Burlington Free Press. (2019, October 2). The Adirondacks are seeing rapid ride in acid rain, group says. From https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2019/10/02/adirondacks-seeing-rapid-rise-acid-rain-group-says/3841292002/

 

In Albany, New York a group of explorers traveled up to the Adirondacks Park and noticed acid rain starting to appear again. This was pretty unfortunate especially because in the past decades it was successfully stabilized. The Adirondack Council evaluated federal data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which indicated that bringing back coal as a crucial fuel has created more acid rain in the park’s land. Since 2017 the clouds have been getting more acidic which therefore release more acidic precipitation. The group is very aware towards the parks protection against acid rain because, even though the park has had an atrocious acid rain damage in the past, it the world’s largest, undamaged deciduous forest ecosystem to date. Another blaming for the increasing of acid rain measurement were because Trump administration reduced pollution standards in the Adirondacks Park. The Adirondacks Council said the EPA data they were examining reveals the air traveling to New York came from West Virginia, which has various production of power pants increasing more and more as the years pass.

 

This affects the environment of the Adirondacks Park because its been years since the park has been this acidic. Too much of the sulfur dioxide if being absorbed from the trees and habitats which then destroy them in the long run. I think we can reduce this damage by using low sulfur coal. It would be very difficult to completely get rid of coal as it is a predominant source for fuel, but it is possible to reduce the sulfur dioxide being released from it. 

USGS: Science for a Changing World. (2019, March 2) Water as Acid Rain. https://www.usgs

.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/water-acid-rain?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

 

In the northeastern part of the United States there are many industries and vehicles. This is causing acid rain to go as low as a pH of 4, which is quite acidic for rain water. When the acid rain interacts with the soil, it drains the aluminum which is beneficial for the plants and wildlife but it also drains minerals and nutrients that trees require for development. Acid rain can be traveled from urban to rural areas by the winds, that’s the reason why countrysides’ forests and lakes are affected by the acidity. Most environments adjust to some acid rain, the soils are able to stabilize some of the acidity. In some parts of the U.S., limestone does not evolve therefore acid rain can have negative impacts in the soil. When this rain settles on habitats, animals and fish struggle with accommodating and reproducing; plants as well get damaged by acid precipitation. Since in the Northeast of the United States there are many cities, high population density, and industrial plants, it is an area with the lowest pH levels. This air pollution and acid precipitation is concerning because it can cause buildings and sculpture, from years back in history, to deteriorate. 

 

As humans we are responsible for the appearance of acid rain. We cause it by polluting the air, working in factories, etc. We should be doing something to better, if not vanish acid rain. This is causing not only damage to our ecosystems but structures and buildings that have been made in history as a symbolic or cultural value. It is unfair for us to easily just ignore the fact that these structures will be deteriorating maybe even gone by the next few years. This is affecting the northeastern part of the United States, and yet I haven’t seen any progress on fixing this conflict. This will have consequences on the environment; there could be a decrease of trees growth and plant production.

Chemistry World News. (2019, April 03) Cutting ammonia pollution may lead to more acid rain in China. From https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/01/singin-in-the-acid-rain

 

In the past decades, because of the amount of industrialization happening in China, air pollution and acid rain has increased immensely. Their government wants to reduce the amount of acid rain and air pollution which he is planning to resolve by reducing the amount of ammonia. This research, of finding out a way to lower the amount of ammonia, would need a lot of money. Reducing 50% of ammonia will reduce about 15% of air pollution and 15% of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. The researchers came to the conclusion that it would be better to try a “region-specific strategy that examines multipollutant controls.”

 

I think changing up the amount of ammonia would change everything, whether good or bad. With all the advanced technology and industries such a big country like China has, there should be a possible way of maintaining an average PH on their rain. But as you can imagine the amount of people with cars/other transportation, factories, etc., it’d be a challenge to reduce air pollution, which can be even more difficult to reduce acid rain, mainly because it is caused by how strong the air pollution is. 

Science News. (2019, August 5). Decades of dumping acid suggest acid rain may make trees thirstier. From https://www.sciencenews.org/article/decades-dumping-acid-suggest-acid- rain-may-make-trees-thirstier

 

Because of the amount of acid rain being produced, trees are becoming more dehydrated/ thirsty causing them to absorb more water than usual. This can lead to other living creatures, including us, not having enough water resources. An experiment was conducted with mock acid water and they noticed that the trees would absorb much more water than those that didn’t have acid water on them. About extra 13.6 million liters of water is used to satisfy the trees’ thirst, each year. The acid in acid water can dissolve minerals in the soil and consume all the calcium, and without calcium these plants can’t control the water loss. Soils take a while to recuperate the lost calcium.

 

In the future if we were to get more acid rain it would start to become a very serious problem to our economy and our environment. Our resources of water can decrease little by little and then by the time you know it, we will be looking for one of the most important things, we all need to live, in every little corner. I was thinking to myself if maybe there would be a way to get rid of the acid rain but I doubt you can completely vanish it. So more on the realistic side, there should be a way to water down the acid in acid rain, but then again we would be using even more water than we should be, because of the acid water down.