Weiss, M. (2023, June 28). Is Acid Rain a Thing of the Past? Science. Retrieved August 16, 2023, from https://www.science.org/content/article/acid-rain-thing-past

Acid rain was a horrible problem in the 1970s, it deprived plants of nutrients and dissolved aluminum-rich minerals spreading harmful elements to plants. To take action the U.S. created strict laws and regulations to decrease the emissions. By 2003 acid rain had decreased by 40%, to test if the soil had improved Gregory Lawrence tested soil at multiple sites. He found that the soil had improved but just not in the way he expected. Due to the decreased amounts of calcium which came from the aluminum released by the acid rain plants had become more sensitive to acid rain.

Marissa Weiss effectively proves the impacts of acid rain on the plants and the soil by explaining how acid rain deprives plants of a key nutrient. This is an important part of environmental science as it references the ecological influence caused by acid rain. The article raised the question to me of how big of a problem is acid rain in today’s world, as explained in a past paragraph Ocean acidification can have a huge impact on the problem, but does acid rain contain the same dangers? Later in the article when it is mentioned China has reached sulfur dioxide emissions that have never been reached before (not even by the U.S. at its peak emissions), I wondered why they haven’t made an effort to reduce said emissions.