The Role of Urbanization Development of Acid Rain and Its Effects on the Environment - Term Paper Example

Acid rain Acid rain has many ecological, physiological and adverse economic effects. Over the years, Manhas been warned on effects of pollution and its effects on the environment. This pollution has seen economies die due to over pollution of acidic substances ending up on their products, aquatic life, wildlife and many countries have too lost money on conventional sittings each year trying to see a way to curb the effects of environmental pollution. Production firms over the years have been warned on the proper disposal of all residual chemicals after production but due to ignorance over the years this piles up and ends up being deposited mostly in rivers, streams, lakes and large water masses. This ends up evaporating into the atmosphere forming condensed clouds that precipitate forming rainfall that forms the hydrologic cycle and ends up back into our rivers. This paper focuses on the formation of acid rain and its environmental effects in North America and Europe. Acid rain comes in both wet and dry deposition. The wet deposition is snow, sleet, fog and rain that usually have a higher PH acidic value than the normal rainfall. Dry deposition is when gases and dust particles also end up having a higher acidic value. Both dry & wet deposition can be carried for long distances by wind as sulfur dioxide and nitric acid easily mix with other substance and they are light in weight thus wind can carry them for long distances. Formation of this deposition occurs when environmental pollutants containing a higher value of sulfuric dioxide and nitric oxide mix together. Acid rain formation is affected by both natural and man-made sources as well as burning of fossil fuel that emits both sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. When sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides mix with other components in the atmosphere such as oxygen, other chemicals and water they form acidic components which go back into the hydrologic cycle forming acidic rain with a mild solution of both sulfuric acid and nitric acid. This acid deposition is very harmful to human beings, cars, and wildlife, aquatic life and water surfaces among others. Acid rain occurs mainly due to human activities. Human beings need power energy to survive and carry out a lot of their common activities in their daily lives. Power is produced mainly by burning fossil fuels that are the largest producer of sulfuric dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Other pollutants include exhaust which is released into the atmosphere from trucks, trains, cars, busses among other as they burn the fuel they are using they release much of this acidic substances like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide which form acidic rain (Agrawal*). Since urbanization it has been noted that building hardly maintain their natural form in which they were built in. metal corrosion mainly is caused by oxygen and moisture but it is speed up by acidic substances like sulfur dioxide. Building decay occurs in several forms from the building losing color, erosion of art beauty engraved, black gypsum developing on sheltered areas on it among others. The most affected materials include; limestone, marble, paints, some plastics, carbon-steel, zinc and nickel among others. Vehicles easily corrode on their outer parts made of sulfate are susceptible to several substances like bird droppings, chemicals pollen among others but the worst of them being acid rain which is best detected under a fluorescent lamp but also very easily recognized in dark colored cars. This acidity corrodes the sulfate leaving it totally damaged. Chimneys and stacks are basically used to dispose sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide into the air from mostly power production plants. This usually causes a buildup of mostly a thick black substance on the walls of the chimney and stacks. Human kind really on electricity to run their daily lives smoothly on things such as home based chores, transport, hospital equipment and food production in companies. Therefore they need a continuous supply of electricity. Electricity comes from burning of coal, oil and other material that produces energy and in return they unfortunately produce too much sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide which are the major components of acid rain. Vehicles produce nitrogen oxides. They need fuel to produce mechanical energy. During this process, hydrocarbons in the fuel mix with oxygen forming carbon dioxide and water. The unburned hydrocarbons are then produced through the exhaust pipe. They then combine with nitrogen and oxygen forming nitrogen oxide that is a part of the acid rain. The distribution of human acidic emission is not the same all over the world. Nitrogen and sulfur emission is more intense in the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Europe and North America. Thus, precipitation is most acidic in these nations. Most aquatic life is found in freshwater with an acidity of between 6 to 8 PH. With acid rain falling, it gets directly into this