I think we've all heard the term acid rain before. It's thrown around a fair bit in everyday conversation. What's not talked about so often however, is the true causes and affects that acid rain has. This real force of devastation, which is still as prevalent of a problem today, has been known to destroy many an ecosystem, and if it continues to get worse, possibly even entire biomes. Acid rain can have a much more drastic effect on our environment than we may realize, so it's time to discuss in depth what the causes and possible effects of acid rain are so we can begin to develop solutions for the future. Let's begin by talking about what exactly acid rain is in the first place.
What is acid rain?
Acid rain, as defined by National Geographic is, "any form of precipitation with high levels of nitric and sulfuric acids." Essentially, it is any rain that is acidic, or that has a high concentration of hydrogen ions. Now, although the name is acid rain, the term encompasses a broad spectrum of different precipitations, which can be either wet or dry. The term acid rain includes not only rain, but also snow, fog, hail, or even dust that might be acidic. Essentially, anything that can be acidic and has an effect on the ecosystems around it can be considered an acid rain.
How is it caused?
Put simply, acid rain is mostly caused by humans. While occasionally it can be caused by rotting vegetation or erupting volcanoes, like most environmental problems acid rain is made exponentially worse by human activities. Essentially, acid rain is caused when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are released into the atmosphere. When released, these chemicals react with water, oxygen, and others substances to form small doses of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. Eventually, these acids accumulate, and can change the pH (or acidity) of the rain.
But how is this sulfur and nitrogen released into the atmosphere in the first place? Well, as mentioned before, it CAN occur through rotting vegetation or erupting volcanoes. However, these two factors play a fairly small role; the majority of these releases are caused by human activities, specifically the burning of fossil fuels. When these fossil fuels are broken down for energy, their burning releases both the sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere. While this wouldn't be a problem in small quantities, we all know that we aren't quite burning fossil fuels at a slow rate.
Effects
Now, this could happen all it wants as long as it doesn't effect the environment or us. But, sadly to say, acid rain has some extremely important and negative effects on both us and the environment. These effects are extremely hard to reverse once they have taken affect, and have already started to hurt many of the ecosystems around the world. To start, let's take a look at some of the effects acid rain has on the environment.
Effects on the Environment
If you don't know, all organisms on Earth, including humans, plants, and animals, require a certain pH, or level of acidity, in order to survive and function at their best. If this pH gets too high, or even too low, we start to see extreme effects in terms of that organism's performance. So, when I say that acid rain is actively changing the pH of many organisms around the world, we should be worried. But how exactly does this happen? Well, when acid rain falls to the ground (in any one of its many forms) it does one of two things:
1. It flows off the ground as runoff and into lakes or streams- this is really bad, because as mentioned before every organism requires a certain level of acidity to survive. When this acid rain enters lakes and streams in large quantities, it can make the water drastically more acidic. This means that the fish and other organisms in the water, who are used to a certain pH, experience disruptions in reproduction and overall function, which could even lead to death. Some organisms are more protected against these changes, but for the ones that aren't (which are most organisms) their populations drop. This results in broken ecosystems across the globe.
2. It is absorbed into the soil it falls on- this is equally as bad, because as the acid rain dissolves into the soil, it makes the soil itself more acidic. This means that trees and plants in the area (which also need a specific amount of acidity to survive) begin to die off. Additionally, acid rain releases aluminum into the soil it comes into contact with, making it hard for trees to take up water. As more and more of this acid rain falls, whole forests can disappear.
Effects on Humanity
While acid rain may not effect humanity directly, in the long run it may have serious consequences for our species. As the soil, lakes, and rivers around us become more acidic, the wildlife within them die off. And where does the majority of our population's food come from? Our forests, oceans, and lakes. So, as the amount of animals decreases, so does the amount of food for us. Our populations are already short on food, so losing more and more as the years go on doesn't bode well for us. As ecosystems collapse, forests disappear, and lakes become more acidic, we may quickly find ourselves running out of food.
Conclusion
That is, of course, unless we do something about it. Acid rain CAN be stopped, and most certainly can be fixed. But we all need to participate in these solutions if we hope to create a brighter, wildlife-filled future. Implementing solutions to acid rain, and in turn restoring the acidity levels of nearby ecosystems, will ensure that the environments around us, and in turn humans, will continue to prosper for many years to come. But what, I know you're thinking, are these solutions? Well, I don't have enough space to talk about them here, so you can either: visit the links provided down below for some information on them, or wait until next week as I will be discussing the topic in depth then. But until then, thanks for reading.
All credit for information used in this post goes to:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/acid-rain/
https://www.epa.gov/acidrain
https://www.epa.gov/acidrain/what-acid-rain
https://www.thoughtco.com/acid-rain-definition-1434936
https://water.usgs.gov/edu/acidrain.html
Images:
https://catholicecology.net/blog/more-b16-germany-human-ecology-and-acid-rain
https://seldonville.wordpress.com/
http://memeaddicts.com/trending/acid-rain
http://imgarcade.com/sulfuric-acid-model.html
http://imgarcade.com/burning-of-fossil-fuels.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thumbs_down_red.svg
http://appsdirectories.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_runoff
http://www.theresiliencyinstitute.net/events/16/introduction-to-soil-101/
https://openclipart.org/detail/129703/nofooddrink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YL-Dh0bpl4
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