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Acid Rain and its Problems
Acid rain started as a rare type of destructional rain, but the amounts have increased and are higher than ever recorded on Earth. There are different types of acid rain which can cause different types of damage to the environment and the living habits of people in the area. Acid rain could also cause spreading damage, meaning that places that acid rain has not rained upon could still be damaged. There are reasons for these rains happening, and there is also a solution to prevent it.
Acid rain can destroy structures made by humans and has a possibility of killing the environment around it. Without any types of mixtures of acid rain, it is still powerful to give a melting effect to the statues and buildings. The minerals that the rain can contain are mixed, as they fall onto a statue, it will simply start to deformalize the statue. As an example, the nose of a person on a statue, will just dampen and disappear. As a main example I will use China, which is the third most affected region in the world. In 2016 China already had acid rains but at around 2019 the type of the acid rain changed. The acid rain switched from sulfuric acid rain to nitric. This is due to the regulation of Sulfur Dioxide. China has done many moves to improve air quality, and pollution in their cities in general, but acid rain remains as a challenging topic for China. Many studies have shown SO2 (Sulfur dioxide) in their rain (Liu).
As a result, the acid rain in China doesn’t just alone cause the damage of buildings, cars, but also damage the environment out of the city, mostly the forest ecosystem. Acid rain can litter the ground in which the trees feed on. Acid rain falls on the trees which causes no damage but when it falls from the leaves of the trees, it goes into the soil. The acid that goes into the soil can kill nutrients, and cause harmful effects, such as having Aluminum in the soil. With the trees not getting the minerals and the nutrients they need leaves them exposed to diseases, insects. Then the trees are weak so that even simple weather could kill them, such as small winds, and storms. If the trees do not die, they will have a slow growing process and be behind the other healthy trees. Slowly growing process is bad, because if all the surrounding trees get higher, they will reach sunlight. The trees will also become thicker, which will block the sunlight for the slower trees.
Another problematic factor on the environmental side is the lakes. As these acid rains mostly hurt the trees that are at high elevation, the water falls into their soil. This is a problem since when the rivers from the mountains flow down into a lake, acid will come down with the water, and now the lake will have substances containing minerals that are not good for fish and marine life. This is most likely to kill most fish, since fish need clean environment, and it is hard for them to adapt fast. (Batema)
As for solutions, first, the most ecofriendly energy sources should be used such as solar, wind, and water energy. This will help reduce air pollution and therefore decrease the amounts of acid rain in the region or area. Most of the acid rain is caused by industrial movement, meaning if humanity can decrease the pollution that the industries give, they can reduce the acid rain by high amounts.
If acid rain is reduced, many trees and marine life will be saved, this will help the environment. On the other hand, if acid rain can be reduced, materials can be saved, due to the smaller need for repairs of buildings and statues. Hopefully the reduction will soon happen.
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