Acid rain Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Acid rain - Research Paper Example It appears to change the characteristics of the environment on a planetary scale; therefore, the global ecological crisis is dangerous to the world’s population. Dealing with global environmental crisis is complicated due to the fact that it requires the cooperative actions of the whole world, rather than the individual actions of the certain country or population group. It needs to minimize the pollution produced by mankind to the levels that the nature can cope with it on its own. Currently, the global environmental crisis consists of two main components: acid rain, the greenhouse effect, pollution with super toxicants, and the ozone holes. In the current paper we are going to discuss the phenomenon of acid rain and its effects on nature and humanity. The term â€Å"acid rain† was introduced by Robert Smith, English engineer, in his book Air and Rain: The Beginning of a Chemical Climatology (1872) (Myers 267). Acid rains containing solutes of sulfuric and nitric acids cause serious damage to nature, because soil, water, vegetation, animals, and people become their victims. Gases that are released by burning of fossil fuels, among others, are composed from dioxins of sulfur and nitrogen. Depending on the composition of a certain fuel there may be more or less of these dioxins. Fuel oil and sour coal provide the most saturated sulfur dioxide emissions. Tons of sulfur dioxide emitted into the atmosphere resulting from chemical reactions turn into weak acid solution. In the internal combustion engines and boiler systems, nitrogen and oxygen under high temperatures form the nitrogen oxides. In this respect, energy production is accompanied by oxidation of the environment. Emissions are dispersed over vast areas due to the heigh t of the power plant pipes (Granier, Artaxo, and Reeves 54). The acidity of the water solution is determined by the presence of positively charged hydrogen ions H+ in it and