Acid Rain - Causes, Effects, and Remedies

Mai Ness
Mr. Patrick Youell
Science 9B
May 3, 2016

Acid Rain and its Effects on the Environment

Acid rain is an issue that dramatically affects our environment, as well as human health. Many people consider acid rain to be a fairly recent issue as many believe that this issue is not drastic enough to begin taking action to stop it. The issue with acid rain is increasing and so are its effects on our ecosystem and our health. By recognizing how acid rain occurs and what effects it has on the environment, we can discover ways to minimize or even reverse the harmful effects this phenomenon has on our surrounding and encourage taking action to heal our ecosystems.

Figure 1: The path of the acidic emissions from the sources to
 the air, combining with water and oxygen, and being
deposited to the ground through rain, fog, snow or dust.
(https://www.epa.gov/acidrain/what-acid-rain)

Acid rain is a term used to describe any form of precipitation that contains an unusually high amount of nitric or sulphuric acid. The acid precipitation can also be in the form of snow, fog and other material that clings to the Earth’s surface, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, resulting in both wet and dry deposition. Acid rain is a result of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere and in reaction with chemicals in the air produce nitric and sulfuric acid. These acids may combine with water before they fall to the ground, as explained in figure 1. The major causes of oxide emissions are due to manufacturing, vehicles, and fossil fuel burning for electricity generating. Volcanic eruptions and rotting vegetation can also cause release of these acidic particles. The difference between standard precipitation and the acidic variety is the pH levels; where normal rain has a pH of 5.6 due to slight amount of carbon dioxide found in the air, resulting in a weak carbonic acid. Acid rain usually has a pH between 4.2 and 4.4, as seen in figure 2. In my opinion the harmful effects of acid rain would occur naturally but are currently strengthened by human emissions, because normal rain has slightly acidic properties.

Figure 2: The levels of pH in different substances, including normal rain and acid rain.
(https://www.epa.gov/acidrain/what-acid-rain)

  The effects of acid rain are not only present in the areas of which these oxides are emitted, as winds can blow these acidic particles to different areas. Acid rain has harmful effects on the ecosystem, as well as human health. As the acidic precipitation reach water or soil, it causes the leach of aluminium. As the amount of acidic properties in the water or soil increases, so does the amount of aluminium leached. These properties affect the survival abilities of species. For example, aquatic life forms suffer from sensitivity to low pH levels, and when a body of water becomes acidic as an effect of precipitation, some species will be unable to survive, as seen in figure 3. In addition, the young of aquatic animals is more sensitive to acidic conditions, and at a pH level of 5, fish eggs are unable to hatch, which could in extreme cases lead to extinction.

Figure 3: Effects of acid rain on fish
(https://infogr.am/Acid-rain-8810860)

Also, trees become stripped of their foliage and deprived of nutrients as a result of acid rain and therefore become more susceptible to temperature conditions. The harmful effects of acid rain on humans are indirect, but are contributing to chronic lung problems due to bad air quality. Some examples of the chronic conditions sulfuric acid found in acidic precipitation are bronchitis and asthma.

There are ways to lower the harmful effects of acid rain, both as a society and as individuals. According to PBWorks, a method to lower emission of harmful pollutants into the atmosphere is to either regulate amounts of emissions released by companies into the air, or for coal companies, to consider washing the coal before it is burnt as it removes a large portion of the sulphur released. As individuals, we can use our vehicles less and consider walking or biking as an alternative, not using the heating or air conditioning. This can help a lot by lowering the amount of energy we are using, therefore we are emitting less pollutants into the air, and slowly but surely making a difference.

Acid rain is an issue caused by the cumulative action of billions of people, and it affects our environment and our ecosystem. By taking action to prevent or minimise the harm caused to our surrounding we can make a big effect and heal our environment. A small action taken by each individual will add up to an environmental healing of a radical degree.