Acid rain, a chemical that can damage various building materials, can lead to structural damage and aesthetic degradation over time. The pH scale measures the corrosive power of acids, with smaller numbers indicating stronger acids. Acid rain affects plants, soil, trees, buildings, and even statues, and can transform plants, soil, trees, and buildings.
The dry deposition of acidic particles contributes to the corrosion of metals like bronze and the deterioration of paint and stone. Acid rain can dissolve more soluble elements from the soil, such as aluminum, which can accumulate and reach toxic levels as it enters local environments. Acid deposits damage physical structures such as limestone buildings and cars, and when it takes the form of inhalable fog, acid precipitation can cause health issues.
Acid rain forms when pollution from power plants, factories, and cars releases pollutants into the atmosphere, which contains chemicals known as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. These chemicals can fall directly to the earth when acid rain and dry acidic particles fall to Earth. The acidic particles corrode metal and cause paint and stone to deteriorate more quickly.
Most structures and buildings are affected by acid deposition to some degree, as few materials are safe from these effects. Acid rain can also corrode bronze and other metals, such as nickel, zinc, copper, and carbon-steel, as evidenced by streaks and discoloration on bridges.
Acid rain can cause significant damage to infrastructure and buildings, leading to corrosion and structural weakening. When sulfurous, sulfuric, and nitric acids in polluted air and rain react with the calcite in marble and limestone, the calcite dissolves. Acid rain can change calcium carbonate into calcium sulphate, a more soluble salt that grows within the pores of stone. An acid species deposited on a building surface can attack the material in various ways.
📹 Effects of Acid Rain on Monuments and Buildings
Can acid rain erode concrete?
Acid rain has been observed to erode concrete, producing gypsum and calcium alumina. Chen et al. observed the microscopic morphology of cement paste samples soaked in simulated acid rain at pH 2. This study highlights the importance of understanding the effects of acid rain on concrete and its potential applications in AI training and text and data mining.
What buildings are ruined by acid rain?
The phenomenon of acid deposition has resulted in considerable deterioration of a number of globally renowned structures, including the Taj Mahal, Cologne Cathedral, Notre Dame, the Colosseum, and Westminster Abbey.
What building material is damaged by acid rain?
The phenomenon of acid deposition has been observed to exert a detrimental impact on human-made structures, particularly those composed of marble and limestone, which are commonly utilized in the construction of historic edifices. The reaction of sulfur dioxide, a precursor to acid rain, with limestone results in the formation of gypsum, which can flake off or dissolve in water. Furthermore, acid rain can dissolve limestone and marble through direct contact.
How does acid rain affect the buildings?
Acid precipitation from polluted air and rain reacts with calcite in marble and limestone, causing calcite to dissolve. This results in roughened surfaces, removal of material, and loss of carved details in exposed areas of buildings and statues. Surrounded areas of stone buildings and monuments show blackened crusts, primarily composed of gypsum, a mineral formed from the reaction between calcite, water, and sulfuric acid.
Gypsum is soluble in water and is usually washed away, remaining only on protected surfaces not directly washed by rain. The National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) highlights the importance of protecting stone surfaces from acid precipitation.
What are the effects of acid rain on material damage?
Acid rain can cause damage to a variety of structures and artifacts, including buildings, statues, monuments, and vehicles. The corrosive nature of acid rain can lead to the deterioration of painted surfaces, causing peeling and discoloration, and can also erode the surface of stone statues, resulting in a worn appearance. This deterioration can significantly reduce the value and aesthetic appeal of these structures and artifacts. The chemical composition of acid rain is deleterious to human health and the environment.
How does acid rain affect steel structures?
Acid rain can corrode metals like bronze, nickel, zinc, copper, and carbon-steel, causing streaks and discoloration on bridges and other metal structures. The extent of the threat depends on the chemical makeup and interactions of a building’s materials. Limestone and marble, historically used due to their availability and workability, are particularly susceptible due to their calcite content, which can dissolve easily in acidic chemicals.
Modern buildings use granite, a silicate mineral, which resists acidic attacks from the atmosphere, and sandstone, another silica material. Stainless steel and aluminum are generally stronger, but all minerals, including those found in paint and road overlay, are affected to some degree.
What materials does acid rain not affect?
