Acid rain can be defined as all the rain, snow, mist that falls from the sky in the form of precipitation onto our planet that contains an unnatural acidic content. It is not to be confused with uncontaminated rain that falls, for that rain is naturally slightly acidic. Acid rain is caused by today's industry. ( Compton Encyopedia) When products are manufactured, many chemicals are used to create it. Due to the difficulty and cost of properly disposing of these products they are often emitted into the atmosphere with little or no treatment.

The term, acid rain, was first considered to be important about 20 years ago when scientists in Sweden and Norway first believed that acidic rain might be causing great ecological damage to the planet. ( Parfit, National Geographic) The problem was that by the time

A scientist in Norway had a problem believing that it was the acid rain on it's own that was affecting the lakes in such a deadly way. This scientist was Dr. Rosenqvist. "Why is it that during heavy rain, the swollen rivers can be up to fifteen times more acidic than the rain? It cannot be the rain alone that is doing it, can it?" Many scientists shunned Dr. Rosenqvist for asking this question, however, they could not come up with a better answer. Soon the scientists were forced to accept this theory. Sulfuric acid is composed of two parts know as ions. The hydrogen ion is what makes a substance acidic. The other ion is sulphate. It is this sulphate ion that the scientists found interesting. When the rain causes rivers to overflow onto the banks the river water passes through the soil. Since the industrial revolution in Britain there has been an increasing amount of sulphur in the soil. In the river there is not enough sulphur for the acid to react in great quantities. However, in the soil there is a great collection of sulphur to aid the reaction. When it joins the water the pH becomes much lower. This is the most deadly effect of acid rain on our water! The water itself does not contain enough sulphur to kill off its population of fish and plants. But with the sulphur in the soil it does have a devastating effect. ( Parfit, National Geographic)

Acid rain is a substantial crisis. It causes the death of our lakes, our rivers, our wildlife and most importantly us. Consequently, it causes other problems that are very serious as well such as the release of aluminum and lead into our water supplies. We are suffering because of it. The industries of the world must cut down on the release of chemicals or proper disposal methods must be developed. It will take time; even if acid rain itself were to be eliminated today we would have the problem for years to come because of the content of chemicals in the soil. Acid rain remains one of the many quandaries to be faced in the new millennium.

At the beginning of the 20th century, most rivers and lakes such as the Tovdal River in Norway had not yet begun to die. However, by 1926 local inspectors were noticing that many of the lakes were beginning to show signs of death. Fish were found dead along the banks of many rivers. As the winter's ice began to melt off, hundreds of dead fish (trout in particular) were being found. It was at this time that scientist began to search for the reason. As the scientists continued to work they found many piles of dead fish, up to 5000 in one pile, further up the river. Divers were sent in to examine the bottom of the rivers. What they found were many more dead fish. Many live and dead specimens were taken back to labs across Norway. When the live specimens were examined they were found to have v

Some common words found in the essay are:
Iron Fe, River Norway, Calcium Limestone, PH PH, Dr Rosenqvist, Geographic Acid, Geographic Aluminum, Rain Acid, Pollution Acid, National Geographic, acid rain, parfit national, national geographic, parfit national geographic, fish plants, dead fish, acid rain it's, lakes rivers, rain it's, ph level 59, water pollution, dr rosenqvist, believed due, rain it's own, gay water pollution,
Approximate Word count = 1882
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)