LEONARDO EMILIO PEREZ

ALEGRIA

Essay
Acid Rain
English 7
Daniel
Introduction:
Acid rain is a serious and dangerous problem because it is very harmful to the environment. It
is a rain that has a very high concentration of acid-forming chemicals. These chemicals have
been released into the atmosphere and joint with water vapor. Basically acid rain could
damage everything over a short period of time and that is because it can makes living things
die in the environment. For this reason I chose to write about the acid rain and chose Canada
to be the study case.
Before we get through inside the study case, we should know a little information about this
problem.

What is acid rain?

Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation like snow that is acidic. Acid rain is
downpour containing harmful quantities of nitric and sulfuric acids which released into the
atmosphere. When fossil fuels are burned, harmful emotions released into the air. The normal
rain has almost pH of 5.6, which is faintly acidic. Unlike the normal rain that we all knew, acid
rain has a pH below 5.6. It could consider as a result of air pollution. It has many other names
such as acid precipitation or acid deposition. Emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides
are causing the acid rain, which they can react with the water molecules to produce acids. Acid
rain could effects negatively on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure.

The effects of acid rain:

In the atmosphere acid rain can be carried very big and far distances between countries and
from continent to another. It can take the form of snow, mists and dry dusts. Respiratory
illnesses in animals and humans such as asthma can be caused by the dry dust. Wherever the
rain falls, it can have a huge effect on soil, trees, buildings and water.

Effects of acid rain have on our health?

Acid rain affects human being in many different ways. One main way is our health. Acid rain
could also effect on the air which can makes the acid rain pollution. Most of the breathing and
lung problems in children and adults who have asthma were linked to acid air pollution.
There are many health problems that occur in the U.S. and Canada each year because of this
problem. The following are health problems happen due to acid rain:
550 early deaths.
1,520 emergency room visits.
210,070 asthma symptom days.
What effect does acid rain to non-living
things?
Just like the acid rain can damage living things, it also could harmful non-living things. For
example it could damage the buildings and statues. It could failure building materials and
paints. There are many types of materials. All these types will become eroded soon or later by
the effects of the climate such as: water, wind, ice and snow which they can help in the erosion
process. Unfortunately, acid rain can help to make this natural process faster.

What damage is acid rain doing in Canada?

The damage that caused by the acid rain in Canada is very huge. There are many damages
such as: fourteen thousand lakes are now so acidic in this country which led to death for the
plants, animals, fish and birds. In addition to that, trees in eastern Canada are dying because
acid rain is slows down their growth and sometimes can make the bark splits until the tree dies.
Another serious damage of the acid rain is that 84% of agricultural land in eastern Canada is
polluted. Also it has been linked to respiratory diseases in children. Furthermore buildings are
being affected in this country; especially the buildings that made of marble, granite and
limestone. Some Statistics confirm that buildings in Canada are losing 4% of their weight every
year.

Why is it doing such many damages in

eastern Canada?
Actually the Largest amount of the acid rain that falls on Canada came from the USA.
Moreover it is a big problem in eastern Canada because more of the water and soil systems in
this region lack natural alkalinity. Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are the
provinces that are part of the Canadian Precambrian Shield and that happened in these
particular areas because their water and soil systems cannot fight the damaging consequences
of acid rain.

What is being done to solve the issue?

Both of the USA and Canada governments are trying their best to solve this issue. There are
several ways that they used to solve this problem. One of them was spraying trees with water
to wash off the acid rain but unfortunately this way is not very effective. Nowadays in Canada
they are replacing coal fired power stations with gas fired stations. Moreover they added lime
to the lakes, rivers and soil. This way is very expensive and cost a lot of money, also it takes a
very long time. Another way is fitted equipment in some power stations to remove emissions
such as: sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. This is an effective way but at the same time it is
too expensive.

Conclusion:
To conclude, acid rain is very important issue that has bad effects in the environment. There
would be many health problems that could be avoided, if acid rain became a little less of a
problem. We can help to stop this acid rain by a very simple way which is not polluting the air.
As they said Prevention is better than cure. Even children can help prevent this pollution by
several ways like using less electricity and using transportation that is friendly to the
environment.

https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-effects-of-acid-rain.php

https://www.britannica.com/science/acid-rain

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/acid-rain/

http://projects.ncsu.edu/project/bio183de/Black/chemreview/chemreview_reading/acid_rain.ht
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