Modern buildings, such as granite and sandstone, are resistant to acidic attacks from the atmosphere, but all minerals, including those found in paint and road overlay, are affected. Historic buildings, such as London’s Westminster Abbey, the Colosseum in Rome, and India’s Taj Mahal, have shown signs of degradation due to atmospheric nitric and sulfuric acids.
Plant life and wildlife are also affected by acid rain. The pH of lake water can re-stabilize and maintain equilibrium when contaminated, but soil and trees can become irreparably harmed when their pH is disturbed. Soil contains naturally occurring mercury and aluminum, which are poisonous for plant life. However, acid rain destroys the environmental balance, making these naturally occurring chemical threats fatal. Plants and trees may die slowly due to nutrient starvation, oxygen deprivation, injured leaves, and damaged bark, making them vulnerable to mold, fungi, and wood-destroying insects.
How does rain damage buildings?
Water damage to windows can be identified by condensation buildup between glass panes, warping or bending of the frame, and peeling or flaking paint around the frame. Foundation damage can be caused by rising groundwater, leading to cracking and instability in older buildings. Basement flooding can result from excessive moisture, causing water intrusion into interior spaces, wetting insulation or drywall, and leading to mold growth. Structural damage can occur due to moisture from heavy rains, causing rot and deterioration in building materials, particularly wooden structures.
To prevent heavy rains from damaging your facility, routinely clean and maintain gutters and downspouts to ensure proper drainage. Consider consulting a local waterproofing company to seal cracks or gaps in your foundation to prevent water intrusion. Conduct regular inspections of your facility’s exterior and interior to catch potential issues before they become major problems. Clean storm drains and remove fallen leaves from all exterior areas, not just from landscaping.
Talk to a janitorial company to be proactive and report any issues, such as wet ceiling tiles or pools of water. Many janitorial companies can help with the initial water extraction effort. Develop a relationship with a trusted restoration company to address water damage and its negative effects, including mold.
How does acid rain affect buildings made of rock?
Acid rain and dry deposition of dust particles can cause damage to manmade structures, such as statues and buildings, due to the nitric and sulfuric acid they contain. These particles corrode metal, cause paint and stone to deteriorate more quickly, and dirty the surfaces of buildings and monuments. This damage can lead to increased maintenance costs, damaged materials that need repair or replacement, and loss of detail on statues, monuments, and tombstones.
Additionally, SO2 and NO X gases can transform into sulfate and nitrate particles, and some NO X can react with other pollutants to form ozone, making the air hazy and difficult to see through. This can negatively impact the enjoyment of national parks with scenic views.
What material is most affected by acid rain?
Acetic acid is responsible for the corrosion of 14 common building materials. The most susceptible to corrosion are travertine and marble, while glass, ceramic, granite, and porcelain are the least affected.
What are 3 effects of acid rain?
Acid rain has severe environmental impacts, including damage to trees, freshwaters, soils, and aquatic life. It also causes paint peeling, corrosion of steel structures, and weathering of stone buildings and sculptures. It also affects human health. Alternative energy sources like solar and wind power, nuclear power, hydropower, and geothermal energy are being used to reduce acid rain emissions. Acid rain also affects plant health by changing the pH of the land, affecting overall growth, and binding or dissolving essential soil minerals like nitrogen and phosphorus.
📹 Whatever happened to acid rain? – Joseph Goffman
Discover what causes acid rain, and how scientists were able to largely eliminate this major environmental threat. — In 1963 …
As a kid we were so afraid of acid rain… Never hear about it now. When I mentioned it to my kids they were gobsmacked and couldn’t believe it. The 100 (show on tv) had dealt with acid rain like what we feared would happen back in the 80z. I’m glad you made this vid. I didn’t have any answers for the kids about how come we don’t hear about it now.💚✌
There’s a fair amount of misinformation and conspiracy theories in the comments and I somewhat fault this article for not being explicit enough with the information. The cap and trade program was a huge success and the US reduced SO2 emissions by a whopping 95% between 1970 and 2020. The cap and trade program described in the article was retired because there were hardly any SO2 emissions left to regulate. The US emitted 31.2 millions of SO2 in 1970, in 2020 the US emitted 1.8 million tons. That is the reason why acid rain went away. Most of that reduction occurred during the cap and trade program. I am a little disappointed that the article did not go into the full details. Nitrous oxide(NOX) also took a similar reduction from 26.8M tons in 1970 to 7.9M tons in 2020. This regulation was considered a success because it allow producers to manage when they would upgrade to cleaner technology while still driving overall reductions. In the end the reductions occurred quicker than projected by the government schedule and it’s one of the few government programs that I have seen that actually exceeded their goals. The fact that this is not common knowledge is actually pretty sad, this is a real success that should be touted more.
