Acid Rain
By: Andrew • Research Paper • 1,213 Words • December 16, 2009 • 1,364 Views
Essay title: Acid Rain
Acid rain is a serious problem with disastrous effects. Each day this serious problem
increases, many people believe that this issue is too small to deal with right now this
issue should be met head on and solved before it is too late. In the following paragraphs I
will be discussing the impact has on the wildlife and how our atmosphere is being
destroyed by acid rain.
CAUSES Acid rain is a cancer eating into the face of Eastern Canada and the North
Eastern United States. In Canada, the main sulphuric acid sources are non©ferrous
smelters and power generation. On both sides of the border, cars and trucks are the main
sources for nitric acid(about 40% of the total), while power generating plants and
industrial commercial and residential fuel combustion together contribute most of the
rest. In the air, the sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can be transformed into sulphuric
acid and nitric acid, and air current can send them thousands of kilometres from the
source.When the acids fall to the earth in any form it will have large impact on the
growth or the preservation of certain wildlife.
NO DEFENCE Areas in Ontario mainly southern regions that are near the Great Lakes,
such substances as limestone or other known antacids can neutralize acids entering the
body of water thereby protecting it. However, large areas of Ontario that are near the
Pre©Cambrian Shield, with quartzite or granite based geology and little top soil, there is
not enough buffering capacity to neutralize even small amounts of acid falling on the soil
and the lakes. Therefore over time, the basic environment shifts from an alkaline to a
acidic one. This is why many lakes in the Muskoka, Haliburton, Algonquin, Parry Sound
and Manitoulin districts could lose their fisheries if sulphur emissions are not reduced
substantially.
ACID The average mean of pH rainfall in Ontario's Muskoka©Haliburton lake country
ranges between 3.95 and 4.38 about 40 times more acidic than normal rainfall, while
storms in Pennsilvania have rainfall pH at 2.8 it almost has the same rating for vinegar.
Already 140 Ontario lakes are completely dead or dying. An additional 48 000 are
sensitive and vulnerable to acid rain due to the surrounding concentrated acidic soils.Ф
ACID RAIN CONSISTS OF....? Canada does not have as many people, power plants or
automobiles as the United States, and yet acid rain there has become so severe that
Canadian government officials called it the most pressing environmental issue facing the
nation. But it is important to bear in mind that acid rain is only one segment, of the
widespread pollution of the atmosphere facing the world. Each year the global
atmosphere is on the receiving end of 20 billion tons of carbon dioxide, 130 million tons
of suffer dioxide, 97 million tons of hydrocarbons, 53 million tons of nitrogen oxides,
more than three million tons of arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, zinc and other
toxic metals, and a host of synthetic organic compounds ranging from polychlorinated
biphenyls(PCBs) to toxaphene and other pesticides, a number of which may be capable
of causing cancer, birth defects, or genetic imbalances.
COST OF ACID RAIN Interactions of pollutants can cause problems. In addition to
contributing to acid rain, nitrogen oxides can react with hydrocarbons to produce ozone,
a major air pollutant responsible in the United States for annual losses of $2 billion to 4.5