Acid Rain Essays (1208 words) - Inorganic Solvents, Mineral Acids

Acid Rain THOUGHTS ON ACID RAIN Acid rain is a serious problem with disastrous effects. Each day this serious problem increases, many people believe that this issue is too small to deal with right now this issue should be met head on and solved before it is too late. In the following paragraphs I will be discussing the impact has on the wildlife and how our atmosphere is being destroyed by acid rain. CAUSES Acid rain is a cancer eating into the face of Eastern Canada and the North Eastern United States. In Canada, the main sulphuric acid sources are non-ferrous smelters and power generation. On both sides of the border, cars and trucks are the main sources for nitric acid(about 40% of the total), while power generating plants and industrial commercial and residential fuel combustion together contribute most of the rest. In the air, the sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can be transformed into sulphuric acid and nitric acid, and air current can send them thousands of kilometres from the source.When the acids fall to the earth in any form it will have large impact on the growth or the preservation of certain wildlife. NO DEFENCE Areas in Ontario mainly southern regions that are near the Great Lakes, such substances as limestone or other known antacids can neutralize acids entering the body of water thereby protecting it. However, large areas of Ontario that are near the Pre- Cambrian Shield, with quartzite or granite based geology and little top soil, there is not enough buffering capacity to neutralize even small amounts of acid falling on the soil and the lakes. Therefore over time, the basic environment shifts from an alkaline to a acidic one. This is why many lakes in the Muskoka, Haliburton, Algonquin, Parry Sound and Manitoulin districts could lose their fisheries if sulphur emissions are not reduced substantially. ACID The average mean of pH rainfall in Ontario's Muskoka-Haliburton lake country ranges between 3.95 and 4.38 about 40 times more acidic than normal rainfall, while storms in Pennsilvania have rainfall pH at 2.8 it almost has the same rating for vinegar. Already 140 Ontario lakes are completely dead or dying. An additional 48 000 are sensitive and vulnerable to acid rain due to the surrounding concentrated acidic soils. ACID RAIN CONSISTS OF....? Canada does not have as many people, power plants or automobiles as the United States, and yet acid rain there has become so severe that Canadian government officials called it the most pressing environmental issue facing the nation. But it is important to bear in mind that acid rain is only one segment, of the widespread pollution of the atmosphere facing the world. Each year the global atmosphere is on the receiving end of 20 billion tons of carbon dioxide, 130 million tons of suffer dioxide, 97 million tons of hydrocarbons, 53 million tons of nitrogen oxides, more than three million tons of arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, zinc and other toxic metals, and a host of synthetic organic compounds ranging from polychlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) to toxaphene and other pesticides, a number of which may be capable of causing cancer, birth defects, or genetic imbalances. COST OF ACID RAIN Interactions of pollutants can cause problems. In addition to contributing to acid rain, nitrogen oxides can react with hydrocarbons to produce ozone, a major air pollutant responsible in the United States for annual losses of $2 billion to 4.5 billion worth of wheat, corn, soyabeans, and peanuts. A wide range of interactions can occur many unknown with toxic metals. In Canada, Ontario alone has lost the fish in an estimated 4000 lakes and provincial authorities calculate that Ontario stands to lose the fish in 48 500 more lakes within the next twenty years if acid rain continues at the present rate.Ontario is not alone, on Nova Scotia's Eastern most shores, almost every river flowing to the Atlantic Ocean is poisoned with acid. Further threatening a $2 million a year fishing industry. THE DYING Acid rain is killing more than lakes. It can scar the leaves of hardwood forest, wither ferns and lichens, accelerate the death of coniferous needles, sterilize seeds, and weaken the forests to a state that is vulnerable to disease infestation and decay. In the soil the acid neutralizes chemicals vital for growth, strips others from the soil and carries them to the lakes and literally retards the respiration of the soil. The rate of forest growth in the White Mountains of New Hampshire has declined 18% between 1956 and 1965, time of increasingly intense acidic rainfall. Acid rain no longer falls exclusively on the lakes, forest, and thin soils of the Northeast it now covers half the continent. EFFECTS There is

In the Name of the Father essays

In the Name of the Father essays In the Name of the Father is a film that is based on a true story of a group of young people called the Guilford Four. That were accused and jailed for the bombing of the Gilford pub. Gerry Conlon played by Daniel Day-Lewis starts out as a young unemployed thief who steals lead from neighborhood roofs. After being caught for a final time he is forced to leave Belfast because of the IRAs disapproval of his stealing. So Gerry and his friend Paul Hill (John Lynch) moved to London were they stay at a hippie house with a group of friends. But they soon have to leave because of tensions in the house with one of the guys. So Paul and Gerry left out on the streets, find themselves on a park bench the night the Guilford pub was bombed. This is when things started going downhill for the two. The boyfriend of the girl in the house goes to the police and points Gerry and Paul out. This is too good of news for Inspector Pavis, who is under pressure to find the bombers. Before you know it Gerry, three of his friends and some of his family are being arrested for the bombing. With no real evidence they are mentally tortured to get a statement out of them. The whole court scene was a circus of lies in which they were tried and jailed for the bombing. After some years in prison with his father Giuseppe (Pete Postlethwaite) a new lawyer, Gareth Peirce (Emma Thompson) comes along who is eager to get a retrial for them. However, Gerry had such hatred for the English justice that he needed more encouragement to do this. For the remainder of the movie you see Gareth uncovering all the deceptions and lies that were brought up in the original sentencing. From the false evidence and witnesses, forced confessions and even the confession of the real bomber. All of this is brought out in the second trail but not before Gerrys dad passes away. Even after their attempt for an ear ...

Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 28

Research Paper Example Ms. Skeeter’s has brought up by black women all her childhood. She yearns to find out where her beloved maiden, Constantine- a black maiden, went. Later on, Ms. Skitter learns of what became of Constantine. Her maiden gave birth out of wedlock, to Lulabelle whose skin color was indistinguishable from the whites although both parents were of Black origin. Because of this, neither the white nor the black community would readily accept Lulabelle. To avoid a lot of dual segregation, Constantine gave up her child for adoption when she was four years old. When she grows up, she is reunited with her mother. (AmySharps 15). While Skeeter’s was in college, Lulabelle visited her along with her mother in Jackson. Later on, she came for the party being held at Skeeter’s house. However, soon Charlotte Phelan fired Constantine after discovering who Lulabelle was to her. Having nowhere to turn to, Constantine moved to Chicago. This is the last time Skeeter’s saw Constantine. The Help refers to a community of black people who spent their lives caring for children of the upper class white households (Council and others 2012 pg. 5). The children of these black people were in the custody of other people who are not even their relatives; they were isolated at an early age to pave way for their parents to serve the white families. The help spent most of their time dressing, feeding and playing with white children. However, these children grew up not better than their parents did; they assumed the oppressive role just like their folks oppressing the blacks, the very people who raised them up. Aibileen spends her lifetime taking care of Mae Mobley, Miss Elizabeth Leefolt’s child. Aibileen lost her son and it is ironical that she spends time caring for a child who is not her own, she takes time to heal the wound and accept the gap created by the demise of her only child while serving Leefolt’s family (AmySharps 21). The conditions here