What is Acid Rain?

Pollution has become a one of the major problems that the world is facing and the different manifestations that it has are to deal with. Acid Rain is one such form of pollution that happens because of the harmful emissions released on the surface of the Earth due to human activities. Air Pollution ultimately leads to Acid Rain as the harmful gases, which are mixed in the air, also get combined with the moisture in the air and form acidic clouds, which lead to Acid Rain. The sources of Acid Rain are factories, vehicles, Power Stations and industries; which burn fuels and produce harmful gases, which have Sulfur dioxide or Nitrogen oxides.

Acid Rain primarily means the deposition of acidic elements in the forms of precipitation, which can be snow, rain, dew or fog. Normally rain is acidic though weak as the pH level of rain is less than 7 but when the concentration of pollutants increase in the atmosphere the pH level further decreases since the pollutants react with the moisture present in the atmosphere and form strong acids like Sulfuric and Nitric Acid.

Acid Rain: Types of Acid Deposition

There are two types of Acid Deposition, one is wet and the other is dry. Wet deposition is the one, which involves Acid Rain or snow or dew whereas Dry deposition is when the particles such as polluting gases, dust particles and gaseous elements are just absorbed by the surface of the Earth or the plant bodies. They are not converted into acids until and unless they are in contact with water. In case of Wet deposition the acids are removed from the atmospheric air and is deposited on the surface of the earth.

Natural and Human Causes of Acid Rain

There are natural as well as detrimental human activities that lead to Acid Rain and here are some of those causes:

• Since Acid rain is caused by emissions of harmful gases, there are various natural causes that lead to emissions like volcanic eruptions and gaseous emissions from biological processes like decay and decomposition.
• Apart from this the human activities that result into Acid rain are vehicles and power generation plants that lead to the production and emission of Sulfur and Nitrogen oxides. There are many preventive measures that have been taken and which are still being implemented to stop the pollution like smoke treatment chambers that treat the smoke before it comes out of the manufacturing. The smoke in the smoke chamber is converted into such gases, which are acceptable for the environment. Still there are such industries like the coal power plants, which emit such gases that they pollute the atmosphere to the helm, but then the infrastructure does not allow setting up a smoke treatment chamber.

Effects of Acid rain

There are adverse effect of Acid rain and it is better to deal with them when the problems are just in the process of making since it is easier to deal with them at a lower scale but once they assume a larger shape, it becomes difficult to cope with them. Acid rain causes the composition of the soil to be altered, which further results in to the deterioration of plant life and also disturbs the ecological cycle. The existing plant life faces inhibition to grow healthy since the acid in the rain as they lose the nutrients present in the soil. Harmful elements are further added in the soil that lead to the soil becoming unfit for plantation and cultivation.

Aquatic life also meets with destruction as the acids and other harmful substances in the rain get dissolved in the water and lead to the death and destruction of aquatic life. If not death it definitely leads to intoxication, which is passed on to the food cycle and leads to the death and disease of many animals in the food chain. There has to be a solution of acid rain and pollution otherwise it would lead to major loss.