In my home country (Russia) acid rain was a regular occurrence well into the 1990s. As soon as a storm would start, everyone in my home town would run for cover. I once failed to reach it. Acidity of the rain was such that I had chemical burns on my skin and my hair thinned out and fell off completely in the following weeks. I did not have it for over a year. Even my outfit got damaged. 1990s in my home town were a wild time. Factories operated without any filters. Every morning, there would be a tender smell of chlorine in the air and green clouds would float up into the sky.
I met the guy who held the patent on those “de-sulfurizing scrubbers”. There were metal screens placed in the smokestacks. Then water was run across the screens. When the SO2 contacted the screen, a catalyst caused the water and SO2 to combine resulting in H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) which ran off the screens into collecting tubes that eventually ran to railroad tank cars. There was suddenly so much sulfuric acid that railroad sidings across the country started filling up with tank cars full of sulfuric acid which was now a glut on the market. It was basically free now. All you had to do was pay for the cost of transporting it to where you needed it. The article makes it sound like this happened in the eighties, but I’m pretty sure I met this guy no later than ’79 and he was telling me all of this in the past tense. It had already happened by then.
Acid rain is still a thing in certain locations. Enclosed atmospheric areas containing industrial operations for example. It doesn’t necessarily destroy every ecosystem though. Localized systems can adjust and adapt. This doesn’t make it ok but it’s important to understand that ecological impact is not equivalent to obviously visible external damage. I know many other environmental professionals who don’t even understand this concept so it is difficult to address this type of pollution. Emissions reduction strategies and scrubbing can do work wonders at the source.
Great article! However I have a small piece of criticism. At 3:54 the “smoke stack” looks more like a cooling tower. The difference is important because cooling towers are always releasing water vapor or fog and the public can confuse this with smoke. This can cause unnecessary worry. Otherwise the article is great and I love the beautiful animations.
wow, i thought acid rain was still a problem here in the states. its actually kinda nice to hear that acid rain was managed contained. when you hear about manmade climate change its usally the kind of irreversible destruction but hearing we were able to fix even a small part gives me a smidgen of hope
Acid rain was rightly recognized as a problem by policies and the problem was then solved with process engineering. The recapture of sulfurous components is quite easy and financially feasible since the amount of sulfur in the flue gas usually isn’t very high to begin with, but extra cost is extra cost, so regulations are still needed as motivations. As part of the chemical engineering community, I’m quite proud of this. It is, however, quite infuriating to see people come up with absurdities like “they moved the problem to China/India/etc.” or “the problem was never real”
“Pro-environment policies would raise energy costs and cost jobs.” The problem is that this is a true statement, at least in the short term. So rather looking at it as a “Who is right?” kind of a thing, we should be looking at it as a balancing act. For instance, an interstate highway is very intrusive upon the environment. But is it worth having? To have a high level of technology, you need to intrude upon the environment to some extent. We’re getting better at minimizing the impact, but we wouldn’t be in this position if we hadn’t already made many advances in the past. Some of them very costly. In other words, we will need a higher level of technology to allow us to advance while still preserving the environment. If we got rid of all technology (some people advocate for this) we would go back to clear-cutting forests for firewood. The ecological impact would be reckless, disastrous, and most likely irreversible. Progress the technology, while also preserving and even enhancing the environment. We can do that. If you cut one tree down, plant two new ones. That sort of thing. Instead of having enviro-nazis, have people practicing good stewardship of the land. It makes sense. Today, places like Kansas have more trees than they did 200 years ago. Why? Because the people who moved there planted trees. It was all grass fields before, but now there are plenty of trees. This can be done. Ideally we get to a state where we have pristine land AND Star Trek levels of technology. That should be our goal.
