Regi Babamusta Essays - Chemistry, Matter, Inorganic Solvents

Regi Babamusta Intro to Met. S. Nasse Acid Rain Acid rain is not only an issue for us here in the states, but in areas all over the world. Unfortunately, many do not even know what acid rain is. It's simple really. When fossil fuels burn, they release chemicals into the atmosphere, and those chemicals mix with the moisture in the atmosphere, which results in rain, snow, sleet, hail etc. with a higher acidity level than previously seen. Those fossil fuels are; coal, oil and natural gasses. Acid deposition is a more proper/scientific name than acid rain due to the fact acid can fall to the floor as any form of water. It can additionally integrate with dry debris and fall to the ground. Whenever dry debris is mixed in with the acidic chemicals it's better known as dry deposition, in comparison to acid coming down in the form of any moisture known as moist deposition. Not all people, but environmentally conscious people have been aware of air pollution since the times of the Ancient Romans. Just because they knew of the issue does not mean they did anything to help, or solve it. Up until the twentieth century people had turned their backs to the rising issue of air pollution including air pollution's most dangerous outcome, acid rain. Acid rain, over time is extremely harmful to ecosystems all over the globe and is one of the biggest problems we face today. Yet, not enough attempts have been made to begin the process of correcting this problem. The way acid rain forms in the atmosphere is essentially by the burning of an excessive amount of fossil fuels from places like factories and power plants worldwide. As per a study done by needtoknow.nas.edu, "The United States gets 81% of its total energy from, oil, coal, and natural gas, all of which are fossil fuels. We depend on those fossil fuels to heat our homes, run our vehicles, power industry and manufacturing, and provide us with electricity". To illustrate, when the biggest culprits of acid rain are burned they release gasses such as, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, etc. Everyone has seen the huge power plant chimneys dumping tons and tons of gas into the sky, the approximate amount being 21.3 billion tons. Once released, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides react with other components in the atmosphere like water vapor, and sunlight to produce the acids found in acid rain.There is a 14-point scale which is used to measure PH levels in liquids, 7 being neu tral and anything less than 7 is acidic. While anything more than 7 is alkaline. For example, battery acid measures at about 1 on the scale (depending on the manufacturer) while table vinegar is at 2-2.4 acidity. Conventional rain is between 5 and 6 acidity; acid rain is somewhere between 2 and 5.5. According to Insidermonkey, "The country with the worst cases of acid rain levels is China". The United States comes in a modest second place. Since acid is extremely corrosive and the levels worldwide are on the rise, many of the things we take for granted are prone to being damaged. Rivers, lakes, reservoirs, infrastructure, buildings, monuments, and animal life. Over time, acid rain affects almost everything it touches from our homes in the states to trees in the Amazon Forest When acid rain occurs, the acidity levels in major bodies of water aren't immediately affected. Unless it's pouring acid rain every other day the water dilutes the acid in the rain, otherwise all bodies of water would be highly acidic requiring neutralizers to get it back to base ph levels. During the spring months although rare, something called, "acid shock" can occur. Snow build up containing acid melts. Once the snow has melted, the acid runoff pours into the ground and neighboring bodies of water. Since the bodies of water are essentially being shocked with high acid levels, small organisms like algae begin to die off. Which causes a kind of deadly chain reaction. As the algae slowly die off, the organisms that consume the algae could possibly die of starvation. The chain reaction could go on or quite some time until many organisms