Acid Precipitation Essay -- essays research papers

Sitting in your room late at night, you listen to the gentle pittter-patter of the rain on your window. Ahh, so soothing and relaxing. Have you ever really wondered what the rain is really make of? Is that just water or is it cutting slowly streaming down out there? That rain you fall upon just might be hot rain, it could change the way you live your life.The commonly used terms acid rain and acid precipitation signalize specific forms of a type of pollution described generally as acid deposition. Harmful gases that rise into the air mix with cloud moisture, sunlight, and oxidants. There they chemically combine into dilute sulfuric and nitric acids, which fall back to the earth. This is acid deposition. The major contributing pollutants are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (Morgan, 5). pungent rain is fundamentally 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 th e same number of hydroxyl and hydrogen ions (Pringle, 6). Acidity in the atmosphere can be changed by many natural things. When a volcano erupts, sulfur dioxide is spewed out. Droughts produce unusually teetotal soil conditions allowing dust particles to be carried upward into the air, neutralizing the acids that may be present at the time (Pringle, 4). Acid Rain can come in concentrations sometimes more acidic than lemon juice. These pollutants reach the earth in rain, snow, hail, sleet, or fog. The rain at the line of descent of a shower is usually more acidic than the rain that follows. Dry acidic particles can also fall from the atmosphere. Because wind can carry gases and moisture for hundreds of miles, even areas far away from the source bear the effects of acid deposition (Durham, 10). There are of course, many things that we as humans do terrene to promote and support the continuation of acid rain. Not intentionally, of course.When the fossil fuel, (i.e. coal) is used, th e sulfur in it mixes with Oxygen in the air to form sulfur dioxide. The sulfur dioxide is finally 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 accounting system 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 mavin 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 devastating to both aquatic animals and forests. Billions of dollars have been spent to correct and try to fix what acid rain had done to buildings and monuments. Acid rain also has its toll on the health of us humans. The food you eat could be contaminated with toxins due to acid rain, youd never know it either. SourcesBennet, Mark. Acid Rain 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 Students First Sourcebook. Diane produce 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.