Effects On Soil When Acid Rain example essay topic

Acid Rain – The Deadly Destroyer Essay, Acid Rain – The Deadly Destroyer What is Acid Rain? Acid rain is a form of precipitation that falls to the earth as rain. For rain to be acidic it has a pH level of less than 5.6. The corrosive nature of acid rain causes widespread damage to the environment. The problem begins with the production of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas, oil and other kinds of manufacturing. When these pollutants are in the air, they react with water and other chemicals, to form sulfuric acid, nitric acid, sulfuric acid and other pollutants.

Once these pollutants are in the air, they can travel for many miles, and when rain clouds get to heavy to hold all the moisture they drop their deadly load of chemicals onto the earth in a form of rain, snow, hail or fog. In Eastern North America, throughout Europe, Japan, China, and Southeast Asia damage from acid rain has been widespread. Acid rain causes nutrients from the soil to disappear, causes trees to grow slower, causes aquatic life in lakes to die off and as well wildlife. Acid rain also affects cities by corroding everything that the rain touches.

Acid rain accelerates the natural wear and tear on structures such as buildings and statues. Acid rain also forms urban smog, which attacks the lungs, causing severe health problems for the elderly. Formation of Acid RainThe formation of acid rain starts off with the burning of fossil fuels. Burning is a chemical reaction, in which oxygen from the air combines with carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and other elements in the substance that is being burned. The new compounds that are being formed are gases called oxides. When sulfur and nitrogen are present in the substance being burned, their reaction with oxygen yields sulfur dioxide and various nitrogen oxide compounds.

In the United States, 70 percent of sulfur dioxide pollution comes from power plants, especially those that burn coal. In Canada, oil refining and metal smelting, account for 61 percent of sulfur dioxide pollution. Nitrogen oxides enter the atmosphere from many sources, with vehicles emitting the largest share, 43 percent in the United States and 60 percent in Canada. When these chemicals are in the air, the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides undergo a very complicated reaction with water vapor and other chemicals to yield sulfuric and nitric acid. The compounds that are now formed travel in the air currents for many kilometers at a time.

When the air becomes dense with moisture, clouds form in the acidic air and so when precipitation comes down as rain, snow etc, the acids fall with them back to earth. Effects of Acid Rain When looking at the effects of acid rain there is a scale on with scientists use. The pH scale has units from 0? 14. Acidic substances have a pH number from 1 to 6, the lower the number the higher the corrosiveness. Alkalis are bases and are non acidic substances and they have pH values for 8 to 14, the higher the value the higher the alkalinity.

Pure water has a neutral pH of 7 and it is neither an acid nor a base. Rain, snow, hail etc with a pH value below 5.6 is considered acid rain. If there is a high acid and high bases are in the air, they mix and form normal rain when they fall to earth. This is a normal occurrence in nature. When rain falls with a pH near 5.6 the alkaline chemicals in the environment, found in rocks, soil etc absorb and neutralize this acidic rain.

If rainfalls with a pH lower then 5.6, the environment is unable to neutralize the acid rain. When this rainfalls it damages whole ecosystems and even destroys man made structures. Effects on Soil When acid rain reaches the soil it washes away all the important nutrients that plants need to survive on. It also dissolves small quantities of aluminum and mercury that are present in the soil. Once the toxics are freed they are either flushed into the water systems or absorbed into plants causing drastic affects if eaten by humans. In some places the soil may be high in alkaline bases and so the soil is unaffected by the rain, but normally there is only a small amount of alkaline in normal soil and so with two or three acid rain falls the acid is only stopped briefly.

Once there in no more alkaline the acid is free to destroy the fragile ground at its own will. Effects on Trees When there are no nutrients left in the soil, the growth of plants and trees are reduced dramatically. When acid rain falls upon trees, the corrosiveness of the precipitation destroys the waxy coating on the leave and needles causing the needles and leaves to die. If a tree looses most of the waxy coating on its needles and leaves the tree loses the ability to make its food by use of photosynthesis. Also without the protective coating the tree loses its defense that help the tree defend off diseases, resulting in that the tree will be come weaker and be vulnerable to other stresses such as insects, drought, and cold temperatures. The cold temperatures are mainly responsible for the death of most trees under these conditions of acid rain.

Effects on Plants and Animals When acid rain falls on certain plants that animals feed off of the effects can be very damaging. If all the plants die that a certain animal feeds off of the animal will not most likely survive. In the end the worst thing that could happen is that a whole ecosystem could become endangered. To explain what an ecosystem is I will use a scenario.

When a water system pH level becomes lower than 6.0 the insects and plankton that the fish feed off of start to die off. When the fish can? t find any food to feed off of, their population in a certain area begins to die. Once the fish population becomes endangered, the land creatures like bears, eagles, and raccoons become affected and start to die off too. If conditions like this happen over a wide area whole populations can die off just because of acid rainfall. Effects on Water Sources After a heavy rainfall all the extra precipitation ends up in streams and lakes. When spring comes the snow melts and also ends up in streams and lakes.

Normally the waters are usually neutral, meaning that they have a pH between 6 and 8. If the rain that fell and the snow that melted have a very high pH level it would affect the normal water by making it acidic. Once the water has a pH value below 5.6, the water is acidic and aquatic life starts to die. If the pH value of the water doesn? t get better, the lakes and streams / rivers will be come sterile and not hold any kind of life forms. Man Made Structures Plants, animals, trees, and water systems aren? t the only thing that acid rain destroys, acid rain also effects buildings, cars, statues, etc. The corrosive damage can be expensive to fix and in cities with old historic buildings statues very devastating.

