Acid Rain in Europe

Acid Rain in Europe

Introduction

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The atmosphere is like a film of gases, which makes the planet

habitable. If this layer was not present there would be no life on

earth. It is a fact that the health of plants, animals and humans

depends upon a very important factor 'pollution'. Although, all kinds

of poisonous waste is continuing to be put into the atmosphere. These

poisonous gases are being produced when fossil fuels are burnt, as a

result of this acid rain forms which further more results in numerous

problems damaging forests, lakes, rivers, land, plants and animals.

The main culprits of burning fossil fuels are MEDC's, which insist on

maintaining their high standards of living.

What is acid rain?

Rain is naturally acidic but the term 'acid rain' is usually referred

to as rain, which has been made more acidic than it should be due to

the atmosphere absorbing the gasses emitted from the burning of fossil

fuels. The gases are oxides of nitrogen and sulphur. Nitrogen oxide is

usually given Nox as there are many of them, sulphur oxide SO2 and

water H2O When these mix together they form acids such as sulphurous

acid (H2SO3). Acid rain can be deposited in three ways:

* Wet deposition - The deposition of pollutants in rain and snow

mainly affects upland areas.

* Dry deposition - The deposition of gases and particles directly onto

terrestrial surfaces.

* Cloud deposition - The capture of cloud droplets that contain

concentrated pollutants.

We can measure how acidic the rain actually is by the pH scale, 7 is

neutral, below that is acidic above that is alkaline. A 'log scale'

can be used for example pH 6 is ten times more acidic than pH 7, so pH

5 is one hundred times more acidic than pH7.

Case study: An investigation to show how acid rain is affecting

Europe.

What are the causes of acid rain?

Acid rain was first found in Scandinavia in the late 1950's and at