Acid Rain

Michelle Ernest

Science

Mr. Youell

Grade 9

Acid Rain

This blog is about acid rain; how it is caused, what its effects are, and its remedies. Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning it has a dominate elevated level of hydrogen ions (low pH). Acid rain is mostly caused by human activity and it can cause a variety of environmental issues.

There are ways to prevent acid rain from accruing. Recycling is one of the main solutions to acidic rain. It takes less energy to re-use/ recycle materials such as metal, plastic and paper, than make them from scratch. Other solutions are reducing the use of electricity in houses, due to its use of power plants which produce fossil fuels. Instead use solar panels which produce energy from the natural sunlight. Walking and using bicycles as much as possible is much better than driving cars or going by any sort of public transport because their exhaust release bad gases such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NO2).

If we don't take these matters into our own hands, acid rain will cause Earth many environmental issues. Pure rain (2:01 minutes) has the pH level of 7 though some rain already has a pH level of around 5.0, making it naturally acidic, though human activity disturbs nature's balance making the pH lower. An alkaline chemical is a  substance that neutralises other substances once in contact with each other. Alkaline chemicals that are found in air, soil, lakes, and streams reacts with normal precipitation, neutralising the natural acids. However, due to the pollutants perception becomes overly acidic, making these materials incapable to neutralise all the acids. Over time, these natural neutralisers get destroyed by acid rain. Acid rain can damage trees, plants, crops from farmers, and pollute lakes and rivers. It destroys the ecological systems by eliminating food sources, and reducing biodiversity. Acid rain effects the aquamarine life due to their survival resistance to water. Both arthropods and fish can not live in water with a pH level lower than 5. According professor Thomas Wolosz, from the State University of New York,  normal lakes can be home to about 9 to 16 zooplankton, however in acidic lakes only around 7. Acid rain also damages the gills and embryos from fish (shown in figure 1). For the aquatic system, reproductive failure has been a primary way that causes animal extinction. Some female fish don't release ova during the mating season due to the low calcium level that affects the reproductive physiology. The carbon dioxide increases in the acid water making the level of carbon dioxide in the organism's blood increase as well, affecting their growth and formation. Acid rain effects the aquarian life which leads to its extinction.

Figure 1: This image shows how the pH level affects the embryo. When it has the pH level of 7 it is most likely normal, however lower than that the embryo becomes abnormal.

Acid rain can also affect humans because when there are burning fuels in an areas with limited air, carbon monoxide (CO) is produced. Carbon monoxide is a form of fossil fuels, and since we breath it in, it goes through our blood flow which can cause unconsciousness, tiredness and can even cause death. 

Now what exactly causes acid rain? A chemical reaction that starts when compounds such as, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are exposed to the air (shown in figure 2), causes acid rain. They cause acid rain because the substances raising high into the atmosphere, reacts and combines with water, oxygen and other chemicals which forms more acidic pollutants. They mix and become part of rain or any other type of precipitation.

Figure 2: This image shows how the gases get released in the atmosphere from a car, truck, and power plant. It shows how the substances go up in the clouds and combine with the water (and oxygen), creating acid rain.

The main cause of acid rain is due to human activity. The majority of SO2 and NO2 are released by power plants when fossil fuels are burned in order to produce electricity. Power plants are a thermal power station which use the source of nuclear reactor. Nuclear reactor, also know as an atomic pile, is a machine that is used in power plants to generate electricity. This is used to start and control a preserved nuclear chain reaction. Other than power plants, exhausts from trucks, cars, and buses release both NO2 and SO2 into the atmosphere..

Figure 3: This i a good example of how human activity, power plant, looks like. The smoke that is being produced comes out of the power plant, goes up into the atmosphere, and mixes with the rain particles, causing acid rain.

Acid rain is getting more acidic over time and since it destroys alkaline chemicals there will be no more natural neutralisers. We as humans are the only ones who can minimize the acidity of acid rain. Acid rain is very harmful for the environment and because we are able to create this harm, we should be able to fix it.

Sources:

https://www3.epa.gov/acidrain/education/site_students/whatcauses.html

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/interpro/potm/2005_10/Page1.htm

http://science.opposingviews.com/acid-rain-harmful-animals-3769.html