You’d think that companies would learn that sooner or later their chickens will come home to roost, but they keep on fighting this kind of thing until it’s unavoidable and it just costs them more in the long run through lobbying bribes and legal fees than if they’d just sucked it up and done the right thing in the first place.
Looks like regulation actually bred innovation instead of stagnation. The companies were told they had to do something, which forced the industry to come up with new ideas, inventions, and ingenuity. I liked how they even added the extra incentive of extra money by selling their Cap to companies who probably fell behind in in their research but were able to stay in business longer so they had a chance to lower their emissions in the long run too. win win win scenario.
The way they solved the issue with cap and trade was genius and perfectly reasonable. My only issue with green new deals has been the treating of absurd laws as reasonable. The problem with 100% clean renewable energy is it’s impossible to keep that consistent enough for our daily lives. That’s not my main issue tho, my main issue is we have a solution to slowing pollution to a crawl, but not to 0% so it’s discarded. That and the miss placed fear of this energy during its inception caused people to discard it entirely. Nuclear energy is among the lowest pollutants just under wind and solar. A mix of those 3 would solve most of our waste and pollution problems. And there’s a theory about burning un-radioactive waste to make it entirely waste free. My issue as well with the green new deal is it’s run on fear mongering to get people to put in policies that either don’t work or are ineffective because no debate is being had since any second opinion is being met with “you want to watch our planet die!” “is the coal industry paying you?!” “Nuclear bad!”.
When I was in high school one day it was raining HARD, like straight down pour and there was so much lightening. The power went out during 8th period so we were finishing out the day on the backup lights. When I was getting on the bus to go home I got rain on my glasses and then again on my walk home from the bus stop. When I got home and was finally able to clean off my glasses the scratch proofing on them started coming off. These weren’t old glasses, I had only gotten them about 2-3weeks before this. Turns out it was acid rain and it ruined my glasses. More scratch proofing came off over time and scratching and cracks kept getting worse. I made them work for several years until they were so bad I was getting migraines from the eye strain and couldn’t see out of them anymore. No insurance and barely any income meant priority items became low priority, to me anyway.
Where I grew up, near a major Canadian city, we weren’t allowed to eat the snow because it had a higher acidity than was generally safe. Most of the time it rained so much the pollutants were miniscule, but after a dry spell you could smell the difference. It smelled of ozone, but without the static build up. And that was normal for me.
I see a huge problem in our future produce supply. I’ve heard about acid rain since the 70s. I know from my own garden the ph in the soil doesn’t stay consistent. You have to add to it in order to grow. If the world doesn’t keep up, we’ll all suffer from the damage we’ve caused. Most home gardeners do test the rain water because we’ve seen the damage it can do to our gardens. When St. Helens erupted it caused acid rain. It took a few days to reach the Midwest but we saw the effects on our gardens. That’s when I got interested in testing the ph of rain.
I am held responsible for my parents mistakes, in time my children will be held responsible for my mistakes, and my failures. If I can fix something now, my children will have far fewer things to fix, and maybe one day, humanity no longer fall short, but right all the wrongs of the past. A lot of living things went extinct recently, that will forever remain a debt we can never repay, on our watch, moving forward, we must do better
i remember being taught about acid rain in middleschool in the mid 2000’s in the EU, stating something like ‘this is still a big problem and will be the end of civilization as we know it by the end of the century’. Interesting topic, thanks for easing my childhood worry of actually ‘melting in the rain like a snowman’.
This is an interesting subject. In nature, with no assistance from mankind, rainwater would be slightly acid. Gardeners, Scotch whiskey makers, launderers, the WHO and plumbers know something about acid rain that others may not know. Soil in some regions becomes alkaline if there is little rain and in other areas acid if there is a lot of rain. Scotch whisky makers love soft (acidic) water, which is what they use to make the whiskey. Launderers in some areas add water softeners to their machines to neutralize the alkaline substances in the water, mainly calcium and magnesium carbonates. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides that drinking water should contain no more than 500 parts per million of dissolved solids. Various armed forces have less strict standards. The concern is mainly salt (calcium chloride). But some studies suggest that soft (acidic) water is associated with heart disease. Plumbers know that dissolved solids, mainly lime (calcium) build up in water pipes and eventually pipes become too clogged and must be replaced. Hard water = alkaline = dissolved solids, mainly calcium and magnesium carbonates = pH greater than 7. Soft water = acidic = low level of carbonates = pH less than 7. Acid water has low pH and alkaline water has high pH. If you are a farmer or gardener you may even have a pH meter to tell you how much lime to add to the soil to increase pH. Or how much acid to add to lower pH. What is known only by a few is what soft water does to pipes. Think about it.
