Term paper on Acid Rain

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The Acid Rain Pain

With scientists and so-called “experts” on the environment disagreeing on so many issues, it is easy for the public to be lost in the fray of what is truth and what is media hype. Though the term “acid rain” has been present in our society since the early 1970’s, many people are not exactly clear on what it is what causes it, and the detrimental effects acid rain has on our environment. More confusing than all of the facts and scientific theories surrounding acid rain is the development of a suitable solution to reduce air pollution, which in turn leads to acid rain. Many experts do not agree that acid rain has in fact been caused by man made pollution because of the fact that rain is naturally acidic. This widespread disagreement delayed international action to reduce pollution for some time. However, with the coming of the 1970’s an awareness of acid rain spread, and with that awareness, possible solutions were proposed. These solutions involved making environmental changes on the international, industrial, and personal levels.

Just how does acid rain form, and what consequences does it pose to our environment? There are numerous theories as to the cause of acid rain. However, the most prevalent is the theory that electric generating plants, heating plants, and other industrial plants have been emitting an excess amount of sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic chemicals (VOC’s) into the atmosphere. Once these chemicals are in the air, they react with water to form acids and fall back to the earth as precipitation. People who believe acid rain is a natural phenomenon do so because of the fact that carbon dioxide in the air combines with water vapor and produces carbonic acid (Bolch 95).

There are several environmental risks that come with acid rain. One of these is the acidification of lakes, resulting in the lakes’ inability to sustain the aquatic life. In fact, Norway reported that 18,000 out of 85,000 of their lakes were acidified, and more than half of their fish population has disappeared (Brunee 23). Ground water can also become more acidic because of the way acid rain depletes the natural buffer system of the soil. Studies done in the early ‘70’s indicate immense damage done to the forests, especially in Eastern Europe and in Germany. A sort of “tree disease” has been destroying a large percentage of the coniferous trees. The effect of acid rain on wildlife could include the contamination of the entire food chain by causing heavy metal accumulation in aquatic life. The effects that acid rain has on humans has not been effectively studied. However, scientists believe that occurrences of respiratory diseases such as asthma may be on the rise. Acid rain is also causing many historical buildings around the world to erode and decay at an increasingly higher rate.

Since the early 1970’s, many efforts have been made to reduce the air pollution that causes acid rain. The United States government passed the first Clean Air Act in 1972. This act established standards of air quality in order to protect public health. It also required states to submit plans for attainment of these standards. The second Clean Air Act passed in1990 took regulation of air pollutant emissions a step further. It called for a further reduction in car tailpipe emissions, as well as mandating the development of cleaner fuels to be used in metropolitan areas. It listed 189 specific toxic chemicals to be regulated as hazardous air pollutants, as well as establishing a new permitting program for stationary sites of industrial air pollution. These sources of air pollution were now required to have an EPA-issued operating permit that specified allowable emissions (Kraft 87). These governmental controls have

effectively reduced air pollution in our country, but at what cost? Writer, Michael E. Kraft asks the question that burns in many of our minds. “How clean is clean enough? How safe is safe enough, considering available technology and costs?” Initiatives to help meet proposed air quality standards are extremely costly, and they impose substantial burdens on the state and local government. The level of spending on air pollution control in 1972 was $8 billion. By 1990 that figure has risen to $30 billion (Meiners 5). Many experts doubt that money was spent wisely by the government, and claim that the same amount of reduction in air pollution could have been attained using half of the money spent if the government was more efficient.

Obviously the U.S. government has taken a stand against pollution, and has paid the extremely high financial costs. Many people are quick to point the environmental finger at less developed countries and ask why they are not going to such measures to reduce their own pollution. Like many other things, this too comes down to money. There is a drastic inequality among the rich and the poor nations. This has a...