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Essays about the effects and causes of acid rain in the ecosystem
The Impact of the Industrial Revolution on the Environment
Acid rain speech
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Acid Rain
Acid rain is a great problem in our world. It causes fish and plants to die in our waters. It causes harm to our own race as well because we eat these fish, drink this water and, eat these plants.
About 20 years ago scientists first believed that acid rain was due to entirely air pollution. They were partially right. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England, pollution had been affecting all the trees, soil and rivers in Europe and North America. The use of fossil fuels, such as coal and oil, are largely to be blamed for almost half of the emissions of sulfur dioxide in the world. However, there is another cause. The other cause is naturally occurring sulfur dioxide. Natural sources which release this gas are volcanoes, sea spray, rotting vegetation and plankton.
The EPA {Environmental Protection Agency} has an acid rain program. This program is working to significantly reduce utilities’ emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, the pollutants responsible for acid deposition.
Across Europe there is a project going on in the schools, whose main goal is to educate young people about the changing nature of acid rain and the response of environmental systems to these changes, called “Acid Rain 2000”. Schools are being invited to join the project from across continental Europe as well as the UK. Already the project has participants in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland and Denmark.
People can get more involved with wanting to solve this problem by becoming more aware of acid rain and spreading awareness as well. Awareness should start in the schools. Students should be given the right perspective about acidic rain. Some people are under the impression that acidic lakes are grimy and gross, when really they have a captivating beauty. Granted the reason the lakes are so clear and beautiful are for the wrong reasons, people should know what to look out for. Students should be taught to conserve fossil fuels at a very young age, for the fossil fuels will be gone one day. When conserving the fossil fuels, the students will also be limiting the amount of sulfur emitted into the air, which in turn lessens the amount of acidity in the rain.
The Industrial Revolution was not only a turning point in the progress of human history, but the start of a great change in the Earth’s environment. Technological advances in industry and mass migration into urban areas led to a rising demand for energy sources, a demand met by fossil fuels. Casper, J. (2010) describes coal as ‘symbolic of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution’, the increased combustion of these ‘dirty’ fossil fuels further polluted the air and enhanced the volume of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Changes in land use attributed to population rise, reduced the amount of photosynthesising biomass on Earth, diminished an important ‘carbon sink’ and concluded to enhance the Greenhouse Effect.
Most of the acid rain pollution in our area comes from traffic, the creation of power, and manufacturing. Sometimes, fumes from manufacturing and power plants are created in the west and are blown eastward because
This silent killer is destroying these beautiful lakes and their surrounding watersheds. Acid rain has an adverse effect on the lakes, and their surrounding watersheds, of the Adirondacks in New York State.Acid rain is defined as chemically polluted rainfall. It's causes are: coal burning plants, industrial factories, smelters, and car emissions. It's formed by water molecules combining with the sulfur dioxide emitted by the burning of coal and with nitrogen oxide from auto emissions.
“North Americans have been smelting ore and burning fossil fuels for generations. In the past, the gases went up ordinary chimneys or small smoke stacks, to descend upon near by areas and pollute them,” states author, Robert Collins. Almost everyone knows what acid rain is and has a vague idea of the consequences that exist as a cause of it. Most people however do not realize the severity of acid rain. The essay “Acid Rain: Scourge from the Skies” by Robert Collins was very effective in showing the true severity of acid rain. By using excellent developmental devices, Robert Collins was able to write an effective essay that is appealing to today’s society, as well as informative especially for today’s constantly changing world.
Rain is naturally acidic, due to the CO2 dissolved in it, however when sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen react with the rain water they form sulphuric, and nitric acids which make the rain strongly acidic. SO2 + ½O2 + H2O → H2SO4 It may also take the form of snow or fog. The sulphur dioxides and oxides of nitrogen come mainly from industry. Acid rain is currently a subject of great controversy because of widespread environmental damage for which it has been blamed, including eroding structures, injuring crops and forests, and threatening or depleting life in freshwater lakes.
However due to the positioning of Kompany’s factories the acid rain does not fall on any populated areas in Setonia nor does the rainfall during the summer months, when visitation is the highest. Furthermore, the acid rain is not a health risk to the people in
Acid rain has been proven to have damage forests, fresh waters and soils, killing insect and aquatic life-forms. It also causes damage to buildings and impacts on human health. Many people do not know what acid rain actually is. Acid rain is any form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, low pH levels, higher than normal amounts of sulfuric and nitric acid, occurs naturally and from man made sources. Forms when gases react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen, and other chemicals (what is acid rain?). The only water that will not have some amount of acidity is pure water. Pure water has a pH of 7 which is neutral; regular, unpolluted rain water has a pH of around 5.6. The acidity in rain water comes from the presence of Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen Oxide, and Sulfur Dioxide. CO2 reacts with water to form carbonic acid. Nitrogen and water react during lightning storms, forming Nitric Oxide. NO is then oxidized to form N02. The NO2 reacts with water to form nitric acid. Due to this, the pH is lowered to be slightly acidic (Acid Rain). Acid rain can occur naturally in the environment, but the problem occurs when human interaction is the cause of the acidic levels.
