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... ... middle of paper ... ...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.
In conclusion, “Acid Rain: Scourge from the Skies” was effective in proving how severe acid rain is and can be. Robert Collins wrote informatively about a notable subject what anyone can comprehend and he used many commendable writing devices which all added to the effectiveness of the essay.
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 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
Formed high in the clouds where sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides combine with oxygen and water, acid rain has a devastating ability to kill off aquatic systems, vegetation, animals, etc. The definition of acid rain is the deposition of acidic components in rain, fog, snow, and sleet. Regular rain has a pH that is slightly acidic at 5.6, but what makes one worry are the places like Washington, D.C., which possesses rain readings of 4.2 to 4.4 on the pH scale. Acid rain is mainly composed of Sulfuric Oxide (SO2) and Nitrous Oxide, which are common air pollutants from big industries, 70% of which are electric utility plants. If one views the amount pH levels of various areas around the nation it is easy to see that there is a problem, especially when a 4.0 pH level can drive many fish to die.
When a motor vehicle runs it produces nitrogen oxide which then mixes with the sulfur dioxide from power plants and other places. Together the two gasses then interact with molecules in the atmosphere. This interaction makes the molecules acidic and from there either falls as a form of wet deposition or dry deposition. Every day when people get into their form of motorized transportation, be it a car, truck, motorcycle, etcetera, they all contribute to the creation of acid deposition. Before humans started pumping these gasses into the air the environment could handle the naturally acidic precipitation, but now thanks to their involvement the precipitation has become too acidic for nature to be able to counteract the acidity. “ Over time, these neutralizing materials can be washed away by acid rain. Damage to crops, trees, lakes, rivers, and animals can result.”(What Causes Acid Rain?) Acid rain can cause damage to many different objects, living or nonliving acid rain can still
One of the biggest environmental problems that needs dealing with in society today is acid deposition. It is largely caused by humans, and causes much pollution to the environment and harms people and buildings as well. Although there are minimal positive sides to this issue, the negatives far outweigh it and call people around the world to take action to reduce and even solve this problem. Coming in both wet and dry forms, acid deposition consists of acidic pollutants including nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides that have been deposited from the atmosphere to the surface of the earth. There are both wet and dry forms of acid deposition, wet forms being referred to as acid precipitation. Acid precipitation is the result of sulfur and nitrogen oxides reacting in the atmosphere with water vapor. This returns to the earth as acid rain or snow. Dry deposition occurs when these oxides react without water and they settle out of the atmosphere onto the earth. Acid deposition can come from a number of different sources such as smokestacks, trucks and cars. More than 90% of the sulfur in the atmosphere comes from humans. Coal burning, the smelting of metal sulfide ores, and automobile exhaust are major human contributions to sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere. Similarly, 95% of the increased nitrogen oxide levels in the atmosphere are a result of the activities of humans. The activity that contributes the most to these elevated levels is the combustion of oil, coal, and gas. Attention was first drawn to acid deposition in the 17th century when the bad effects of industry and acidic pollution on both vegetation and people were noticed. In the 1960s, it became an international problem when fishermen noticed declines in fish numbers and diversity in lakes across North America and Europe. Acid deposition causes many problems such as these worldwide, and is clearly a problem that needs to be properly dealt with.
In some countries acid rain is a big deal. It can harm humans, wildlife, and our natural resources. Most people wont even know when acid rain occurs, it looks feels, and tastes like regular rain. Walking and swimming in acid rain is no more harmful than walking or swimming in clean water. The thing that is harmful about acid rain is the chemicals it produces. Acid rain does sound like something you would hear of in a movie, but, no it is not pure acid, it is just regular rain that has a few chemicals in it. The big concern that scientist and people have about acid rain are, what causes it and how harmful is it?
Liming will not solve the problem of acid rain, to do that we must cut
Acid rain has a harmful impact on the environment which is a serious environmental problem that affects large parts of the United States and Canada. Acid rain is particularly damaging to lakes, streams, forests and the plants and animals that live in these ecosystems. Acid rain is referring to a mixture of wet and dry deposition from the atmosphere containing higher than normal amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids. They are oxidized in the air until they are converted to sulfuric and nitric acids. These acids are then captured by raindrops which fall to the earth as acid precipitation. This process is called deposition. We know this as acid rain, but we can have acidic snow or hail and even acidic dust particles falling from the sky. It can occur in natural resources, such as volcanoes and decaying vegetation, and man-made sources, primarily of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides resulting from fossil fuel combustion.
However catalytic converter has been the most effective way to reduce harmful emissions. It can reduce the overall activation energy to improve the probability of reaction which the exhaust gas is converted to harmless gas. Other than that Catalyst itself remains the original state after the chemical reaction, which avoids the possibility of blocking after long-term use and also this can increase its service life. However the high cost of the catalytic converter hinders its development. Moreover the catalytic converter actually does not contribute to solving the global warming because it converts the exhaust gas into carbon dioxide and water which is culprit of global warming. Therefore, although the catalytic converter can decrease the harmful of emissions but it cannot solve the problem of global warming.
"Effects of Acid Rain - Human Health." Acid Rain . US EPA, 12 04 2012. Web. 11 Feb 2014. .
In today’s society, cars and other transportation vehicles produce pollution, harming the environment as well as one’s health. Engines produce toxic substances such as nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. However, the invention of the catalytic converter has helped reduce the pollution. Catalytic converters were first used due to the contractions on toxic emission regulations in the 1970s. The catalytic converter “turn the harmful chemicals in vehicle exhausts into harmless gases such as steam” (Woodford). These catalytic converters are essential to creating a less polluted atmosphere. An engine with and without a catalytic converter differs greatly and the reactions occurring are very significant in understanding the role of the converter;
“Smog hanging over cities is the most familiar and obvious form of air pollution. But there are different kinds of pollution—some visible, some invisible—that contribute to global warming. Generally, any substance that people introduce into the atmosphere that has damaging effects on living things and the environment is considered air pollution” (“Air Pollution”). Even though some of these dangers are known to most humans, they still have not changed their behavior. “Huge buildings in cities are still being built. More cars are made and sold every day. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main pollutant that is warming Earth. Though living things emit carbon dioxide when they breathe, carbon dioxide is widely considered to be a pollutant when associated with cars, planes, power plants, and other human activities that involve the burning of fossil fuels such as gasoline and natural gas. In the past 150 years, such activities have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to raise its levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years” (“Air Pollution”). “Even more is along with harming human health, air pollution can cause a variety of environmental effects. One of these are Acid rain is precipitation containing harmful amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids. These acids are formed primarily by nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides released into the atmosphere when fossil
The converter uses two different types of catalysts, a reduction catalyst and an oxidization catalyst. The reduction catalyst It uses platinum and rhodium to help reduce the nitrogen oxide emissions. When such molecules