaves not letting them photosynthesis normally (figure 2). When it comes to rivers and lakes, acid rain falls directly on these areas destroying all the life inside them and polluting the water itself. The fish and all the living creatures inside, die because of the acidity of the lake or river. We know that when a certain type of animal disappears sooner or later the animal that feeds on it will die out too. The main starting factor of animals dying in water is because of acid rain. Lastly, buildings can suffer. Everything from building, cables to vehicles can suffer due to acid rain. But also acid rain is bad for us humans. We breathe in the acidic substances formed because of acid rain. But just like many things in the world, acid rain can be reduced and prevented at least a little.

Figure 1- dead fish caused by acid rain 

Figure 2- damaged leaves caused by of course acid rain 

                  

     

    So what can we do? What can we as humans do to prevent acid rain and lower the effects as much as possible...? We as people can search for new ways that can lower the pollution level. When it comes to electricity we need to find new ways of burning fuel, since that is the cheapest. Also, NCSU says how the government can help and should spend more time and should be more concentrated on what goes into our atmosphere; they should spend more money and time on pollution control. And we as citizens should be more careful and reuse: drive less and walk more whenever possible. Every human being can make a difference by remembering to switch of the light or by remembering to carefully use water. Small things like this, which probably rarely cross our minds, can make a huge difference.

                  Hopefully in the future we will be able to reduce the amount of polluted air and help our atmosphere be better place for us to live in. Acid rain is not only coming from nature but from us humans. The least we can do to stop forests, river, lakes and the living created from being polluted is to just be careful about the planet we live in and take in consideration that our Earth is the most important things in the world.

Bibliography 

http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/education/site_students/whatisacid.html 

http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/education/site_students/whatcauses.html 

http://www.ncsu.edu/project/bio183de/Black/chemreview/chemreview_reading/acid_rain.html