The topic of this paper is acid deposition, also known as acid Rain. Acid rain is precipitation, as rain, snow or sleet containing relatively high concentration of acid forming chemicals. As the pollutants from coal, smoke, chemical manufacturing, and smelting, that have been released into the atmosphere and combine with water vapor, the harmful deposition is created (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/acid+rain). Acid rain affects many things greatly.
The sulfur dioxide was regarded as the acknowledged toxic gas, and is also one of main factors for acid rain. Due to its severe toxicity, the major pollution incidents have even happened in human beings’ history. During 1st December and 15th December 1930, the toxic gases including the sulfur dioxide caused great loss for Meuse Valley in Belgium. The toxic gases led to thousands of people in the industrial zone of Meuse Valley were catched with respiratory diseases, and “nearly 63 people were dead within a week”. ( Benery B, HoetPH, Nemmar A. 2001) Additionally, many livestocks also could not survived and died of the toxic gases. In the incident, the mixture of SO2 and SO3 were the main dioxide smog. Similarly, during 26th October and 31st October in 1948, the Nonora smog in America was another sever toxic incident. (Lynne Page Snyder, 1994) The results proved that the sulfur dioxide was still the main toxic gas. Therefore, the sulfur dioxide has been proved to be the acknowledged toxic gas.
The outcomes due to acid rain is most obvious in aquatic habitats. As the acidity in lakes increase, the water becomes clearer and the lives of fish and other water animals decrease. The acidity of the water does not just affect species directly, it also causes toxic substances like aluminum to be released into the water from the soil, harming fish and other aquatic animals. Lakes, rivers and marshes each have their own fragile ecosystem with many different species of plants and animals all depending on one another to survive. If a species of fish disappears, the animals which feed on it will gradually disappear too. If the extinct fish used to feed on a particular species of large insect, that insect population will start to grow, this in turn will affect the smaller insects or plankton on which the larger insect
In order to help, people must first understand what acid rain is. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) help get information out to the public about events that causes damage to the environment, they do through their website, epa.gov. Acid
Ocean acidification is caused due to rising CO2 emissions created by industrial development and greenhouse gases. This increase in carbon dioxide causes changes within the ocean’s biochemistry. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are expected to rise from pre-industrial level of 280 to 540-970 ppm by the year 2100, depending on future emission scenarios (IPCC, 2001). Eventually the oceans will become highly acidic if mankind is unable to control their CO2 emissions. About 30% of CO2 emissions are taken up by the oceans today (Freely et al. 2004) and this percentage will continue to rise if nothing is done to prevent it, potentially leading to enhanced levels of ultraviolet radiation at the earth’s surface (Harley, C. D. G., et al, 2006). While many marine organisms have adapted to thermal fluctuations in the last few million years, the expected changes in pH are higher than any other pH changes inferred from the fossil record over the past 200–300 million years (Caldeira & Wickett 2003; Feelyet al. 2004). The following diagram represents the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on the oceans causing increased CO2, decreased pH, sea level rise, storm frequency and potential upwelling.
This environmental problem is one of the many effects of humans and as humans are the cause of this problem, it is also humans that can put a stop to it. By creating public awareness around this problem and providing probable infrastructures this problem is certainly not without a solution.
Acid rain is when chemicals like nitrogen and sulphur-dioxide are released into the atmosphere and react with the water vapour, and acid pours in form of rain. This is very dangerous because it destroys infrastructures and some buildings, and also dissolves the human
Over the past few years, climate change, plastic pollution, acid rain, and the interlinked nature of these challenges have brought much concern of many researchers and environmentalists. In a post-modern society, we have created a lot of environmental issues with global impacts because our environment has begun to be treated as an unlimited field full of abundant resources for groups and organizations with the power and skills to acquire them. Though many news and social media often underline the consequences of disturbing ecosystem and the significances of respecting the environment, but as more people cluster together in large metropolitan areas today, there are fewer opportunities for them to explore the city environment. Consequently, people do not have enough environmental awareness, and this could make the environmental challenges become even harder to cope with in the future. Hence, it is extremely vital to have environment education since it can help people to