Acid Rain
Sam Jacob
500 words
Chemistry 7th Period

Acid rain, also known as atmospheric pollution, is when deposition becomes acidic. This deposition can be carried by the wind of long distances and when gets wet, can be caught in the rain, therefore causing the rain to become acidic (Students). Acid rain can cause damage to many things, including trees, soils, paint, and some buildings (EPA). Because of the damage of acid rain, people need to take steps to prevent further damage and pollution causing the acid. The dry or wet deposition that can cause the acidity is from the pollution in the atmosphere. A lot of this pollution is caused by nitric acid and sulfuric acid (EPA). Other gasses that can cause this pollution are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (EPA). Almost all of these gasses come from out need for “electric power generation,” (EPA). These gases are let off usually through factories and when the pollution is released into the air, the gasses can connect with the rain, fusing the acidity with the water. This is the wet deposition. On the other hand, dry deposition occurs when the weather is hot and dry. In climates like this, the polluted particles will combine with those of the dust. This will stick to the ground and even buildings and other objects (EPA). When the rain comes, it will wash the dirt and attached acidic particles can be washed from these surfaces by the rain and can be washed into runoff, and will eventually fall back to earth (EPA). http://www.epa.gov/acidrain/what/index.html The effects of acid rain were first noticed by John Evelyn in the seventeenth century He noticed the effect that the rain was having on marble and limestone. Later in Manchester London, in 1852 Robert Angus Smith connected the acid rain to the atmospheric pollution (Wikipedia). In the United States, acid rain slowly became something to keep an eye. In 1980, there was an act passed by congress called the Acid Deposition Act. This act would help create and fund a research program dedicated to acid rain (Wikipedia). In order to prevent some of the damages of acid rain, many other actions and persuasions have been put into place. Some of the things people are doing to prevent these harsh effects are things like using alternate power sources that do not let off these harsh chemicals. Some people uses “nuclear power, hydro power, wind energy, geothermal energy, and solar energy,” (EPA). Some of these alternate options may be more expensive, but in the long sun it does save from a lot of damage. Some of the