Acid Rains
51Every year more and more plants and animals disappear never to be seen again. Strangely, it is the most intelligent but most thoughtless animal that is causing most of the problems - man. Nature is very carefully balanced and if this balance is disturbed, animals can disappear alarmingly fast. Every day, thousands of species of animals draw closer to extinction. There are countless numbers of species which may become extinct before day is extinct before they are even discovered.
In many lakes the fish are dying. Fishermen are worried because every year there are fewer fish and some lakes have no fish at all. Scientists are beginning to get worried too. What is killing the fish?
The problem is acid rain. Acid rain is a kind of air pollution. It is caused by factories that burn coal or oil or gas. These factories send smoke high into the air. The wind often carries the smoke far from the factories. Some of the harmful substances in the smoke may come down with the rain hundreds of miles away.
The rain in many places isn't natural and clean any more. It's full of acid chemicals. When it falls in lakes, it changes them too. The lakes become more acidic. Acid water is like vinegar or lemon juice. It hurts when it gets in your eyes. It also kills the plants and animals that usually live in like water. That is why the fish are dying in lakes.
But dead fish may be just the beginning of the problem. Scientists are finding other effects of acid rain. In some large areas trees are dying. Not just one tree here and there, but whole forests. At first scientists couldn't understand why. There were no bugs or diseases in these trees. The weather was not dry. But now they think that the rain was the cause. Acid rain is making the earth more acidic in these areas. Some kinds of trees cannot live in the soil that is very acidic.
Now scientists are also beginning to study the effects of acid rain on larger animals. For example, they believe that some deer in Poland are less healthy because of acid rain. If deer are hurt by the rain, what about people? This is the question many people are beginning to ask. No one knows the answer yet. But it is an important question for us all.
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Your information was very helpful for my sisters project...she and i both found it interesting and useful for her project. Good job. Keep it up.
This info was very helpful for my project and I think I will use some of the info for it. Thanks-
Rayo Y Trueno
it helped with my project thanks
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SMIT says:
2 years ago
I enjoyed your article. FYI - liquid or solid fuel (e.g., coal) contains sulfur. When it is burned, it creates oxides of sulfur such as SO3 (one atom of sulfur joined with three atoms of oxygen). These oxides of sulfur are emitted to the atmosphere in the exhaust gas. When in the atmosphere, the SO3 combines with water vapor to form sulfuric acid (H2SO4). This is one of the acids that make up acid rain. Also when fuel is burned, the nitrogen and oxygen in the ambient air combine in the combustion process to form oxides of nitrogen such as nitrogen dioxide (one atom of nitrogen combined with two atoms of oxygen). These oxides of nitrogen also react with water vapor in the atmosphere to form various forms of nitric acid (HNO3). These are also components of acid rain, particularly on the west coast where most fuel that is burned is low in sulfur content. These acids do exactly as you state in your Hub. In California, there is an acid rain problem in the mountain areas of the state but acid fog is also a problem.