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By Nacho Alonso
Human activities are the main cause of acid rain. Over the past few decades, humans have released so many different chemicals into the air that they have changed the mix of gases in the atmosphere. Power plants release the amount of sulphur dioxide and a lot of the nitrogen oxsides when they burn fossil fuels, such as coal to produce electricity. Also cars, buses, trucks... release a small amount of nitrogen oxidesinto the air, so that´s what causes aid rain.
The chemicals in acid rain have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, lakes and can cause paint to peel, corrosion of steel structures such as bridges, and erosion of stone statues.
Governments have made efforts since the 1970s to reduce the release of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere with good results. Nitrogen oxides can also be produced by lightning strikes and also when sulphur dioxide is produced when volcanos erupt but that might not be very often.
One of the things that we can do to prevent acid rain is to conserve energy by:
Turn off all electronic objects that you are not using and to try to limit the use of aircond.
Another solution is to equipt coal burning power plants with scrubber technology by placing the scrubbers in smoke stacks and force the sulphur smoke over alkaline particles such as lime.
The smoke stacks produce high amount of smoke into the atmosphere that gases in the smoke are changing the clouds to form acid rain.
An easier way of doing it is to stop burning high sulphur coal because coal with less sulphur, releases less sulphur dioxide
The 18th-century famous Trevi fountain a symbol of Rome,had a serious restoration, and was fully wrapped in a long glass screen that stands more than six feet tall.
Repairing the Trevi fountain is estimated to cost $1 million, which will be paid by an insurance company and not the city government. The municipality, has millions of dollars that can be used for restoration of monuments, for the most part involving less-known monuments and some public buildings.
But it doesn´t matter how much work is done, keeping all the monuments in Rome in shape remains a very difficult task. Even a casual stroll through the city reveals that it will be immposible to restore all the marble columns that have been changed or unshaped because of acid rain, and evem cathedrals and monumens have beein afected by acid rain.
So bad is the situation that it has produced a very big verbal fistfight over what to do with the statue of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Some people say it makes no sense to put Marcus Aurelius out in the open steets when Rome's pollution will only cause him to wither again. Alessandra Melucco Vaccaro, who directed the restoration project, said that they could make a copy of the statue and leave it on the streets while the original copy could be stored safely in a museum so everybody could see it.
But could this be done for all ancient monuments that have being affected by acid rain...?????????
Enviromental benefits
Acid rain causes lakes and streams and contributes to damaging trees and many other sensitive forest soils.
In addition, acid rain can also accelerate the decay of building materials and paints, including irreplaceable buildings, statues, and sculptures that are part of the nation's cultural heritage. Before falling to the earth, SO2 and NOx gases contribute to less visibility and can also impact public health.
The Acid Rain Program confers significant benefits on the nation. By reducing SO2 and NOx, many acidic lakes and streams will eventually improve so that they can fish life. Visibility will improve, allowing the increased enjoyment of nice views, particularly in National Parks. Deterioration of our historic buildings and monuments will be slowed. And most importantly, the reductions of SO2 and NOx will be reduced , leading to improvements in public health.
Acid deposition infiltrates deeply into the fabric of an ecosystem, changing the chemistry of the soil and streams and making the space where certain plants and animals can survive very small . Because there are a lot of changes, it takes many years for the ecosystems to recover from acid rain deposition, even after emissions are reduced and the pH of acid rain is back to neutral (pH of 7). For example, while the visibility might improve within some days, and small chemical changes in streams improves within months, while acidic lakes, streams, forests and soils can take up years or decades, or even centuries to heal.
However, there are some things that people can do to bring back lakes and streams more quickly. Limestone (a naturally basic compound) can be added into acidic lakes to “cancel out” the acidity so the pH is neutral. This process, called liming, has been used a lot in Norway and Sweden but is not used very often in the United States. Liming is a very expensive method and it has to be done many times to keep the water from returning to acidic conditions and is considered a short-term remedy in only specific areas, rather than an effort to reduce or prevent pollution. However, liming does often permit the fishes to remain in the water, allowing the native population to survive in place until the emission reductions decrease the amount of acid deposition in the area.
Reference List
Acid Rain Program." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/progsregs/arp/basic.html>.
EPA. Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/education/site_students/whatcauses.html>.
The New York Times. The New York Times. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/03/world/rome-journal-how-is-marcus-aurelius-as-right-as-acid-rain.html?pagewanted=all>.
"Reducing Acid Rain." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/reducing/index.html>.
"Acid Rain." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Feb. 2012. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain>.
Britannica. "Coal Combustion and Acid Rain." YouTube. YouTube, 22 May 2009. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE6Y0iEuXMQ>.