Carolina Restrepo Mara Fernanda Carreo Lina

It is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH).

Clean or unpolluted rain has a slightly acidic pH of over 5.7, because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to form carbonic acid, but unpolluted rain also contains other chemicals.

Emissions of chemicals leading to acidification

The most important gas which leads to acidification is sulfur dioxide.

Human activity
The principal cause of acid rain is sulfur and nitrogen compounds from human sources, such as electricity generation, factories, and motor vehicles. Coal power plants are one of the most polluting. The gases can be carried hundreds of kilometers in the atmosphere before they are converted to acids and deposited.

Adverse effects
Acid rain has been shown to have adverse impacts on forests, freshwaters and soils, killing insect and aquatic. It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure.

Acid rain does not directly affect human health. The acid in the rainwater is too dilute to have direct adverse effects. However, the particulates responsible for acid rain (sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) do have an adverse effect. Increased amounts of fine particulate matter in the air do contribute to heart and lung problems including asthma and bronchitis.

Acid deposition
Wet deposition Wet deposition of acids occurs when any form of precipitation (rain, snow, etc.) removes acids from the atmosphere and delivers it to the Earth's surface.

Dry deposition Acid deposition also occurs via dry deposition in the absence of precipitation. This occurs when particles and gases stick to the ground, plants or other surfaces.

Affected areas Places significantly impacted by acid rain around the globe include most of eastern Europe from Poland northward into Scandinavia, the eastern third of the United States, and southeastern Canada. Other affected areas include the southeastern coast of China and Taiwan.

solutions
Many coal-burning power plants use flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) to remove sulfur-containing gases from their stack gases. For a typical coal-fired power station, FGD will remove 95 percent or more of the SO2 in the flue gases. Pollution control equipment. Vehicle emissions control reduces emissions of nitrogen oxides from motor vehicles. Alternative energy sources are gaining more prominence today and funding is being given to the restoration of ecosystems damaged by acid rain worldwide. A number of international treaties on the long range transport of atmospheric pollutants have been agreed.

 Turn off lights, computers, televisions, video games, and other electrical equipment when you're not using them. Encourage your parents to buy equipment that uses less electricity, including lights, air conditioners, heaters, refrigerators, and washing machines. Try to limit the use of air conditioning. Adjust the thermostat (the device used to control the temperature in your home) when you go on vacation.

 Lightning strikes: are electrical discharges caused by lightning, typically during thunderstorms. Wildfires: is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area Coal power plants: plants producing coal, which is a combustible black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers called coal beds or coal seams. Coal is composed primarily of carbon along with variable quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Funnels: to refer to the chimney or smokestack on a steam locomotive and usually used in referring to the same on a ship. Matter: may be defined as anything that occupies space and has mass Stack gas: is anything that comes out of a burner stack (a large, usually conical pile) in gaseous form. Funding: the act of providing resources. Carpool: is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car.

GLOSSARY

QUESTIONS
Which are the two principal gases involved in the acid rain? How does the human activity increase this problem? Which other solutions do you think would be a good idea to help to decrease this problem globally? Do you think that stricter laws to control the pollution at the factories would help? Where is this problem more common, and how are this places related?

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/na tional-geographic-channel/all-videos/av-73097516/ngc-acid-rain-invisible-menace/