Acid Rain

Acid Rain

Introduction

Looking back in to the history of the world, we absolutely find no reamrks of the acid rain. It just a recent menace that acid rain has become effective and has beome a growing concern for a lot of countries of the world. Acid rain is that rain, which causes the buildings, bridges, statues etc to deteriorate at a much higher speed then usual. Acid rain can cause a great damage to the fertile land as well. It is since a few years that we have started watching people working for the environment. Acid rain has grown with the improvemnet in technlogy and with the industrialization that has taken place. Acid rain is just a recent concern, about a hudred years old. Acid rain is not what was there since the evolution of earth, acid rain is man made and can therefore; be reduced by the man it self. There is no natural remedy to acid rain, til the man decides to stop polluting the environemt, which so far has been impossible

Thesis statement

Acid rain is a serious issue nowadays even though government legislation has tried to reduce this problem.

Main Body

Acid rain - A problems of the past and Present

Acid rain was one of the earliest environmental policy concerns, if we discount the pesticide legislation that predates the EPA. Sulfur and nitrogen dioxide released into the air from factory and vehicle emissions affect the acidity of rain, causing damage not only to the ecosystem but also to property—a problem publicized by the reconstruction of the Statue of Liberty. Though the Reagan administration played up the idea of scientific uncertainty about causation, and delayed doing much about the problem, George H. W. Bush's administration specifically targeted acid rain as a problem to fix. Hardy (2003) states that It has been pointed out by many environmentalists since then that the original estimated cost to reduce emissions to the levels called for by Bush's 1990 Clean Air Act was $4.6 billion, plus a 40 percent spike in the cost of electricity. Almost 20 years later, we know that the real cost was only $1 billion, with a bump in electricity cost of about 3 percent.

Acid rain, the label with which is usually described as wet acid deposition and dry, is a fairly recent addition to our language. Although the term was coined 120 years ago by British chemist Augustus Smith based his studies on the air in Manchester, England, it was not until he created a network for monitoring the quality of the rain in northern Europe, the 1950's, when it recognized the widespread occurrence of acid rain. During the last decade, acid rain has been a major concern because it continues to contaminate large areas of our planet.

Hardy(2003) mentions that the concern relates primarily to the effects of acidity on fish populations and other aquatic animals, with potential damage to crops and forests and the increasing deterioration of the materials for construction. It even seems likely that the acidified rain ...