Acid rain

As seen in this short movie acid rain is a big problem for the environment. And with it we'd
like to welcome you to our presentation about acid rain. Here you can see our topic
outline:

What causes the problem?

Acid rain is a result of air pollution. When a factory tosses out sulfur dioxide or nitrogen
oxides(also called NOx ) it gets into atmosphere. These gases are also produced by cars or
generating plants. In atmosphere they react with water molecules to acids. When water is
clear also carbon dioxide becomes an acid that solves in the rain. Sulfur dioxide reacts
with the water molecules to sulfuric acid, NOx to nitric acid and carbon dioxide to carbonic
acid. These acids decrease the pH value from nearly seven to approximately 5 or 4. Once
there's been measured a pH value of two. Thats as deep as lemon juice or vinegar.
The more the factories produce the more of the gases and the more of the acids get in the
atmosphere and come down with rain. A very small part of the acidity is caused natural by
volcano eruptions and small polluting particles. Also lightnings let the natural nitrogen out
of the air react to acid.

How might it effect future generations??

Future people will suffer from that environmental problem. They will not be able to go
swimming in lakes or taking a walk in the beautiful small park next to their houses. Cultural
things like churches or statues will dissolve in the acidic rain. In future the problem will get
bigger and bigger, because of the increasing world population. All of them want to be fed
and so the factories have to produce more. And as told before there'll be more acid in rain.
- If there'll be anymore rain with the global warming...The ground and the waters will get
more acidic and that causes a dying out of fishes, plants and other livings. Human will get
sicknesses like Asthma from the acids. And There'll be less fertile ground and the hunger
increases. Factories will have to produce more and so the vicious circle will be closed
again.
How is it dealt with today?

In the 1970s acid rain was a huge problem. In Scandinavia whole forests died out and acid
rain began to worry the people. Some countries made laws to reduce the sulfur dioxide
emission. I'll explain them later to you. With these laws the problem disappeared a bit from
the media and other environmental issues became more important like the greenhouse
effect. Today acid rain is almost forgotten in some heads but it still exists. Greenpeace and
other organizations rarely have a special program against this acid rain. In Scandinavia
chalk is added in waters because there's the problem the biggest and the ground of the
waters can't neutralize the acid. Also the calcium of the chalk helps the fishes building
healthy bones. In some other regions there are helicoptres that disperse chalk above
forests.

Laws and regulations?

In 1990 the Clean Air Act has been introduced. That's an international law that's designed
to reduce the air pollution by sulfur dioxide and Nitrogen oxides. The goals were to reduce
the spillage of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by 75 % in 14 years. The goals couldn't
be reached but the pollution by sulfur dioxide sank by 71 %. The one for Nitrogen only
made it to 32 %.Also there's the convention of Geneva. It also wants to reduce air-
pollution. It's been 1979 when it started. There aren't any concrete goals but it says that
the countries that have signed shall make their best to reduce gas emissions. We couldn’t
find any understandable texts neither in English nor in German so now we cant read out
some text.