Acid Rain (1878 words) Essay Example For Students

Acid Rain (1878 words) Essay Acid RainAcid Rain Acid rain is a great problem in our world. It causes fish and plants to die in our waters. As well it causes harm to our own race as well, because we eat these fish, drink thiswater and eat these plants. It is a problem that we must all face together and try to get rid of. However acid rain on its own is not the biggest problem. It cause many other problems such as aluminum poisoning. Acid Rain is deadly. WHAT IS ACID RAIN? Acid rain is all the rain, snow, mist etc that falls from the sky onto our planet that contains an unnatural acidic. It is not to be confused with uncontaminated rain that falls, for that rain is naturally slightly acidic. It is caused by todays industry. When products are manufactured many chemicals are used to create it. However, because of the difficulty and cost of properly disposing of these products they are often emitted into the atmosphere with little or no treatment. The term was first considered to be important about 20 years ago when scientists in Sweden and Norway first believed that acidic rain may be causing great ecological damage to the planet. The problem was that by the time that the scientist found the problem it was already very large. Detecting an acid lake is often quite difficult. A lake does not become acid over night. It happens over a period of many years, some times decades. The changes are usually too gradual for them to be noticed early. 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 that scientist began to search for the reason. As the scientists continued to work they found manypiles of dead fish, up to 5000 in one pile, f urther up the river. Divers were sent in to examine thebottom of the rivers. What they found were many more dead fish. Many live and dead specimenswere taken back to labs across Norway. When the live specimens were examined they were foundto have very little sodium in their blood. This is typical a typical symptom of acid poisoning. Theacid had entered the gills of the fish and poisoned them so that they were unable to extract saltfrom the water to maintain their bodies sodium levels. Many scientist said that this acid poisingwas due to the fact that it was just after the winter and that all the snow and ice was running downinto the streams and lakes. They believed that the snow had been exposed to many naturalphenomena that gave the snow its high acid content. Other scientists were not sure that this theorywas correct because at the time that the snow was added to the lakes and streams the Ph levelswould change from around 5.2 to 4.6. They believed that such a high jump could not b e attributedto natural causes. They believed that it was due to air pollution. They were right. Since thebeginning of the Industrial revolution in England pollution had been affecting all the trees,soil andrivers in Europe and North America. However until recently the loses of fish was contained to thesouthern parts of Europe. Because of the constant onslaught of acid rain lakes and rivers began tolose their ability to counter act their affects. Much of the alkaline elements; such as calcium andlimestone; in the soil had been washed away. It is these lakes that we must be worried about forthey will soon become extinct. A fact that may please fishermen is that in lakes/rivers they tend tocatch older and larger fish. This may please them in the short run however they will soon have tochange lakes for the fish supply will die quickly in these lakes. The problem is that acid causesdifficulties the fishs reproductive system. Often fish born in acid lakes do not survive for they areborn w ith birth defects such as twisted and deformed spinal columns. This is a sign that they areunable to extract enough calcium from the water to fully develop their bone. These young soon die. Legality Of Same Sex Marriages! EssayWith not enough food the older fish did not have the energy to reproduce. Upon reaching the pHof 5.1 it was noted that the trout became cannibals. It is believed this is due to the fact that theminnow was nearly extinct. At a pH of 5.6 the external skeletons of crayfish softened and theywere soon infected with parasites, and there eggs were destroyed by fungi. When the pH wentdown to 5.1 they were almost gone. By the end of the experiment none of the major species hadsurvived the trials of the acid. The next experiment conducted by the scientists was to try and bringthe lake back to life. They cut in half the amount of acid that they dumped to simulate a large scalecleanup. Soon again the cuckers and minnows began to reproduce again. The lake eventually didcome back; to a certain extent; back to life. THE NEW THEORY: A scientist in Norway had aproblem believing that it was the acid rain on its own that was affecting the lakes in such a deadlyway . This scientist was Dr Rosenqvist. Why is it that during heavy rain, the swollen rivers can beup to fifteen times more acid than the rain? It cannot be the rain alone that is doing it, can it? Manyscientist shunned him for this however they could not come up with a better answer. Soon thescientists were forced to accept this theory. Sulfuric acid is composed of two parts, know as ions. The hydrogen ion is what make a substance acid. The other ion is sulphate. When there are morehydrogen ions then a substance is acid. It is this sulphate ion that we are interested in. When therain causes rivers to overboard onto the banks the river water passes through the soil. Since theindustrial revolution in britain there has been an increasing amount of sulphur in the soil. In theriver there is not enough sulphur for the acid to react in great quantities. However in the soil thereis a great collection of sulphur to aid the reaction. When it joins the water the pH becomes muchlower. This is the most deadly effect of acid rain on our water!!! The water itself does not containenough sulphur to kill off its population of fish and plants. But with the sulphur in the soil it does. CONCLUSION: Acid rain is a big problem. It causes the death of our lakes, our rivers, our wildlife and most importantly us. As well it causes other problems that are very serious as well such asthe release of aluminium and lead into our water supplies. We are suffering because of it. InScotland there are many birth defects being attributed to it. We must cut down the releases ofchemicals that cause it. But it will take time, even if we were to stop today we would have theproblem for years to come because of the build up in the soil. Lets hope we can do something. BibliographyBibliography Penguin Publishing House, 1987 , Pearce Fred Acid Rain. What is it and what is it doing to us?New York Publishers, 1989, William Stone Acid Rain. Fiend or Foe? Lucent books, Inc. 1990,Steward Gail Acid Rain. Environmental Issues