Acid rain devastates human habitats

Acid rain is caused by a combination of non-metallic oxides and water. Naturally available water, oxides emitted from human activity, especially the use of fossil fuels. And that results in rains filled with acid.

The main causes are nitrogen oxides (N ₂ O, N ₂ O 3, N ₂ O ₄ .) and sulfur oxides (SO, SO ₂ , SO ₃ ). These types of oxides form the most powerful acids, nitric acid (HNO3), and sulfuric acid (H ₂ SO ₄ ). In addition, there are a number of reasons for the natural acid rain phenomenon such as volcanic eruptions, or fires .

However, the main cause still comes from human activities. Only in 1977, the United States discharged into the atmosphere of 31 million tons of sulfur oxide and 22 million tons of nitrous oxide. This means about 500 kg / 1 person.

80% of sulfur oxide is due to the operation of energy generating devices, 15% is due to the combustion activity of various industries, and 5% from other sources. As for nitrous oxide, 1/3 is due to the operation of energy generators, another 1/3 is due to burning fuel to convert into energy and the rest is also due to different sources.

Acid rain is particularly dangerous to the environment. Sometimes, even snow can be acid, and snowflakes can even be blackened. When these snowflakes melt, the water produced from there is 10 times more acidic than regular acid rain. The first acid rain was shown in the 1950s in Norway. Scientists were then challenged by the phenomenon of degenerating fish species in Norwegian lakes.

Neighboring Sweden, 4,000 lakes have no fish; 9,000 lakes lost a large part of the living fish, while another 20,000 lakes were also affected by acid rain.

A Czech pine forest is destroyed by acid rain.
(Photo taken in July 2006, according to PD)

Researchers found that the acidic oxides in Scandinavia were released by the heavy industry in England, especially factories in Sheffield and Birmingham, and also in the Ruhr industrial region of Germany.

These clouds bring oxide compounds to the mountains of Scandinavia, and here the rain will bring them back to the ground. Every year there are 56,000 tons of sulfur oxide by rain infiltrating into the ground of Norway, and 75% of them are ' imported ' in the above manner.

In the United Kingdom, acid rain is the same as in Scandinavia, and acid rains mostly occur in Perth (Scotland): acidity is 500 times higher than natural acid.

The marble surface that is exposed to the day's rain becomes rough because the calcite (CaCO ₃ ) dissolves in the rain. This is the detail on the main column of the American Presidential memorial called Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC, USA. (according to Softpedia News)

He smoked copper and nickel plating plants in the Canadian city of Sudbury with a height of over 400m discharging 1% of sulfur into the Earth's atmosphere. Fish species are destroyed by acid rain that destroys their food sources, plants and the next generation. And without fish, birds and mammals are also extinct.

Acid rain also kills forests. They completely wash away nutrients and beneficial microorganisms. Acid rain also weakens the resistance of plants, is susceptible to diseases and parasites . Pine trees are particularly sensitive to acid rain.

More than half of the forests of western Germany are in varying degrees of destruction and the value of the trees destroyed by acid rain is estimated at $ 800 million annually.

In 1984, Switzerland lost about 12 million trees (14% of the country's forest area), while the area of ​​forest destroyed by acid rain in the Netherlands was 40%. And human works are also affected by acid rain: cement, concrete, lime, marble, metal, basalt and granite . and the damage is not small.

In London, acid rain is severely devastating stone art works from the 18th and 19th centuries, such as the British Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Saint Paul's Church.

Human health is also greatly affected by acid rain. They make the human respiratory organs more vulnerable, cause lung diseases, and make patients' illnesses worse.

Manh Duc