Acid Precipitation Essay -- essays research papers

     Sitting in your room late at night, you listen to the dark pittter-patter of the rain on your window. Ahh, so soothing and relaxing. Have you ever really wondered what the rain is really made of? Is that just water or is it astringent slowly streaming down out there? That rain you visualise just might be venomous rain, it could change the way you bide your life.     The commonly used terms acid rain and acid hardihood describe specific melodic phrases of a type of pollution described broadly speaking as acid deposition. Harmful gases that rise into the air mix with besmirch moisture, sunlight, and oxidants. There they chemically combine into dilute southwardic and nitric acids, which declension patronage to the earth. This is acid deposition. The major contributing pollutants atomic number 18 sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (Morgan, 5). dose rain is basically rainwater with a pH train lower than 5.6 (Morgan, 3). The term pH means potential hydrogen. When a substance has a pH level of 7, it is completely neutral with the similar number of hydroxyl and hydrogen ions (Pringle, 6). Acidity in the atmosphere lowlife be changed by many natural things. When a volcano erupts, sulfur dioxide is spewed out. Droughts produce unusually modify soil conditions allowing dust particles to be carried up into the air, neutralizing the acids that may be present at the time (Pringle, 4). Acid fall can come in concentrations sometimes more acidic than gamboge juice. These pollutants reach the earth in rain, snow, hail, sleet, or fog. The rain at the commencement of a shower is usually more acidic than the rain that follows. modify acidic particles can also fall from the atmosphere. Because wind can press out gases and moisture for hundreds of miles, even areas far away from the source bear the set up of acid deposition (Durham, 10). There are of course, many things that we as macrocosm do everyday to promote and support the continuation of acid rain. not intentionally, of course.When the fossil fuel, (i.e. coal) is used, the sulfur in it mixes with Oxygen in the air to form sulfur dioxide. The sulfur dioxide is eventually turned into acid over a matter of days. Coal-fired power plants are the single greatest cause of acid rain in the United States. They account for two-thirds of all sulfur dioxide emissions in the US (Pringle 16 Morgan 75). In the mid-1980s, the United states alon... ...ain can aggravate a persons ability to breathe and may increase disease, which could lead to death (Bennet)In conclusion, any rain with a pH level lower than 5.6 are classified as acid rain. Acid rain is made when sulfur dioxides mix with nitrogen oxides to form acids. The acids then can come back down out of the atmosphere in either a dry or a wet form. Both of these have proven annihilating to both aquatic animals and forests. Billions of dollars have been spent to correct and try to throttle what acid rain had done to buildings and monuments. Acid rain also has its chime on the health of us humans. The food you eat could be colly with toxins due to acid rain, youd never know it either. SourcesBennet, Mark. Acid come down 2-25-00. Online. Internet. 1-17-96 Available WWW http//www.soton.ac.uk/engenvir/enviroment/air/acid.home.htmlDurham, Jack. Acid Rain A educatees First Sourcebook. Diane Publishing Co. 1994.Morgan, Sally. Acid Rain. Franklin Watts, Incorporated 1999.Phamornsuwana, Sam. Effects of Acid Rain 2-24-00. Online. Internet. 1-5-99 Available WWW http//www.epa.gov/acidrain/effects.htmlPringle, Laurence. Rain of Troubles. Macmillan Publishing Co. 1988.