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Acid Rain
Acid Rain
Conclusion
Suggestion
Government agencies and scientists are not the only ones that can
take action to stop acid rain. You can become part of the solution, too!
Conserve Energy
Since energy production creates large amounts of the pollutants that
cause acid rain, one important step you can take is to conserve energy.
You can do this in a number of ways:
Ask your parents to adjust the thermostat (the device used to control
the temperature in your home) when you go on vacation.
Every time ordinary rain is about to occur (unless the normal rain is
created through commands of any type) there is a 1/7 chance of the
rain being acidic. The acid rain is a greenish-yellow version of normal
rain. When standing directly in acid rain, a half heart of damage is
taken every three seconds. Acid rain cannot kill you, it can only bring
you
Acid rain is a term for rain, snow, or other precipitation produced from water
vapor in the air reacting with emissions from automobiles, factories, power
plants, and other oil and coal burning sources. When these chemical
compounds, composed of sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide, react with water vapor,
the result is sulfuric acid and nitric acid. The eastern portion of North America
and the northwest section of Europe are especially susceptible to acid rain. Acid
rain has damaged buildings, forests, crops, and soil; polluted thousands of lakes,
rivers, and streams; and injured millions of fish and other forms of aquatic life.
The purpose of the second edition of this bibliography is to provide a list of recent
articles, books, and documents available in the Robert E. Kennedy Library of the
California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo) on the problems of acid
rain published since 1984. This bibliography is organized under the following
headings: (1) "The Causes of Acid Rain"; (2) "The Effect of Acid Rain on Soils,
Plants, and Forests"; (3) "The Effect of Acid Rain on Lakes, Ponds, and Aquatic
Life"; (4) "The Effect of Acid Rain on Health"; (5) "Effects of Acid Rain on
Materials"; and (6) "Acid Rain: Laws and Regulations." A total of 362 citations is
provided. (CW)
Acid rain : January 1992 - May 1994 / Karl Schneider. (Beltsville, Md. :
National Agricultural Library, [1995]), by Karl Schneider (page images at
HathiTrust)
Acid rain, 1986 : 223 citations / prepared by Sheldon Cheney. (Beltsville, Md. :
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library, [1987]), by Sheldon
Cheney (page images at HathiTrust)
Acid rain, 1986 : 223 citations / prepared by Sheldon Cheney. (Beltsville, Md. :
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library, [1987]), by Sheldon
Cheney (page images at HathiTrust)
Review of Literature
Location
In 2003, acid rain fell on more than 250 cities nationwide and caused direct
annual economic losses of 110 billion yuan ($13.3 billion), equal to nearly three
per cent of the countrys gross domestic product. The regional acid-rain pollution
is still out of control in some southern cities, especially in the southwestern areas.
With the exception of Chongqing, the average pH value of the central districts
was lower than 5.0 and the acid rain frequency was 70 per cent. The acid rain in
southern China was mainly distributed in the Pearl River delta and central and
eastern areas of Guangxi.
Acid rain blamed on smoke from coal-burning factories and power plants is
spreading, with the number of cities suffering from severe levels rising last year
to 218. In Beijing, the government is pouring money into moving polluting
industries out of the capital in an effort to clean up the city before the Olympics in
2008.
Acid rain is one of the environmental costs of surging economic growth. Other
costs include two-thirds of the country's household sewage being untreated in
2004, and heavy pollution tainting some cities air.
Causes
Major causes of acid rain are the rapidly growing number of cars on the roads,
and the increasing consumption of cheap, abundant coal, as the country
struggles to cope with energy shortages and meet power demand. China is the
worlds largest source of soot and sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions from coal,
which fires three-quarters of the countrys power plants. More than 21 tonnes of
SO2 were discharged in China in 2003, a rise of twelve per cent on the previous
year. It is estimated that the country will consume more than 1.8 billion tons of
coal in 2005, emitting an additional six million tons of SO2. The growth of nitrates,
due to a swift rise of automobile and coal consumption, plus overuse of fertilizers,
is playing an increasing role in the countrys acid-rain pollution. In short, Chinas
explosive economic growth is outpacing environmental protection efforts.
Possible solutions
The Chinese government has made significant efforts and progress in energy
saving and consumption reduction. Energy consumption has gone down year by
Materials
paper towels
safety goggles
Materials each student group will need:
tablespoon
white chalk
eye droppers
When these gases react with water molecules and oxygen among other chemicals found
in the atmosphere, mild acidic chemical compounds such as sulfuric and nitric acid are
formed resulting to acid rain. Acid rain generally leads to weathering of buildings,
corrosion of metals, and peeling of paints on surfaces. Erupting volcanoes contains some
chemicals that can cause acid rain. Apart from this, burning of fossil fuels, running of
factories and automobiles due to human activities are few other reasons behind this
activity. Presently, large amounts of acid deposition is witnessed in the southeastern
Canada, northeastern United States and most of Europe, including portions of Sweden,
Norway, and Germany. In addition, some amount of acid deposition is found in parts of
South Asia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Southern India. Forms of Acid Rain There
are two forms in which acid deposition occurs wet and dry. Both are
discussed below: Wet Deposition: When the wind blows the acidic chemicals
in the air to the areas where the
Acid rain
Acid rain is the rainfall that has turned acidic due to water vapor
reacting with other pollutants like nitrogen and sulfur in our
atmosphere. Acid rain not only poses a threat to the ecosystem and
environment, but also causes serious damage to buildings and
sculptures worldwide.
Scientific Terms
Materials
Procedure
1. For this science fair project, the independent variable is the type of
construction material tested marble, limestone, brick and granite.
The dependent variable is the weight of the remaining construction
material after a few days. This is determined by measuring the weight
using a digital weighing scale. The constants (control variables) are the
acidity of the vinegar solution, the amount of vinegar used, the initial
weight of the construction material and the length of time the science
experiment is conducted.
4. Every day for the next 4 days the specimens are removed from the
beaker, wiped lightly with a piece of cloth and their weight is checked
on the digital weighing scale and recorded in the table given below.
Observation
It was observed that the limestone, followed by the marble, lost the
most weight. The brick lost a moderate amount of weight and the
granite dissolved the least.
Marble 100 72 53 39 26
Limestone 100 65 41 22 11
Brick 100 95 89 83 76
Conclusion
Also consider
This science fair project may be repeated, this time, with one set
of specimens exposed to sunlight and the other set kept in a dark
room.