Would you rather: A) Have a beautiful memorial of your life on your grave stone, or B) have an eroded lump of stone. A) Look outside your window and see a beautiful rainforest, or B) have grandchildren who have never even seen a tree. A) Go on a fieldtrip to an amazing historic landmark, such as the coliseum, or B) waste your time looking at crumbled remains of marble? Well, the way things are going now, the B's are looking like they might win. In fact, they probably will. That is unless we stop it. What exactly is It, you ask? What could be so powerful, and so terrible, that it could destroy an entire planet? Our Entire way of life? The answer is simple: Acid rain.
Acid Rain occurs when Chemicals get into the air. This could happen through a variety of ways, including Cars and other motor vehicles, or from chimneys that are burning coal. These chemicals then come together with droplets of water vapor from clouds. These droplets of contaminated water then come down to Earth as acidic precipitation - snow, hail, rain, or sleet. When this falls to the Earth, it can do many things, which you will find in the next paragraph. The average pH, or acidity, of clean rainwater is 5.6, which is just a little bit more acidic than normal, which is 7. Acid Rain is anything below that. According to the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, the most acidic rainfall in the US is about 4.3. Thankfully, according to the NADP, the pH of precipitation near Reno is in the high 5.0's and low 6.0's.
Acid Rain is causing many problems. It affects both biotic and abiotic factors. One problem is that it erodes, or digs into, certain materials that we use to build, and also natural materials such as rocks. This makes it so that if we see a beautiful stone monument today, or a huge skyscraper that reaches far as the eye can see, we might not see either in a few years. All that would be left would be small bits of rubble, or lumps of stone where these wonders of human technology once stood. It also affects the water in lakes, rivers and streams of our planet. It turns the water acidic, therefore making it unhealthy for other organisms. That brings us to the biotic factors. If you were a deer, and you had only one stream to drink out of, what would you do if your stream became acidized? You wouldn't be able to do anything, so you would just have to drink the acidic water. Besides, it can't be that bad, right? Wrong. After a few drinks, the acid will slowly kill you. But the death of one deer wouldn't be too bad, right? Again, wrong. Deer tend to travel together, so first of all, there would be the death of a large group. But then, that death chain starts an even bigger chain: The death of the food chain. If all the deer disappeared, what would the wolves eat? They would die, or eat loads of rabbits. And then all the rabbits would be gone, leaving nothing for other predators. This would go on and on, until only Herbivores were on Earth. Then, even they would die, as acid rain also acidizes the water that plants drink. So, as you can see, Acid Rain is a huge problem.
You were just presented with many dire problems caused by Acid Rain, but fear not: There are many ways to protect ourselves, and to reduce Acid Rain. Did you know that to fully get rid of all air pollution; we would have to reduce the amount of emissions, pollutants spilled into the air knowingly, by 12 million tons? That's the amount of 6 million elephants put together! How could we ever achieve that goal? Well, first of all, we have a certain item called a scrubber. A scrubber is put inside a smoke stack, or chimney, to clean the smoke that comes out of it, therefore reducing the amount of harmful air pollution that comes out of the chimney. Then, there is a certain restriction on US cars built in America. They must all have a little device called a catalytic converter. This removes 96% of carbon monoxide, an air pollutant, and hydro carbons, from the exhaust of the car. Over seas, in Sweden and Germany, they are using Lime to neutralize, or De-acidize, their lakes. And in Japan, they have required all power plants to reduce Nitrogen Oxide by 75%. And you, at home, can help too. Use cars and other motor vehicles less, and since creating electricity causes pollution, conserve the amount of energy you use at home and at work. This will also help lower your power bills!
So, there you have it: Acid Rain is a terrible thing whose results have already affected our culture, but if we try hard enough, then we can help to stop it. The way we stop it, whether by carpooling or air-drying your clothes, it doesn't really matter: WE just have to take part. Then, hopefully, the A)'s will explain your future.
