Acid Rain in America: Broad Overview as as Environmental Problem

Dread Swiss germs pass the rabbit's throat,

Chemical rain in its brave green hat

Peter Porter (1929 - )

Acid rain is any form of precipitation that is measurably more acidic than normal rain (Chestnut & Mills, 2005). In order to fully understand acid rain, some basic chemistry is in order. In this regard, it is important to realize that, chemically, an acid is a substance that gives off hydrogen ions, while a base is a substance that gives off hydroxyl ions (Timberlake, 2008). The acidity of any solution is measured using a pH scale with the pH being an expression of the concentration of hydrogen ions in a given solution (Zumdahl & Zumdahl, 2006).

The pH scale ranges from 1 to 14 points. If a given substance has a pH below 7, the substance is said to be basic and if it has a pH above 7, the substance is said to be acidic. A pH of 7 is termed 'neutral' which means that the substance is neither basic or acidic.

Zumdahl and Zumdahl (2006) report that distilled water has a PH of 7, which is a neutral pH. Water that is considered 'clean' and safe to drink and use has a pH around 5.6. However, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (2008) reports that in some cases, water is much higher than 5.6 in its pH level and therefore is high in acidity; when this occurs in rain, snow, fog, or dew, it is referred to as "acid precipitation" or more commonly

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by acid rain, the economic livelihood of those who gather and process these foods is depressed. Furthermore, those people who eat food sources that have been affected by acid rain (e.g., fish with high levels of mercury) can experience health problems. Acid rain also affects the water and the air, leading to increases in certain illnesses and/or bouts of chronic illnesses such as asthma. So far, the effects discussed have been on living things, but acid rain also negatively affects structures such as buildings, homes, and bridges. It operates to peel away paint and the color of certain structures, even doing so to great buildings like the Taj Mahal. Indeed, Kahl and Berg (2006) report that acid rain is destroying the cultural heritage of Mesoamerica. Specifically, the authors report that: Just as water dissolves an Alka-Seltzer tablet, acid rain erodes the limestone surfaces of Mexican archaeological sites at a rate of about one-half millimeter per century... A half-millimeter may not seem like much, but at this pace, a few centuries of acid rain is sufficient to destroy paintings, frescoes, and other fine detail in ancient art and architecture. (p. 134) Resolving the Problem of Acid Rain There
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Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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