here’s where they really get it wrong china russia an india don’t struggle with a thing they are all for the paris accords tho for the very simple reason certain countries ( the US ) will foot the bill for them to buld cleaner more efficient factories an power stations, for just that simple reason no leader in the US should ever commit our country to paris or any other international accords that put the price of change to the largest developed nation that’s gone the farthest . if our industries had to do it themselves then those three especially should make the good faith efforts before asking the US or UN for a dime
And that’s why green energy production and the banning of lobbyism is the future. Short term solutions to avoid the problem for the following 20 years or so is selfish and results in future generations dealing with the consequences of their ancestors’ mistakes. Current scientific research is essential to political decisions and should not be ignored for immediate profit to the demise of everyone.
Oh that’s weird, I never learned the backstory, but I did learn about the economics behind the response to acid rain in class. People often forget that economics is fundamentally the study of how to manage scarce resources, and that fully includes addressing environmental issues like acid rain, groundwater usage, recycling, and etc. in a way that is fully optimal for society as a whole.
I remember Acid rain being a big issue when i was younger. i even remember experiencing some burning rain before. TV shows started adding them into the plot. After the Age of the internet kicked off, i didn’t hear much about how they dealt with the problem until now. Thanks, i always wondered about this.
Fun fact: Raindrops actually are round and spherical and not like teardrops as you might have known, when water droplets start falling, it’s wind and gravity which tapers the back-end of the drop as a tail and the front part becomes wider, the further you go, your drop would taper more compared to the front, so raindrops aren’t actually teardrop-like.
I remember having a book on the subject when I was a kid, looking back the book was probably from the early 90’s. I also remember there was a definite part of my childhood when the rain would be so acid I would complain to my parents. In the last few years I don’t feel the acidity of rain, it’s nice, very nice to see we were able to change things.
I remember it was a big deal in my area in 1991 when the NAPAP study largely debunking acid rain hysteria was entered into the congressional record (where it is still available online for free). It made the state-wide newspaper here, so a lot of us in college were talking about it, especially in my poli-sci class. People limed the few lakes that had true, localized problems, but the rest was ignored because it was now shown to have been nonsense all along. Meanwhile, the fearporn industry moved onto Global Warming, at least until the 25-year warming pause caused them to then switch to ebola and then covid instead. Oh, I left out the ozone hole, and as honorable mention, there was also the ice-age fears of the seventies. See a pattern here?
The reason why most American cars of the 70s and 80s ran poorly and had no power was because of a system mandated by the US called EGR ( exhaust gas recirculation ) imports at the time were exempt . It lowers the peak combustion temp. Below the point where the oxides are formed . That is also another factor that helped destroy the American car industry
When I first heard about acid rain as a kid, i imagined acid raining down from the sky, eating through anything and everything. There were plenty of small holes in roofs and fences to make this believable. Yet, after going through rain on several occasions and feeling nothing, i was slightly disappointed. And then people just stopped talking about it. Kinda makes you wonder if it was just a buzzword or something.
As a kid in the late 70’s and early 80’s I remember getting Ducks Unlimited magazine and they were big into lobbying the govt to take action on acid rain. Same with fishing organizations. It makes me wonder whether tackling the acid rain challenge in the 80’s might have happened faster because it was non-partisan and wasn’t “politicized” (i.e. hunters and fishermen who were typically more right-leaning were the ones pushing for it just as much as traditionally more “left-leaning” environmentalists).
1:34 Why do so many articles try to show pictures of nuclear power plants as examples of pollution? Do they not realize that all of that stuff billowing out of the top of the towers is not smoke but simple water vapor? In reality, nuclear power is the cleanest, safest and cheapest form of energy that could realistically power the world, yet fear mongering has prevented its widespread use across most of the world.
