The Negative Effects of Acid Rain

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Cause/Effect Essay 0054 Title: THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF ACID RAIN One of the major ill-effects of air pollution is acid rain. When coal, oil, and petrol are burned, the smoke emitted contains gases such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. After escaping into the atmosphere, these gases react with ozone and other compounds. They form the acid present in acid rain (Rirchner 2). They fall to the ground in form of rain, snow, or sleet. Acid rain has many effects, the most important ones are the effect on lakes, forests, and human health. One of the serious effects of acid rain is that it is harmful to the lakes. According to scientists who spent twenty five years studying a group of lakes in northwestern Ontario, acid rain has long-term effects on aquatic ecosystems. A small amount acid can make the pH level in the lakes to change tremendously (2). Acid rain reduces pH level in the lakes and makes them acidic. When the pH level in lakes is low, important foods for fish will die such as the low creatures. It also adversely affects the gills of the fish which leads to the death of the fish. Fish have died in the lakes of North America, Scandinavia, Scotland because of acid rain. Those fish that can survive in acid lakes cannot reproduce. For that reason, fish population is decreasing. Therefore, acid rain affects aquatic animals and aquatic organism in lakes. In addition, acid rain seems to be the cause which leads to the death of forests. As an example, many forests in Northern and central Europe are dying. According to researchers, acid rain does not adversely affect the trees. However, acid rain changes the nutrients in the soil that help trees to grow (Horan). When acid rain falls to the soil, it washes away the nutrients that are the important foods for the trees. Resultantly, trees in forests grow at a very slow rate. In addition, acid rain has direct

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