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Acid precipitation

Acid precipitation, also known as acid rain includes acid snow, hail and fog. The reason that is called acid precipitation is because anything that consists of water that falls or settles contains acid but it is more commonly know as acid rain. Acid rain consists of sulphur and nitrogen and when these two are combined with water it basically turns into a more acidic rain.

Acid rain has occurred from pollution that has risen into the environment and reached our cloud hence forming acid rain. When the rain falls it contains acid in it. The sulphur and nitrogen that mainly contribute to the acid rain and these come from us polluting the air which then reaches the clouds. This pollution mainly comes from the burning of fossil fuels which are coal, gas and oil. The pollution also comes from our cars. Where it comes out of the exhausts of our cars it then rises into the atmosphere which then reacts with the water in the clouds to create the acid rain. The demand for electricity and cars means that there is a lot of bad substances that are going into our atmosphere and this is a major contributing factor of acid rain. The difficulty is that just because we may have a lot of air pollution in our country, the pollution tends to drift off in the wind to other parts of the world that may not be so polluted. This means that all parts of the world are affected and not just the areas that have more pollution. The worst areas that cause acid rain are Europe and North America. This is because these are more developed countries and so therefore we have more money to pay for electricity and cars but generally the areas that are affected the worst by acid rain are the tropical forest as well as rivers and lakes. Acid rain can also affect buildings that are made out of certain materials. Acid rain is quickening up the process of erosion which
means that our buildings and land will wear away a lot sooner than expected. The acidity in the rain is often measured and is measured using a scale called the pH scale. On the pH scale, 7 is neutral whereas anything from 0 – 6 is acidic and anything from 8 – 14 is alkaline. The worst measurement of acid rain to be made is pH 2.

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