Acid Rain

Term Paper Title	Acid Rain
# of Words	2018
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	8.07

Acid Rain

     Scientists from around the globe have come to the conclusion that acid rain has to
be regarded as a serious direct threat to our environment.  This conclusion has been
arrived upon from the study of concrete scientific evidence by way of the study of acid
rain and its effects on the environment.  Acid rain hurts both lakes and other bodies of
water as well as vegetation.  Many bodies of water are extremely sensitive to acid rain
because they do not have the ability to neutralize it.  Such bodies are either enclosed
systems that have no way of flushing out the acid, or lakes that cover relatively inert
bedrock that does not react chemically to neutralize the acids.  This affects the lake by
making it unable to support fish.  Wildlife and vegetation are affected when acid rain falls
on foliage or by changes in soil chemistry as a result of acid deposition.  This is a problem
that must be firmly and promptly addressed.  The problems that the effects of acid on our
environment propose are not only not going to go away, but they will increase with time if
they are not addressed.  Throughout this paper I will offer a more in depth look at how
acid rain affects wildlife, how it effects lakes and other bodies of water, exactly what acid
rain is, and how we may be able to keep this problem from increasing in the future.
      Acid rain is all the rain, snow and other forms of precipitation that fall from the
sky onto our land that contain an unnatural acidity.  This is not to be confused with
uncontaminated precipitation, which is naturally slightly acidic.  Acid rain is composed of
antecedents that come mainly from the fossil fuels that humans use.  This high acidity in
rain is contributed to the overwhelming pollution output by today�s industries.  The three
main sources of acid deposition are coal in electricity, base metal smelting, and fuel
combustion in vehicles �http://qlink.queensu.ca/~4lrm4/redemi.htm.�  When
products are manufactured many chemicals go into the making of them.  However,
because of the high cost and slight inconvenience of properly disposing of these chemicals
they are often emitted into the environment untreated.  These chemicals then disrupt the
normal courses of nature by becoming part of natural cycles where they simply do not
belong. The most common of these fossil fuel by-products are sulfur and nitrogen
compounds.   They in effect destroy many different pieces of an already complicated and
complex system.  Aside from these man-made causes, natural occurrences like forest fires,
organic decay, and lightning do generate some sulfur and nitrogen compounds.  As soon
as these compounds enter our atmosphere, photochemical reactions such as sunlight and
chemical processes occur to make nitric and sulfuric acids in clouds.
     Acid rain has been a major ecological concern for a few decades now.  Until
recently, little was known about acid rain and its effects on the environment.  Many
studies have been performed to the chemistry of this ecological problem.  Scientists have
suggested some theories to explain this mostly unnatural occurrence.  The biggest and
most serious effects have been exposed very recently.
     The term acid rain was first considered to be important about 20 years ago when
scientists in Norway and Sweden first believed that acidic rain may be causing great
ecological damage to our planet.  The problem was that by that time the rain was already
very large.  Detecting an acid lake can be very difficult.  A lake doesn�t become acidic
overnight.  The process happens over a period of many years, sometimes even decades.
The changes are usually to gradual for them to be noticed before it is virtually too late.
     At the beginning of the twentieth century most lakes and rivers, such as the river
Todval in Norway, had not yet begun to die.  However, by 1926 local inspectors were
noticing that many of the local lakes were beginning to show signs of death �Pearce,
Fred, What is it and What is it Doing to Us?, p...

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