fresh water sources, killing all the sea weed that these fisheries live on. This ends up killing them as they lack food. The fish also tend to die as their lungs are created to breathe in fresh water and with an increase in PH in the water there is insufficient oxygen for them. The soil changes its natural Ph meaning that farmers have to over and over again have their soils in order to find out which crops best suit their PH. This is however very expensive but eventually farming becomes a problem as the soil become too acidic. Owing to this soil degradation, it is very difficult for forests to have the leaves managing to get nutrients to supply daily food to the plant, thus slowing down growth of forests or death of the same. When forests die or have a slow growth due to the effects of acid rain on their leaves and soil, wildlife is largely affected because their natural habitat dies along with the forest. This would mean that they will have no food to eat thus dying of hunger and losing their homes too. Acidity or alkalinity of a substance is determined on a PH scale. The lower the numbers on the PH scale the higher the acidity. This is however different when it reaches the 7.0 mark meaning that the acidity is over and there is no alkalinity. 7.0 is usually the neutral point. It would be difficult to measure acid rain around the world when it occurs. Research has developed models to try and keep track of these changes around the world through developing various models. Maps and tables have used as examples of monitoring models. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide being easily dispersed by wind, pollution can be felt in areas where it is actually not being caused. In 1950, effects of acid rain were felt in Scandinavia thou this was coming from mostly northern Europe. This however hasn’t decreased with countries like Germany, UK, Norway and Sweden among others being the main polluters in Europe. It can be said that pollution from Natural causes is about 15% in Europe but the majority of it comes from man-made resources with so much of 50% from vehicles that end up producing nitrogen oxide. UK on the other hand contributes to 90% of the total acid rain experienced in Norway. According to a study carried out in 1995 it revealed that 13% of the forestation in the UK was dead. The major sources of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in the UK are transport which takes 44% and power stations that take 19%. To eliminate these, UK is using the cleaner technology to produce power, cleaner car engines and much cleaner fuels. North America produces sulfuric acid from industrial activities, sulfuric dioxide owing to too much use of cars hence their exhaustion and lots of nitric acid generated from nitrogen oxide. This inappropriate pollution has to the death of much aquatic life, infection of human beings with lung diseases as they breathe in so much of this air and spoiling the soil nutrient component leading to a reduction in agricultural produce sold in the markets. North America has however tried to curb this problem by lowering the amount of coal and oil they use in energy production as well as trying to see alternative methods of energy production that do not use sulfur. They have also introduced control measures by increasing prices in gas so as to discourage people from driving a lot. They have also introduced the leakage pipe system in industrial firms as to ensure that much of these refuse substances are well disposed off or reused in making different products. Industries have indeed come up with methods of controlling this air pollution. They have come up with methods of cleaning sulfur before it is used in energy productions as to reduce its effect after combustion. They have also come up with the post combustion method where sulfur is totally removed by use of limestone leaving the rest of the gases clean. Through this method they have been able to produce flue gases that can be used for lighting up the house saving also on production of too much sulfur. Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide are easily transportable by wind making it easy to affect other countries. A branch of the United Nations has to it that countries do come together and discuss ways of this kind of effects being brought about by air pollution. The countries involved have however deiced to reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide they are producing and nitrogen oxide. Countries have also agreed to look for ways to clean up sulfur before combustion and after combustion giving them flue gas that could be used in household just like electricity. They have also come up strategic plans of getting alternative ways of electricity like wind energy. Works Cited Agrawal, Anita Singh and Madhoolika. "Acid rain and its ecological consequences." Journal of Environmental Biology (January 2008 ): 29(1) 15-24 . Donald H. DeHayes, Paul G. Schaberg, Gary J. Hawley and G. Richard Strimbeck. "Acid Rain Impacts on Calcium Nutrition and Forest Health." Oxford Journals Bioscience (1999): Volume 49, Issue 10Pp. 789-800. Fredric C. Menz, Hans M. Seip,. 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