Acid Rain Essay

INTRODUCTION

Acid rain or also known as acid deposition are divided into two that is wet deposition and dry deposition. Wet deposition is what always be called as acid rain. Acid rain is a term that any form of precipitation with acidic component, such as sulphuric or nitric acid. Example of acid rain form were rain, snow, fog, hail or even dust that is acidic.

Acid rain occur when sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are emitted into the atmosphere and transported by wind and air currents. It will react with water, oxygen and other chemicals to form sulphuric and nitric acid. Small amount of SO2 and NOX that cause acid rain is from natural sources such as volcanoes and the major sources in the atmosphere are burning of fossil duels, smoke from vehicle and heavy equipment and also manufacturing, oil refineries and other industries.

Primary contributor acid rain and local air quality in China is emission of SO2 from coal combustion. Coal is the main source of energy in China and a primary source of air pollution. According to Larssen, Seip, Semb et al., (1999) mention that coal produce more than ¾ of the commercial energy production and is surely that coal will remain the major energy carrier in the next decades.

Other than human health problems, acid rain has been known as an environmental threat to China agricultural

The first impact of the acid rain is on the ecosystems. The trees do not grow as rapid as how they grew over the last few years back then. This is worrying much since forest gives many benefits to humans. Acid rain do not actually destroy trees in instant. But instead, it weakens the trees by giving harms to the leaves, not giving sufficient amount of nutrients to the trees or poisoning them with toxic substances. There were not so many destruction of forest in large cities, but in smaller areas such as near the cities and industrial areas had increased