Acid Rain

We all have heard at the term acid rain, but what does it mean? Is it real? where does is come from? Well today I am here to discuss that.

What’s acid rain? It may sound like it came from a sci fi movie, but actually acid rain is when the rain’s PH level is higher than a base level. We know that clouds are made up of water and loom over the sky, but when gases from the earth below like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide chemically reacts with water and oxygen with the clouds forming acid. And all those gases come back to us in a form of rain, acid rain, which is obviously not safe for the environment and us. There are two types of acid rains, the one which is with water is wet deposition and the acid rain that is with dust or gases is called dry deposition. Acid rain can also come n hail or snow so don’t let your kids eat snow if they get the chance

Now how is acid rain formed now we now that toxic chemicals mix with water to make the acid where did these chemicals come from, there is two ways the natural way and the human activates. The natural way is when plants die they let out chemicals or when volcanos erupt they let out a huge swarm of chemicals and gases, for the human activities which is mostly the main cause for acid rain. Human activities have been the most contributor to acid rain, from pollution, cutting trees, factories, and burning of fossil fuels.

So here a little shocker for you, normal rain is already acidic, normal rain has a PH of 5.0 to 5.5 which is slightly acidic, but when you add in burning fossil fuel the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide mixes with rain, it makes a PH of 3.0 to 4.0 which is more acidic. There are dangerous consequences from acid rain, acid rain breaks down forests, oceans, lakes, soil, and animals. How? you may ask, well when the toxic rain hits oceans and lakes the PH scale will change making animals and other lifeforms to leave or die, every animal has a different PH tolerance some can handle a PH range of 6 – 9 some can’t handle even the slightest change.

Plants and forests will all break down and die, forcing animals to leave and causing more sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide to appear leading to more acid rain. The soil is also heavily affected by the rain, with the rain killing the trees and plants the soil will no longer have nutrients and is too unhealthy to even try planting on the soil again. Even architecture is affected by acid rain, especially garden statues or benches, marble corrodes under acid rain so art is also getting the effects of acid rain.

We can make acid rain stop appearing often by, lowering our pollution by getting more energy friendly cars, stop supporting bad factories, join groups and organizations that help with the prevention of acid rain. Scientist have been finding better ways to lessen the acidic levels and different solutions to fix it.