One of the most serious consequences of air pollution is acid rain. It is a serious environmental problem caused by human industrial activities. Although many movies you can see the disasters caused by this phenomenon, because people do not know How is acid rain produced.
Therefore, we are going to dedicate this article to tell you how acid rain occurs and what its consequences are.
Key features
This type of precipitation is related to atmospheric pollution because it is formed by the interaction of air humidity with sulfur dioxide, sulfur trioxide and other nitrogen oxides present in the atmosphere. The concentration of these gases increases with human activities. Otherwise, acid rain will occur under certain special circumstances, such as smoke released during a volcanic eruption.
These gases come from products such as oil, some wastes, factory smoke, and vehicle traffic. This phenomenon has become a problem on earth due to its increasing frequency. It causes damage to natural elements and human artificial infrastructure.
How is acid rain produced
To know why it has a negative impact on these natural and man-made elements, we must understand how acid rain is produced. In relation to acid rain, it can be said that the direct cause of environmental pollution is human activities such as the operations of factories, public places and home heating, power plants, vehicles and other activities.
It is generally believed that when we talk about the consequences of acid rain, we believe that we are not the cause of this phenomenon. In fact, the amount of industrial emissions to the atmosphere is different from the amount of emissions emitted by a specific person. However, it is also true that there are more people in the world than industries.
This makes us rethink whether these effects are really caused by the action of everything as a whole. Remember, this phenomenon contains carbon dioxide, which can be snow, ice, and fog. In the case of fog, it is called acid fog and it can also cause health risks if you breathe.
All of this makes the water a bit acidic. The pH of rainwater is usually 5,6, but the pH of acid rain is usually 5 or even 3 if it is very acidic.. To form it, the water contained in the air comes into contact with the mixture of gases that we mentioned earlier. It is these gases that together with water produce sulfuric acid, which makes rainwater more acidic. Two other acids are also formed, such as sulfurous acid and nitric acid. When this more acidic water falls, it begins to destroy the environment it is in.
Consequences for humans and the environment
Now we will take a closer look at what happens when acid rain begins to fall. It falls on land, water, forests, buildings, vehicles, people, etc. With this, we can already say that the environment as a whole has deteriorated.
The pollutants emitted by the burning of petroleum products not only pollute the area where they are produced, but can also travel long distances with the wind, up to thousands of kilometers. Before combining with moisture, it becomes acidic and falls as precipitation. Although it is called acid rain, this precipitation can occur in the form of snow, hail, or fog. All this tells us that the formation of acid rain can occur in one part of the world and fall in another place.
The fact that a country that does not pollute has to suffer the consequences of another that does, is what that country does not have to allow. More than anything, because these are the consequences of acid rain and what countries that are not to blame for the emissions of others will suffer:
- Water acidification: It is an effect on the environment that causes serious damage to all biodiversity both in the quantum and terrestrial fields. Both flora and fauna are affected and the water is no longer drinkable. All this leads to an increase in subsequent treatments and an increase in the cost of drinking water.
- Causes serious damage to vegetation: all forest areas and jungles are damaged at the level of flora and fauna.
- Keep in mind that during the acid rain process mixes some chemical components with others already present in the soil. This fact ends up impoverishing the soil of nutrients. The main sequence of this is that many plants die and the animals that sustain themselves on these plants end up dying due to the effect of the trophic chain.
- Destroy the life of all microorganisms that are responsible for fixing nitrogen. This causes more nitrogen in the environment.
- It damages all artificial surfaces made by man, creating a corrosive effect in the long run on materials such as wood, plastic and stone. You just have to see that many statues and monuments have been seriously damaged by the frequent fall of acid rain in contaminated places.
- The acids present in the rain also cause an increase in the greenhouse effect.
Solutions to acid rain
Given these consequences, there are some possible solutions such as the following:
- Reduces the levels of sulfur nitrogen emissions in factories, vehicles, heating, etc.
- Increase in renewable energies and improve the performance of technologies to reduce emissions to the atmosphere.
- Increase consumption of public transport to reduce the use of the private vehicle.
- Reduction of electricity consumption in homes
- Reduction of the use of chemical substances for crops and agriculture.
- Plant more trees
- Educate the entire population to incorporate better life habits that are less polluting.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about how acid rain occurs and what its consequences are.