Acid Rain
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Acid Rain
Acid rain is a serious problem with disastrous effects. Each day this serious problem increases, many people believe that this issue is too small to deal with right now this issue should be met head on and solved before it is too late. In the following paragraphs I will be discussing the impact it has on the wildlife and how our atmosphere is being destroyed by acid rain.
There is evidence that the rain is destroying the productivity of the once rich soils, like an overdose of chemical fertilizer. The damage of such overdosing may not be repairable or reversible. On some croplands, tomatoes grow to only half their full weight, and the leaves of radishes wither. Naturally it rains on cities too, eating away stone monuments and concrete structures, and corroding the pipes that channel the water away to the lakes and the cycle is repeated. Paints and automobile paints have its life reduce due to the pollution in the atmosphere speeding up the corrosion process. In some communities the drinking water is mixed with toxic metals freed from metal pipes by the acidity. As if urban skies were not already gray enough, typical visibility has declined from 10 to 4 miles, along the Eastern seaboard, as acid rain turns into smog. Also, now there are indicators that the components of acid rain are a health risk, linked to human respiratory disease.
Not only is acid rain killing our plants and animals, it is killing our budget, in addition to contributing to acid rain, nitrogen oxides can react with hydrocarbons to produce ozone, a major air pollutant responsible in the United States for annual losses of $2 billion to 4.5 billion worth of wheat, corn, soybeans, and peanuts. A wide range of interactions can occur many unknown with toxic metals.
At the beginning of the 20th century most rivers/lakes like the river
Tovdal in Norway had not yet begun to die. However by 1926 local inspectors were noticing that many of the lakes were beginning to show signs of death. Fish were found dead along the banks of many rivers. As the winters ice began to melt off more and more hundreds upon hundreds more dead fish (trout in particular) were being found. It was at this time