Acid Rain

Acid Rain

Executive Summary

Acid rain continues to have a major impact on nature especially water bodies. The rise in pollution has been proved to be the major contributor to this rise although acid rain is something natural. This is now an international issue because of the substantial rise in acidic precipitation and the devastation it is causing to nature as well as man-made objects. Being acidic in nature, acid rains have a bleaching effect on paint and can reduce the color of paints on cars and walls. The media has been instrumental in highlighting it in order to build awareness but now their strategy has shifted to global warming due to which many people do not know about acid rains.

Executive Summaryii

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Introduction1

Literature Review1

Acid Rain1

Scale of Measurement2

Eroding of the Habitat3

Waters3

Forests3

Cars4

Buildings4

Human Health5

Prominent Media Issue5

Role of Media in Building Awareness5

Acid Rain vs. Global Warming6

Increasing of Issues by the Media7

Social Media7

Eliminate Global Warming, Eliminate Acid Rain7

The Future8

Use of Alternate forms of Energy8

Restoring the Damaged Environment9

Global Contribution9

Current Observations10

Conclusion10

Introduction

Acid rain continues to be a major topic in natural sciences. Its ecological effects are most clear in marshes, lakes, streams, and other water environments. Acid rain enters streams and lakes after falling. These places are very sensitive and can further destroy the natural habitat of the places through which they flow. These lakes and streams have a pH higher than normal levels; however, the effect of acid rain on bodies of water cannot be judged by the pH level because some water bodies have a naturally high pH due to the presence of minerals. Water with a higher pH level can badly affect aquatic life as most species cannot survive such conditions. This makes the issue of acid rain an important one to be discussed as various forums so that people may be aware of the facts and make an effort to reduce acid rain (Petheram, 2003).

Literature Review

Acid Rain

Acid rain is a term used to describe various forms of acid falling from clouds. It may be in the form of rain, snow, for, hail etc. This is caused by the precipitation of various chemicals in the atmosphere in particular oxides of nitrogen and sulfur. This leads to the formation of nitric acid and sulfuric acid; hence the term acid rain is used for this phenomenon. Acid rain is related to the chemistry of air pollution and scientists believe that the rise in human activity has led to an increase in acid rains throughout the world.

Acid rains were first observes in the late nineteenth century but at that time it was a local problem. Since them, industrialization all over the world has made this an international problem. The increase in use of tall chimneys has led to smoke being dispersed higher into the atmosphere thus leading to pollution being spread to places where pollution is low (OECD/IEA, 2007).

Precipitation is naturally acidic due to the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The sources of oxides of nitrogen and sulfur are also usually man made but can also be natural as ...