LAST TIME I HEARD ABOUT ACID RAIN WAS FROM MRS. FRANKIE She said she was with her parents and this tree in the back suddenly started growing TONS of pinecones, they all assumed this meant it was super healthy It later died, acid rain had seriously injured it and all those pinecones was it using its last bit of life to ensure its line lives on Also this was in 4th grade and Mrs. Frankie died the summer after, due to cancer I think Rest in peace, you were a really good teacher
Also hydrogen chloride hydrogen bromides and hydrogen fluorides make it really acidic to. Also if you have acid rain just put lime down or anything alkaline like baking soda and it will react with acids to make carbon dioxide which isn’t as acidic and salts that might be a little toxic but are more safe.
I remember as a wee lad in class we watched a bill nye episode and it mentioned how acid rain would only be harmful after long amounts of exposure and was called “h3o”. I believed it would actually be pretty common and I would hear about it more. Heard that it was a thing, never heard of it stop being a thing
Earth Day 1970 was the highpoint — it lead to badly needed environmental laws – but these have been effectively shelved, due to the power and weight of corporations in America (the dainty term is lobbying). For the last 20 years anti government deregulation has been normalized by Wall St and the GOP, by Reagan, Bush 43, Trump. No oversight, checks or balances from the Democrats, not much in the Courts, Congress or states (except California). Environmental protection has all but stopped. The film Planet of the Humans helped, exposing some of the widespread green wash. Now let the jokes continue.
To the extent that the government grants to certain industry players some number of valuable permits, the cap and trade policy is a subsidy of polluting industry. A different policy would sell the permits at auction, then share proceeds from sale to all people. The policy will be fair if proceeds are shared equally to all. Permits should be for units of impact caused. Permits should not be a perpetual 10 tons per day permission slip (e.g.). (If that policy is in place, it can be effectively converted to a “Pay the people when you impact the env’t” policy by taxing the holding of those permits that give access to or benefits from public resources / natural services. Taxing someone for holding an ‘X amount of emissions per month’ card counts as taxing someone who emits.)
When I used to fly into Sydney to service my customer’s machines I found many of the factory building’s exterior metal fitting/parts etc… stripped of the galvanizing on the top side where they were exposed to rain down to the steel and were heavily rusted but looking at the age of the buildings I’d say they weren’t more than 70s-80s. I thought to myself, hmm acid rain in the past?
I was a college student in Providence, Rhode Island, in the early 1980s, and the afternoon sky from the large windows at the school refectory were bizarre, with colors most unusual like green, weird purples and reds, deep oranges, we all thought it was “beautiful” until we larned it was the result of air pollution produced in Pennsilvania, New York and Connecticut that the weather brought past Rhode Island towards the North. I wonder if it has improved since then.
Some would say, acid rain stopped but air pollution by aircraft took its place; resulting in aluminum oxide buildup in trees; thereby, killing most of the trees and turning then into accelerants in forest fires. It seems questionable as to where the aluminum came from, but as one blogger put it, “Aluminum prevents the uptake of water and disrupts other nutrient absorption;” thereby, causing wide-spread tree deaths and trees ready to burn like crazy if and when such fires break out. Acid Rain was a by-product of industrialization. However, as industries began to build scrubbers into their furnaces and exhaust, the measure of acid rain declined. What is not know for certain is the level of toxic materials coming from automobiles and aircraft that may contribute to aluminum in soil and in trees, and how it relates to ‘drought’, ‘climate change,’ and the increase recent decade’s incredibly intense forest fires. While rainfall in California has not declined by much, one of the main reasons for water shortages is in the demand by business and private use, by a ever-growing population. In the case of Oroville Dam, the dam was originally made to supply only a limited amount of Northern California’s electricity while maintaining a year-round level of lake water. However, as populations and business growth continued, it began to stress the water limits; thereby, causing year-round shortages in lake water conservation. As water levels remain high, so does the humidity in surrounding areas, year-round.
The problem (at coal burning power plants) is mostly solved, . . . mostly, by the addition “scrubbers” for SO2 removal, and for NOx removal the burners in the furnace are replaced with a type that generates a longer, but lower temperature flame. And still, the plant and immediate surrounding area are affected. For instance, every employee at my old plant is issued a car cover to protect the car’s paint from the droplets that fall from the stack’s plume. And the plant spends large sounds every year painting and replacing steel eaten by those same droplets. Puddling “water” around the exhaust stack has a pH around 2. It’s why coal plants are not in cities.
