Prevention of Acid Rain

Acid Rain

A consequence of air pollution is acid rain. Acid rain can also form as snow or sleet which contain relatively larger concentrations of acid forming chemicals, which come from pollutants from smoke of coal and chemical manufacturing. These combined with water vapor in our atmosphere to cause acid rain. Acid rain is a mixture of wet and dry deposited material in the atmosphere which contain a larger than normal quantity of Nitric and Sulfuric acid (What Is Acid Rain EPA). When any type of fuel is burnt a lot of different chemicals are released into the atmosphere. The fumes that are released when fire is burnt and those that come out of cars and factories are soot and also contain gases such as sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide. These gases react with the water droplets in clouds thereby producing sulfuric and nitric acid (North Carolina). When acid rain falls it doesn’t kill the trees directly, but over a period of time it damages the leaves and that is limiting the amount of available nutrients for them. Even with crops the effects are similar as they are on the trees, but most farmers use fertilizers and also add crushed limestone to act as a buffer against the acid rain (Forests EPA).

This essay discusses two ways in which acid rain can either be prevented or controlled. The ways are: catalytic converters and by using renewable energy sources. The method that seems most effective is using renewable energy sources. This method is the most effective, because it is environmentally and socially good.

The first prevention for acid rain is using catalytic converters. One of the main elements that are the cause of acid rain is the emission of nitrogen oxides. Nitrogen oxides are produced from burning fuels which typically...

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...f it gets damaged it isn’t easy to get it repaired. The reason being that it might cost more than a new one. For the time being people should be use the sources that are cheapest available, in the future there might be a possibility that better sources are available and that are more beneficial to the environment. The best alternative energy source can be either wind or hydropower. Wind energy is really useful because there are a lot of windmills in country sides. Since there are a lot of them, the government should be able to put in more around cities and residential properties. Therefore using cheap alternative energy sources are much more effective, than buying catalytic converters that might be cheap but not proper. That might even damage the car, a better thing would be to use public transportation. That way less chemicals would be released into the atmosphere.