Acid Deposition

Acid deposition (in forms of rain, mist and fog) is a world-wide environmental concern. It doesn’t matter the pollutants originate, because the weather can bring it to neighboring countries.







Acid deposition is comprised of 70% sulfuric acid and 30% nitric acid. Sulfuric acid comes mostly from power stations, car exhausts, melting processes and home fires. Nitric acid is mainly a result of fossil fuels.




Acid deposition can have many negative environmental impacts, including, but not limited to:




· Choking plant leave pores
· Corroding stone and brick walls on monuments and buildings
· Corroding paper and rubber objects
· Altering soil chemistry (which decreases the amount of soil nutrients)
· Altering the chemical balance of lakes and streams (which can affect the ecosystems and drinking water)
· Cause difficulty for mammals to breathe.




Luckily, the world-wide community has recognized acid deposition as a serious enough problem, where action has been taken to minimize the damage. The Sulfur Emissions Reduction Protocol was enacted in 1979, and the Convention on Long-Range Trans-boundary Air Pollution was conducted in 1983.




As a fourth grade teacher, I can do lessons on cause and effect as it pertains to acid deposition. The word “deposition” is a good vocabulary word, meaning “where something is left”. Children can quickly understand that when noxious gasses enter the atmosphere from a particular smoke stack, the polluted air will travel. The air itself doesn’t care where it goes. By educating our young people on these dangers (especially if we focus on the bullet points above) they can begin to work on developing ways to solve some of these problems when they are older.




As a society, we have begun to address some of these causes of acid deposition. The president talks about lessening our dependency on fossil fuels. There are more electric cars on the road, although there is still work to be done to improve them. Personally, I don’t have a fireplace, and I know people who have them love them, but they should think twice about releasing the pollution into the air.




Source:

www.lenntech.com