Acid Rain

What is Acid rain ?

Acid rain is the effect of air pollution. When any kind of fuel is burnt, many different types of chemicals are emitted. The smoke that is emitted from fire or the smoke from the exhaust of the car not just contain the dark grey particles that you can see they also contains more invisible gases that can be furthermore noxious to our environment.

Factories, power stations and cars they all burn fuels and thus they all create polluting gases. Some of these gases (mainly nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide) react with small drops of water in clouds to construct sulfuric and nitric acid. The rain from these clouds then falls as extremely weak acid, this is why it is known as “acid rain”.

How much acidic is acid rain ?

Acidity is measured by using a scale called as the PH scale. This scale ranges from 0 to 14. 0 is the most acidic and 14 is the most alkaline (as opposed to acidic). Something with the PH value of 7 is neutral, it means that it is neither acidic nor alkaline.

Very strong acids can destroy metals and they can also burn human skin if touched. Acid rain is very weaker than this, so it not enough acidic to burn human skin.

Rain falls is always somewhat acidic because it is combined with naturally occurring oxides in the air. Uncontaminated rain PH value will be 5 and 6. When air becomes highly polluted with nitrogen oxide and sulfur the acidity can rise to the PH value of 4. Some precipitation has even been recorded as being PH2. 

The PH value of vinegar is 2.2 and that of lemon juice has a PH value of 2.3. Even the powerful recorded acid rain is only about as acidic as lemon juice or vinegar and we know that these don't harm us. So why should we worry over acid rain ?

The Effects of Acid rain

Acid rain can be conveyed from a long distance in the atmosphere, not just between countries but as well as from continent to continent. Acid rain can also take the shape of snow, mist and dry dust. Rain sometimes falls at a distance of many miles from the source of pollution but when it falls, it cause severe impact on water, trees, soil and buildings.

Effects of Acid Rain on Forest

It is believed that acid rain can causes trees to grow slowly or even die but scientists have found that this is not only the reason. It seems that the acid rain has more effect in some areas than it does in others.

As the acid rain falls on the forest, it drips through the leaves of the trees and runs down in the soil. Some of them finds its ways into the streams and then in rivers and lakes. Some kind of soil may help to neutralize acid, they are called as “buffering capacity”.

Other soils are already a little acidic it is very affected by the effects of acid rain.

The acid rain can affect the trees in many different manners :

• Dissolve and wash off the nutrients and minerals in the soil, which helps in trees to grow. 
• Causes to release of deleterious substances such as aluminium into the soil.  
• Wearing away protective coating of leaves elsewhere, impairing them and preventing them from being able to do photosynthesis appropriately.

The amalgamation of these effects enfeeble trees, which means that they can easily be damaged by insects and disease or by bad weather.  

Effects of acid rain on Lake and Rivers

It is in aquatic habitat that the effects of acidic precipitation are most obvious. Acid rain originates from the land and ends up in streams and lakes, rain also falls directly on those areas. 

As the acidity of lake rises the water becomes clear and the number of fishes and other water animals decreases. Some species of plants and animals are able to outlast in acidic water than others. In freshwater shrimp, mussels and snails are the mostly affected by acidification followed by fish such as salmon, minnows and roach. Fish eggs and fry of the fish are the worst affected, water acidity can cause deformity in young fish and can prevent eggs from hatching correctly. 

The acidity of water doesn't not only affects the species, it also causes noxious substances such as aluminium unleashed into the water bodies from the soil, damaging fish and other aquatic animals.

Rivers and Lakes each have their own distinct ecosystem with many different species of plants and animals all depends on each other to survive. If a species of fish extinct, the animal which feed on it will gradually disappear too. If the extinct fish used to feed on a specific species of large insects that insects population would begin to increase, this in turn will affect the smaller insects or plankton on which the larger insects feeds. 

Effects of acid rain on Buildings

Every type of material will be deteriorated sooner or later by the effects of climate. Wind, water snow and ice all help in the erosion process but sadly, acid rain can help accelerate this natural process. Statues, vehicles, buildings, pipes and cables can all suffer. The highly affected are those made up of limestone or sandstone as these kinds of rocks are highly sensitive and can be affected by air pollution in gaseous formation as well as by acid rain. 

Solution of Acid rain

1.  Cleaning the exhaust pipes and smokers

Much of the electrical energy that supports modern day energy requirements comes from the combination of fossil fuels like oil, natural gas, and coal which produces nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide as the chief contributors to the acid rain. Burning coal mainly accounts for sulfur dioxide emissions while nitrogen oxides emissions are mostly from fossil fuels combinations.

Coal washing, use of low sulfur-rich coal, and the device know as the “scrubbers” can give technical solutions to for sulfur dioxide emissions. The “Scrubbing” is also known as flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) usually acts as chemically eliminate sulfur dioxide from the gases leaving the smokestacks. It can remove up to  95% of sulfur dioxide gases. Power production facilities may also move to  use fuels that emit much less sulfur dioxide such as natural gas rather than burning of coal. These system are simply called as emission reduction strategy.

Likewise, nitrogen oxides emissions from automobile fossil fuels combustion are decreased by the use of catalytic converter. Catalytic converters are fixed on the exhaust pipe system to decrease nitrogen oxides emissions. Enhancement of gasoline that combust cleaner is also a strategy to decrease emissions of nitrogen oxides gases.

2. Restore damaged environment

The use of limestone or lime, process known as liming, is a application that people use to repair the damage caused by acid rain to lakes and rivers. Acidity is stabilized by adding lime to acidic surface water. However liming is costly method and has to be done again and again. In addition, it only offers a short term solution at the expense of solving the border challenges of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions and risks to human health. However, it helps to fix and allow the survival of aquatic life froms by improving chronically acidified surface water. 

3. Alternative energy sources

In addition to fossil fuels there is a wide range of other energy sources that can generate electricity. These involves solar energy, hydro power, and nuclear power. Harnessing these energy sources can provide effective electrical power options instead of fossil fuels. Natural gas, fuel cells and batteries can also replace the use of fossil fuels in the form of cleaner energy sources. As of today, all the energy sources are also beneficial for entertainment and economic costs. The only solution is by using sustainable energy that can protect the future. 

 4. Individual, National and international steps.

Millions of people are contributes directly or indirectly to sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions. Mitigation of this challenge, individuals should be more informed about energy conservation and methods of decreasing emissions like turning of light and other electrical appliances when not in use, use public transport, use energy efficient electric appliance and use of hydrid vehicles or the low emissions.