Acid Rain

Acid Rain

One of the biggest environmental problems threatening our world today is acid rain. Acid rain, or acid precipitation, refers to the overly acidic components in rain, snow, dew, or dry particles. Acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere. When water droplets in clouds absorb them, they go through different chemical reactions and fall to the ground as precipitation. Acid rain first started being a problem ever since the Industrial Revolution. Ever since then, emissions of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere have increased over time. It was first discovered in Boston, Massachusetts in 1852 by Robert Angus Smith. He found that acid rain happened due to air pollution. Sulfur dioxide is primarily responsible for acid rain. Sulfur is found trace element in coal and oil. When these are burned power plants and industrial boilers, it combines with oxygen to make sulfur dioxide. When this is released into the air, the clouds then dissolve it. When acid rain falls, it eats away at buildings, rocks, and trees. A huge acid rain fall can kill large amounts of trees. Heavy industrialized areas experience the most amount of rainfall. When factories build their smoke stacks, they avoid building short ones, as this would cause major pollution problems. To avoid this problem, factories build taller smoke stacks to keep pollution away from the ground. However, this spreads the pollution around and causes bigger problems. Because of this, the effects of acid rain can be felt all around an industrialized area. In the United States, the eastern half of the country has higher acidity precipitation compared to the areas west of the Mississippi River. Outside of the U.S., acid rain affects heavy industrialized nations like China, Eastern Europe, and Russia. These areas receive the lowest amount of pH in their precipitation. This heavy acidity can erode statues, metals, and can prematurely damage long-standing monuments. The gases of acid rain (sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide) have