Acid Rain
Acid rain refers to all types of precipitation--rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog--that is acidic in nature. Acidic means that these forms of water have a pH lower than the 5.6 average of rainwater. Acid rain kills aquatic life, trees, crops and other vegetation, damages buildings and monuments, corrodes copper and lead piping, damages such man-made things as automobiles, reduces soil fertility and can cause toxic metals to leach into underground drinking water sources. Rain is naturally acidic because carbon dioxide, found normally in the earth's atmosphere, reacts with water to form carbonic acid. While "pure" rain's acidity is pH 5.6-5.7, actual pH readings vary from place to place depending upon the type and amount of other gases present in the air, such as sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxides. The term pH refers to the free hydrogen ions (electrically charged atoms) in water and is measured on a scale from 0 to 14. Seven is considered neutral and measurements below seven are acidic while those above it are basic or alkaline. Every point on the pH scale represents a tenfold increase over the previous number. Thus, pH 4 is 10 times more acidic than pH 5 and 100 times more so than pH 6. Similarly, pH 9 is 1O times more basic than pH
8 and 100 times more basic than pH 7. When congress passed the amendments to the Clean Air Act it was like cutting the heart out of southern Illinois. People realized that the government would have to protect the enviroment but what about them. Who was going to help them. Some men were to old to start over again and have struggled from that point on. Many businesses went bankrupt and people started moving out of the area to places that had a better job market. Our school suffered because of the loss of revenue and property taxes because all the mines just shut their doors. On one hand you have the people who feel that the government is just playing a political game. They stomped on getting rid of sulfur but what about the other items that cause acid rain. Then you have the other side that states the two main ingredients of coal smoke are particulate and sulfur, which causes 500,000 premature death each year and millions of new respiratory illnesses. Particulates penetrate deep into lungs. Prolonged inhalation causes a range of respiratory and cardiovascular problems, such as emphysema, asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease. In southern Illinois you had the coal mines which produced 60 millions tons of coal each year. The coal industry was essentially the livelihood and economic health of many communit
Some common words found in the essay are:
, Illinois People, Air Act, acid rain, toxic metals, southern illinois, coal industry, illinois coal, times basic ph, Clean Air, air act, aquatic life, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen ions, clean air act, nutrient leaching,
Approximate Word count = 902
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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