It's quiet here among the haunted tenses:
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 as 'acid rain."
This paper presents a broad overview of acid rain as an environmental problem. Specifically, the paper presents a discussion of the nature of acid rain, its causes, its effects, and the techniques and methods that can be used to correct the problem. The paper ends with a series of conclusions about acid rain that are formulated based on the material that is reviewed.
The term 'acid rain' is associated with acids that fall from the atmosphere; however, as noted by Singh an...