To give an idea of how much cost is involved, take the United States as an example. In 1990 the U. S spent 35 billion on paint damage. On ancient Roman monuments it cost the Roman Government 200 million dollars to restore them. These are just a few examples of how wide spread the acid rain problem is on just man made structures. Effects on Humans When acid rain falls on humans it has really no adverse effect on the outside, humans can even swim in acidic lakes and its doesn? t harm them. The serious effects start to take place on the inside of the body and that is respiratory problems.

When sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions gives risk to respiratory problems such as dry coughs, asthma, headaches, eye, nose, and throat irritation. Polluted rainfall is especially harmful to those who suffer form asthma or those who have hard time breathing. Even healthy people can have their lungs damaged by acid air pollutants. Acid rain can aggravate a person's ability to breathe and may increase disease, which could lead to death. {? Acid Rain? : web / What can be done to Control Acid RainThe most important thing that people can do to control acid rain is reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are releases into the air.

So that means to reduce the emissions of fossil fuels. If people use less power and drive their vehicles less that will be a start to reduce acid rain. If everyone bought energy efficient appliances, bought energy efficient house or upgrade old houses to be energy efficient, take transit to work, ride a bike, or walk it would make the air a lot cleaner to breathe. If every person in the world would do this we help dramatically to reduce acid rain. By switching to cleaner burning fuels you can combat the release of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are released into the air. When electric companies burn coal they could switch to coal that contains low sulfur, thus creating a cleaner burning fuel.

If gas companies created cleaner burning fuels for vehicles, it would result in less nitrogen oxide being produced into the air. If you burn natural gas it will help the environment because natural gas has very low traced of sulfur in it, but to find these clean gases are hard and so it will result in people paying more for them. After fuel is burned the harmful gases still can be trapped. In factory smokestacks, devices called scrubbers spray a mixture of water and limestone into the waste gases as they leave. What these scrubbers do is recapture the sulfur pollutants. The other type of device that can be used is called a catalytic converter.

What this device does is the waste gas passes over small beads coated with metals; the metals promote chemical reactions that change harmful chemicals to less harmful ones, resulting in less pollution. In Canada and the United States catalytic converters are required in all vehicles by law. When sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides have been released into the environment there are only a few ways to prevent further damage. One technique that is put in lakes and in the soil is lime. Lime as mentioned early reduces the corrosive nature of acid rain and makes it more alkaline. What countries like Norway and Sweden do is they drop powered lime from the air into lakes and forests.

In cities, exposed structures are painted with acid resistant paints. Ancient statues are taken indoors and out of the dangerous environment. By using all these methods we can reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are released into the air. The results will be cleaner air, no smog, and no harmful precipitation. What Governments DoIn 1970 the United States passed a bill to control the release of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the bill was the Clean Air Act. What this bill did was establish a standard for pollutants from vehicles and industry.

Later in 1990 the U.S. government amended the legislation and aimed for a new goal and that was to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide from 23.5 million tons to 16 million tons by the year 2010. The government also set a goal for power plants to reduce their production of nitrogen oxides from 7.5 million tons to 5 million tons by the year 2010. Canada also mandated legislation on sulfur dioxide emissions to 2.3 million tons in Canada's eastern provinces. This is where most of the acid rain damage was done in Canada. For Canada nation wide a limit was set for sulfur dioxide emissions at 3.2 million tons per year.

Canada is developing stricter pollution control and they will be enforced by the year 2010. In 1990 the U.S. government made amendments to the 1970 bill and it gave polluting companies permits to release a specified number of tons of sulfur dioxide. The government also allowed companies to sell their unused permits. What this means is when a company is below the emissions standard, they wouldn? t need to use their permits and so they could sell their permits to companies that hadn? t complied with the government's regulations. Once that buyer has the permit they were allowed to pollute above the limit until the permit ran out.

The government also allowed companies to bank up their permits for future use. The government hopes with this legislation that the companies will clean up their emissions more quickly and cheaply than a set of rigid rules. All these laws that the governments are making are paying off in the reduction of acid rain. Targets that are set in laws or treaties are being met, some even ahead of schedule. Between 1980 to 1994 sulfur emissions in Europe have decreased by 40 percent. In Norway the emissions of sulfur dioxide have been reduced by 75 percent.

The United States the sulfur dioxide emissions in 1980 were at 26 million tons per year, now the U.S. has dropped the emissions to 18.3 million tons. Canada is also beating their proposed emissions of 3.2 million tons to 2.6 million tons an 18 percent decrease below the limit they set. All these laws that the government has set is a real benefit for the world, but remember that the governments around the world can? t clean up the acid rain mess instantly, it will take time. To speed the process of preventing the harmful release of emissions into the air people can help. Each person can turn down the temperature in his or her home. Instead of driving to work people can ride bikes or walk etc.

If just a few people do this it will help. Remember governments can enforce legislation but if people just conserve energy because they are forced to it will take a long time for benefits to happen, but if individuals realize that the governments are doing this for their own good the process of preventing acid rain will increase. Remember one small step from man makes a big leap for mankind!!

Bibliography

Acid Rain.? CD-ROM. Encarta Encyclopedia. 1998.
Baines, J. Conserving Our World, Acid Rain. England: Wayland publishing Ltd., 1989.