Acid Precipitation Essay -- essays research papers

Sitting in your room late(a) 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 made of? Is that good water or is it sharp slowly streaming down protrude there? That rain you hear just might be window glass rain, it could change the way you live your life.The commonly used terms acid rain and acid precipitation describe specific forms of a fictitious character of pollution described generally as acid deposition. Harmful gases that enhance into the air mix with cloud moisture, sunlight, and oxidants. There they chemically combine into vitiate sulfuric and nitric acids, which diminish back to the earth. This is acid deposition. The major alter pollutants ar sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (Morgan, 5). loony toons rain is basically rain with a pH train lower than 5.6 (Morgan, 3). The term pH actor potential hydrogen. When a substance has a pH level of 7, it i s completely neutral with the same number of hydroxyl and hydrogen ions (Pringle, 6). acidity in the atmosphere can be changed by many lifelike things. When a volcano erupts, sulfur dioxide is spewed out. Droughts produce unusually dry grime conditions allowing dust particles to be carried upward into the air, neutralizing the acids that may be present at the time (Pringle, 4). social disease rainwater can come in concentrations sometimes more(prenominal) acidic than lemon juice. These pollutants reach the earth in rain, snow, hail, sleet, or fog. The rain at the beginning 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 out from the source bear the effects of acid deposition (Durham, 10). There are of course, many things that we as humans do everyday to promote and moderate the continuation of acid rain. Not intentionally, of course.When the fossil fuel, (i.e. coal) is used, the sulfur in it mixes with atomic number 8 in the air to form sulfur dioxide. The sulfur dioxide is eventually glum into acid over a matter of days. Coal-fired power plants are the single greatest cause of acid rain in the united States. They reputation 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 ontogeny disease, which could lead to death (Bennet)In conclusion, any rain with a pH level lower than 5.6 are classified as acid rain. sulphurous rain is made when sulfur dioxides mix with nitrogen oxides to form acids. The acids indeed can come back down out of the atmosphere in either a dry or a wet form. some(prenominal) of these have proven devastating to both aquatic animals and forests. Billions of dollars have been pass to correct and try to fix what acid rain had done to buildings and monuments. savage rain also has its toll on the health of us humans. The forage 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 Publishing 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.