ACID RAINS OR ACIDIFICATION
All are admits the importance of rains, without which there is no survival of human race. However, rain in certain parts of the earth has taken on a new and threatening complexity. Industries emit noxious and hazardous substances and gases into the environment. A part of such water evaporated from the sea reaches the clouds and causes rains. In certain parts of the earth gases and hazardous substances released from industries are accumulated in the seas. By evaporation such sea water reaches clouds and causes acid rains.
Technically speaking, burning fossil fuels of power stations factories and motor vehicles mix with air and it brings down dilute sulphuric and nitric acid and thereby cause acid rains. Rapid growth of industrialisation and growth of cities in the world, in particular, developing countries are the main causes for acidification. Acid rain is likely to occur, whenever fossil fuels are intensively used.
Acid rains are not only injurious to health and safety of human life but also cause heavy damage to wild life, water life, forests, crop lands and also to the world's most important ancient monuments (Eg. Taj Mahal). Some of the world's greatest cultural treasures including Parthenen in Athens and Trojan's Column in Rome were destroyed by the acid rains.
Earlier, acidification was regarded as a regional problem, confined to the industrial areas of the northern hemisphere. The rate of acidification is being increased from time to time and has been recognized as an international environmental problem.
The destructive symptoms of acid rain are far more in European countries than United States of America. It has resulted in considerable decrease in different species of animals and plants, many of which are now extinct.
During the period 1950 to 1969 several plants and trees in Central Europe and America were prematurely destroyed or uprooted due to acid rain. In Norway, nearly 1750 out of 5000 ponds were adversely affected by acid rain killing innumerable aquatic lives including fishes. Almost 1/5th of the total number of 2.5 lakh lakes of Oriento (Canada) were affected by acid rain and 140 of them were declared dead due to being un-useful for aquatic life and plants.
Acid rain has therefore, become an international problem due to its trans-border nature and its impact is more peculiarly noticeable in the European nations than in Asian region. The United Nation is trying to tackle the problem in consultation with member nations and preventive strategies are being worked out to save human health and harm to eco-system that is being caused due to acid rain.
A special conference on acidification of the environment was held at Stockholm in 1982. It reviewed and assessed a large amount of scientific information pertaining to the acidification.
Pollutants that cause acid rain:
i. Acids also result from natural causes such as vegetation, volcanoes, lighting and geysers.
ii. When fossil fuels such as high sulphur coal, oil and natural gas are burned chemicals like sulphur dioxide and nitrogen vin oxide are produced. These chemicals react with water and other chemicals in the air to form sulphuric acid, nitric acid and other harmful pollutants like sulfates and nitrates. These acid pollutants spread upwards into the atmosphere, and are carried by air currents, to finally return to the ground in the form of acid rain. bon
3. Biomass burning due to forest fires causes emissions of formic acid (HCOOH) and formaldehyde gets oxidized to formic acid in the atmosphere.
4. Acidification results from emission and deposition of airborne primary pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, Volatile organic compounds and particulates given off by power plants, industry and vehicles and of ammonia produced by agriculture.
5 Nitrogen oxides and carbon particles produced by automobiles and other motor vehicles are so in some large cities that the air is colored by them.
Effects or impacts of Acid Rain:
i. Farm crops are affected by acid rains.
ii. Intense sulphur dioxide causes death of many kinds of trees particularly conifers and other vegetation.gge dla
iii. Acid rains dissolve and wash away nutrients in the soil which are needed by plants.
iv. Acid rain indirectly affects plants by removing nutrients from the soil In which they grow.
v. Acid rain affects trees more directly by creating holes in the wary coating of leaves, causing brown dead spots which tab affect the plant's photosynthesis.
vi. Acid rain that falls or flows as ground water to reach rivers, shin lakes and wetlands causes the water in them to become acidic. This affects plants and animal life in aquatic ecosystems.
vii. Acid rain also has far-reaching effects on wildlife. By adversely affecting one species, the entire food chain is disturbed, ultimately endangering the entire ecosystem.
viii. Acid rain and dry acid deposition damage buildings, automobiles and other structures made of stone or metal. The acid corrodes the materials causing extensive damage and ruins historic buildings. For instance, the Parthenon in Greece and the Taj Mahal in India have been affected Abby acid rain.
ix. Although surface water polluted by acid rain does not directly harm people, toxic does not directly harm people, the toxic substances leached from soil can pollute the water supply. Fish caught in these water may be harmful for human consumption.
x. Acid, along with other chemicals in the air, produces urban smog, which causes respiratory problems.
CONTROL MEASURES TO STOP ACID RAINS:
i. The best way to stop the formation of acid rain is to reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. This can be achieved by using less energy from fossil fuels in power plants, vehicles and industries.
ii. Switching to cleaner burning fuels is also a way out. For instance, using natural gas which is cleaner than coal or using coal with lower sulfur content.
iv. Installing scrubbers to reduce smoke stack emission, though expensive would be economical compared to the losses due to damage done to lakes, forests, monuments, food production and so on.
v. Powering powered limestone into water bodies is a rapid, but short lived method of reducing activity. A more permanent, but slow and expensive method is the liming of surrounding soils.
vi. In catalytic converters, the gases are passed over metal coated beads that convert harmful chemicals into less harmful ones. These are used in cars to reduce the effects of exhaust fumes on the atmosphere
vii. Once acid rain has affected soil, powered limestone can be added to the soil by a process known as liming to neutralize the acidity of the soil.
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