Acid Rain - Jaewoo Park

Acid rain is one of the major problem that is happening in the world now days. It destroys our land, vegetables, and even animals. We can solve it by figuring out what is the cause of it, and how does it effect us and our environment.

Figure 1: Acid Rain cycle

Acid Rain is one of the effect caused by air pollution. Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and Carbon Monoxide can make acid rain. “Carbon monoxide, CO, is produced when fuels burn in a limited amount of air. It is a colourless, odourless and tasteless gas. Carbon monoxide passes into the red blood cell after breathing it in. It binds more strongly to haemoglobin than oxygen does, so the blood will be able to carry less oxygen than it should. This can cause tiredness, unconsciousness and even death.”             (http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/znsk7ty/revision/1 ) Sulfur dioxide has a sharp, choking smell, and when it is combined with rain, it makes more acidic. Lastly, Nitrogen oxide is a substance that can cause people to get asthma from breathing it in only for 30 minutes. Sulfur dioxide and Carbon monoxide are mostly produced from burning fuels, and Volcanos.nitrogen oxide can be produced from wheat paddy and animal wastes.

These chemicals are transported to the air, and have a chemical reaction with water, which makes the water acidic. The acid rain  In figure 1, it explains in a chart how acid rain is made. Acid rain can have a mass impact on marine animals. When it drops into the soil, it makes aluminium. Aluminium can flow into the water, which can impact on animals. Other than that, when the acidic water drops below ph of 5, Most of the fish’s egg cannot hatch. At a lower ph level, Most of the marine animals, including fish dies. Also, acid rain removes minerals and nutritientfrom the soil that tree needs to survive, which cause to death. Acid rain can effect humans too. It will be fine to beath in, or get acid rain on your head when it is not too strong, but if it is, then it might damage your lungs, and you can have a lung dissorder such as asthma and bronchitis. Acid rain can damage the surface of a rock, or a metal. When acid rain drops on the metal, it will slowly dissolve its surface. Also there will be rust on it, which makes it look dirty.

Figure 2: PH Scale

People might think that there are only acid rain. Unfortunatelly, there are also acid snow, and acid dust. These does the same reaction as acid rain do. They all damage your lung or your skin if they are strong enough.

We can Easily make the acid rain more neutural. We can use less power, like saving the electricity, or to use less hot water and more cold water. Hot water is heated by electricity, which can burn more fossil fuels. We can try to use less paper products, so that people cut down less trees. Trees can help to neutralize acid rain by releasing oxygen and taking in carbon dioxide, or other chemicals. We can use more public transportation such as metro, bus, train, or taxi so that less gas is produced by cars and fill out the ozone layers. The country can use more renewable energy like solar power, wind mills, or hydroelectric energy instead of buring fossil fuels or coal.

Acid Rain is mostly caused by burning fossil fuels. The chemical substance, Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and Carbon Monoxide are the chemicals used to make acid rain. Acid rain can kill marine animals and trees, and we can have lung problems by breathing it in. We can save energy and use less fossil fuels to make the rain less acidic.

Work cited page :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/znsk7ty/revision/1