Acid Rain- Very First Shitty Rough Draft of Research Paper

It is disappointing to travel to a place of history, such as Arlington Cemetery, and noticed the tombstones are deteriorating. How about planning a fishing trip to a lake with your kids and there is a sign that says “No Fishing, high mercury.” Oh yeah, and don’t forget for some reason you keep coughing during those trips. Although the combustion of fossil fuels is necessary to provide power that drives our society and industries, it could also present the problem of acid rain, because of acid rain contamination, our aquatic life, human life and our manmade structures can be affected.

Contamination begins with the development of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the burning of fossil fuels. Once these chemicals combine with the moisture in the air, you get acid rain. The acid rain that has received the most attention is caused by coal burning power plants, but cars, oil burning, forest fires and natural causes such as volcanic eruptions are also major factors. All living things, whether they are plants or animals, whether they live on land or in the water or even in trees, are affected directly or indirectly by acid rain. The acid rain not only affects the United States, it can be carried overseas by the weather.

All rainwater has some level of acid; the acid is measured by the pH (potential of hydrogen). Normal rainwater has about has a pH balance of around 5.6. If the pH goes below 4.5 there is a chance that all fish in the lake, stream or river could die. When acid rain occurs it causes harmful elements like mercury and aluminum to be leaked from the soil and rocks, then it is carried into the streams, rivers and lakes where aquatic life can be affected. Fish can be poisoned by mercury and then could die. When the fish die, the main source of food for birds is gone and it also reduces the amount of food for the humans that depend of fish as a food source. The reproduction of the fish can be affected when fish lay their eggs; if the eggs come in contact with the acid an entire generation can be destroyed. Also, it can cause the fish not to grow as big and they will be less capable of competing for their food and protecting themselves, which could cause extinction.

Acid rain has affects human life in various ways. Acid rain can have an adverse effect on people, it can cause coughing, headaches, dry eyes, allergies and it can irritate your liver. This type of air pollution can make it harder for people to breath if they have asthma. Some levels of air pollution can also be life-threatening. Air pollution has recently been linked to other ailments in people that we never considered were caused by the environment, like diabetes, heart disease and even Parkinson’s. People that live in California and other highly populated states are introduced to acid rain every day, because of smog.

Manmade structures are expected to deteriate over time, but when these structures are exposed to acid rain, deterioration can happen much quicker. This includes buildings, statues and other structures that contain stone, metal or other material when exposed to the weather for a long period of time. Think about all the historical buildings in our country, how about all the monuments and statues that have been constructed, over time, these to can become deteriorated. Have you ever walked through an old cemetery and noticed how the tombstones look “aged”? It can cost billions of dollars to repair a structure, unfortunately some unique structures may never be able to be repaired or replaced.

Although we cannot control the production of acid rain caused by nature, like volcanoes, acid rain is still a big problem in our environment, but majority of the causes are controllable. There are many ways that humans can help with the effects of acid rain. People can start to carpool, walk more and use less electricity. One way companies that are burning coal for power can help is by washing the coal before they burn it. Power plants can also install different types of anti-pollution equipment in their factories. Although, normal people can help change the affects of acid rain at no financial cost to them, are companies willing to put out the expense of buying the new technology, taking steps to reduce the way they burn fossil fuels and follow the government guidelines.

The Clean Air Act was created in 1963 and the Air Quality Act was created in 1967. There were extensions on both of these acts in the 60’s and 70’s, not until 1990 was there a proposed amendment that pertained to the acid rain effects in our environment. This amendment has a marketbased system that is designed to lower the sulfur dioxide pollution levels. The government is hoping that this should lower the levels by around 40 percent. The EPA also set allowances on some power plants, those power plants are only allowed to release that amount of sulfur dioxide, if they need to burn more than that set allowance, they have to get the EPA to allow a higher allowance or they can buy some from another power plant. If power plants are installing equipment that is reducing the sulfur dioxide, then they would get a higher allowance. The EPA also required that nitrogen oxide releases from new cars be reduced.

In conclusion, we have taken advantage of our atmosphere for many years; acid rain does have a large impact on our environment.The two primary sources of acid rain are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Cars are the main source of nitrogen oxide and power plants are the main reason for sulfur dioxide. When these acids fall back to earth, it not only causes problems for the environment but also, human life, aquatic life and manmade structures. Government agencies need to invest money in finding alternate ways to burn fossil fuels, enforce utilization windmills and solar power. The Government has passed laws to help reduce emissions of these acids, but unless people start working together, we will eventually destroy ourselves.