Questions about acid rain.

What do you know about Acid Rain?

• Well this is for my final assignment for science. I have to complete this collaborative project, but I only have me, myself, and I. And before you say, "Do your own homework." I would like to let you know that this is a five man assignment that I have to do alone. So it would be much appreciated if you guys could help me out and give me some of your knowledge to make this assignment a little easier on me. Please respond to the following questions of your choice, thank you! A definition and description of acid rain. An overview of the areas of the world in which acid rain is an issue. Five suggestions for what we can do to prevent acid rain and the damage it causes. A specific example of an area that experiences acid rain.

• Answer:

  That's okay, when I was in school on group assignments I always told the others to just relax, I'd do it alone. Never trusted anyone else to do it right. There is a lot of easy information out there on this subject though. Anyway... "Acid rain" is a broad term referring to wet (and actually also dry) deposition from the atmosphere containing higher than normal amounts of nitric and sulfuric acids. (1) The chemical forerunners of acid rain formation result from both natural sources like volcanoes and decaying vegetation, and man-made sources, primarily emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) resulting from fossil fuel combustion. Acid rain occurs when these gases react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form various acidic compounds. The result is a mild solution of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Wet deposition refers to acidic rain, fog, and snow. (2) The worst offenders are India and China. Just about every other country in the world has agreed to limit the emissions from burning fossil fuels (the Kyoto Protocols), but somehow the politicians of India and China managed to get labeled as "developing nation" status that somehow makes them immune to the laws that everyone else agrees on, so they have the worst acid rain problems. However, the fact is that you can get acid rain just about anywhere there is industry, which includes Europe, Russia, and North America.. and South America. The US never signed on to the Kyoto Protocols because of the economic blow it would make against us trying to compete with India and China. Still, we have at least gone some distance toward mitigating it. At any rate, I'm babbling. The worst offenders, India and China. Next, Europe, North America and Russia. Next, everybody else. (3) It starts with understanding and education, both from "scientists" and the general public. You need to know what the exact problem is before you can fix it, and you need people to care about fixing it. Then you need to address the problem immediately. Burning coal accounts for most US sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and a large portion of NOx emissions. Sulfur is present in coal as an impurity, and it reacts with air when the coal is burned to form SO2. In contrast, NOx is formed when any fossil fuel is burned. This can be done by chemical "scrubbing" and physical screens. Third, use an alternative energy source; solar, geothermal, wind, etc. These obviously don't emit SO2 or NOx (or anything else). Fourth, fix what's broken. Go to the damaged places and clean the water, scrub the soil, tend to the plants, make sure the animals are healthy. You can go and break all of this down into far more than just five options, because these are general areas of investigation, not specifics. (4) Rain with a pH of 4.5 and below has been reported in Chinese cities -- "pure" rain's acidity is pH 5.6-5.7 naturally. So a 4.5? That's pretty bad. As far as specifics, there's just a load of information out there if you Google "acid rain in China." Hope that helps.