Strange that you never hear about it anymore; I think that success stories like these will cause more people to take action or pressure their government/businesses than the constant gloom-and-doom we’re provided with today, even from environmental activists. … That’s probably exactly why it’s not talked about as much.
This needs to be celebrated! I am astounded we are not congratulating these scientists and highlighting these advances more! The title is so apt, i HAVE forgotten a bout acid rain, because the main stream is not considering it as big a. Threat anymore. This is proof that small steps can lead to big results in the LING TEmlRM. This needs to be more visible!!!
For the last century UK power stations used to burn coal and the smoke from the chimneys contained sulphur and nitrogen oxides that turned into sulphuric and nitric acid and damaged forests as far away as Norway. Now the UK has closed most of its coal fired power stations and burns mostly natural gas in its remaining fossil fuel power stations. There is now very little coal so acid rain impact on Norway from UK power stations. The amount was quite huge. For example, every morning the biggest power station in the UK (Drax) used to heat its boilers in a process called ‘ramping’ for several hours before producing any electricity at all and that used to burn about 20 tonnes of coal per minute. Now Drax burns mostly wood pellets from the USA and very little coal which means it emits almost no sulphur or nitrogen oxides now and power stations that burn gas emit virtually no sulphur or nitrogen oxides at all.
I realize this is not a poli-sci article, but for us in North America, the friendship between then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and President Ronald Reagan was key to the political will to solving this issue. The result also led to extensive investments in R&D related to industrial emissions that have yielded tremendous benefits.
It was fixed switching to natural gas from coal that had the highest impact, yet in the Western World we’re trying to crush the natural gas industry and trying to transition to “green energy”, which with current technology cannot support the infrastructure required to reliably provide power to meet our needs, especially in colder climates. A smarter move would be to encourage the entire world to use Canadian & American oil & gas to transition Russia, India, and China to natural gas as a stepping stone energy source to lower emissions world wide while we work on having a reliable greener technology.
Scientist don’t actually do anything you know, other than science. This article ignores the role media and public pressure played, and describes how government and industry lowered the emissions from power plants, not “how scientists were able to largely eliminate this major environmental threat.” The objective of science is nothing other than to understand what things are and how they behave.
I’d like to correct a small misconception, the curved tower in the power plant is responsible for cooling the water inside the cycle, thus it produces only steam not pollutants, byproducts of combustion comes from a thin chimney above or near the boilers, and it has to be high enough to disperse the gases away from the immediate area.
I know one thing that happened to it. Congress allotted $35 million to study it, and they sent out people to sample all the lakes and ponds in the NE states, where the claims about it were the most vocal. When the results came in, only one small pond in upstate NY had any level of acidity to it. And that pond had no access to it by road or trail. I myself never heard about it again. I read comments here about people who never heard about it, all of a sudden. I am pretty sure that that study meant no one talking about acid rain would ever be listened to again. In my county in N Illinois, a friend in a weekly group was the county coroner, and he told me about an incident in a county board meeting. Our county was like 90% or 95% woods and lakes. An activist came to the board meeting, claiming that one particular lake had a shitload of acid in it. The board was alarmed, and the board tasked my friend to go get samples from that lake and have them tested. He did, and he told us how they found no acidity at all in that lake. And that at the next county board meeting the activist was there. They informed him of the lack of acidity, and the activist started accusing them – my friend especially – of not taking it seriously. Screw him.
Acid rain was a big problem until my brother told one of the guys mixing up the acid to fill the pond with water first, and then dump the tank cars of acid into the water. That way it mixes slowly and doesn’t produce a lot of heat. Filling the pond with acid first. and spraying the water on it produces a LOT of heat and half of the mixture boils away. That’s what was causing the acid rain and wasting a lot of company profits. We are talking about junior high school science class chemistry intro information.
I don’t understand how we can come to the conclusion that acid rain is causing these problems when studies, such as from National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program, indicate they don’t. I’m sure having those chemicals in the air affects things, probably negatively, but I don’t think it’s clear what those things are. Plus, after we’ve reduced acid rain since the early 80s we still have acidic lakes in those few lakes that previously were found to be acidic.