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_acid rain _
By: Anonymous
Do you ever look outside on a rainy night and think to yourself why are we
destroying our own habitat. Of course you dont. You are more rapped up in the
beauty of a calm and serene shower with the wind blowing and a gentle howl of
the breeze trickling through the trees. Why would you think of something bad?
Well, maybe you should start thinking of rain as a bad thing. Maybe not rain,
but what is in the rain. Not enough attention is being put toward the well
being of the Earth. There are definitely forces at work destroying our
environment as we speak. Our government needs to explore all the deadly toxins
that go into our environment every second. Without this exploration we could
kill ourselves. Not only will we kill us but we will kill off everything else.
What did I pick to write on Acid rain with all the other important
environmental topics? I chose it because we are subjected to precipitation all
the time. I was interested to see just how dangerous acid rain is. If it
really is dangerous, I was also interested to see what thing's people can do
to help stop its effects. If we cannot stop the effects, I would atleast like
to know somethings I can do to lessen the effects on our environment. What is
acid rain? Acid rain is the name commonly given to the deposition of a
cocktail of acidifying compounds to soils, surface waters and buildings. These
compounds arise mainly from the combustion of fossil fuels. In some parts of
the United Kingdom, natural ecosystems have a significant acid-neutralizing
capacity and acid rain has little impact on them. In other parts, the
neutralizing capacity is limited, and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are
sensitive to acid deposition. In acid-sensitive areas, acid rain degrades the
terrestrial environment and causes damage to plants and the soils in which
they grow. Substances are released which run off into water bodies and toxic
to water life. Acidic materials deposited directly from the atmosphere also
have the effect of altering the acid balance in water bodies and this too has
an effect on the life they support. Acidic deposition onto sensitive buildings
causes decay of stonework and other materials.(Environment Agency: Acid Rain,
page 1) Where does acid rain come from? Acid rain is made from man-made
emissions and a few natural compounds. A few of the emissions responsible for
acidic rain is sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. Ammonia, which is mainly
from agricultural process is also responsible for a lot of the acidity in
rain. In the atmosphere it mixes with certain compounds and neutralizes them.
The neutralized compounds break down when the products the reactions are
deposited, acidity is then released. Acid rain was noted as a problem in the
1980s first effecting the ponds and lakes in northeastern USA, southern
Canada, and what was the Soviet Union, and other smaller world regions. Acid
rain, no matter when or where it falls will always cause damage to the
environment. Acid rain has already caused thousands of lakes and ponds to a
point of lifelessness, and has even damaged historic buildings in Europe. One
of the major problems with acid rain is that it gets carried from a mass acid
rain producing areas that are usually not as badly affected. Tall chimneys
that are built to ensure that the pollution that is produced by factories is
taken away from nearby cities, puts the pollution in the atmosphere.(Acid
Rain: A Global Problem, page 1) I would now like to address some of the
regulations for acid rain and acid rain producing systems. Most sulfur
producing companies such as coal mining and manure processing have many
permits and laws governing their producing harmful chemicals that are
incorporated into acid rain production. Obviously, these companies dont want
to make acid rain that is why bodies that govern these types of organizations
take it a little easy on them. In 1990 the Federal Lean Air Act Amendments
require power plants across the nation to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen
oxide emissions. The amendments also impose tougher emissions standards for
passenger cars and light trucks. These measures will reduce significantly the
pollutants that contribute to acid rain formation. In Ohio, coal going to be
burned has to have be very clean. If the coal doesnt come out of the coal
pits clean then it must be washed. This also has a lot to do with the
economical issue of acid rain. This extra process adds more cost to coal
production and also lessens the amount of revenue coming back to the coal
companies. In Texas, you have to have a specific permit issued to the company
by a permitting office to produce anything harmful to the environment. If the
company does anything that might break the permit the company is fined heavily
and sometimes may not be able to renew the permit, depending on how bad the
offense was.(Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, page 1-2) The
Maryland Department of Environment (MDE) has worked to reduce acid rain by
restricting the amount of sulfur allowed in the coal burned by power plants
and other industrial sources. In the Baltimore-Washington area, where
pollution is concentrated, plants may burn only coal with one percent sulfur
or less. In rural locations, a maximum sulfur content of two percent is
allowed. For someone to totally understand the problem we have with coal
burning we must first look at the social and ethical problems. Coal is our
main producer of electricity as we learned in our class. If we were to cut out
the burning of coal our society would simply die. Our technology is not good
enough yet to find a good enough alternative resource to produce the amount of
power our society needs. Our society doesnt need all this power but until
everyone starts to conserve energy we will need large amounts of energy. There
are also some ethical issues that deal with the acid rain problem are as
follows. First, is energy worth more than the safety of our earth? Second, do
we really need to use this much energy if it is harming our environment.
Third, shouldnt we try to minimize the effects of acid rain if it is harmful.
In conclusion, I have to say I feel that acid rain is a monster of our own
creation. We obviously wouldnt have the need for so much energy if we could
cut down the unneeded use of electricity. I also feel that at the current time
we cannot afford to stop using these acid rain producing processes. I really
wish we could. As a son of a coal miner, I know how coal mining put food on my
plate. If coal mining was cut out it would drastically hurt our countrys
economy. It might not hurt the economy all over the US but it will definitely
hurt areas heavily populated by coal miners. I also think this about
agriculture processes producing chemicals. It would be hard to think of an
Earth without farming. That is an impossibility, our species could not survive
without agriculture. Overall I believe that our current level of
sophistication holds us back from bettering the Earth. I know it is bad to say
but, our people our too busy worrying about whether our music is loud enough
or our houses are lit at all times of the day. These things are ridiculous and
petty to worry about. Until our society can mature enough to conserve energy
and then hopefully someday we will be able to do without these chemicals.
Word Count: 1276
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