Acid rain is one of the atmospheric events due to the increased pollution load of gaseous and particulate pollutants. Normal rain water is always slightly acidic because CO2 present in the atmosphere gets dissolved in it forming carbonic acid, H2CO3. Because of the presence of SO2 and NO2 molecules as contaminants in the atmosphere, the rainwater pH is reduced higher, often to as low as 2.4 and this form of lower pH accumulation is called acid rain.
Acid rain is more toxic than it’d been. Acid rain is a dynamic problem that influences the composition of soil and water, and the cycles of plant and animal life on land and in water. In addition, environmental patterns disperse in large amounts lead to air emissions and causes of acid rain. Scientists have found that the primary causes of acid rain is air emissions from fossil-fuel combustion. Acid rain and the air pollution it creates will have a considerable impact on habitats. Acid rain doesn’t make up for all the acidity caused by waste that comes down to earth.
Deforestation Effects on Environment
Deforestation as an issue has assumed a global prominence in the past decade. Deforestation is an intrinsically complex global issue. Deforestation accelerates to meet short term needs. It generates income that can be used to meet the minimum acceptable consumption level. This complexity arises from two broad factors. First, deforestation introduces a wide range of political actors, from government and international civil society, with a direct or an indirect stake in forest use.
Deforestation is one of the nuclear power’s principal demerits. It can be characterized as a forest change with a loss of over 90 per cent of tree crown cover. Nevertheless, it is understood that the reduction of forest tree crown cover is less than 90% forest loss. Many of the causes of deforestation are soil erosion, droughts, animal habitat destruction, global warming, the disappearance of certain animals, and threat to local societies’ survival.
Adverse Effects of Acid Rain
Acid rain exerts both direct and indirect effects on the organisms and materials it comes in contact with. The direct effects of acid rain are determined by the concentration of pollutants in the air. They are mainly of local nature with a geographical extent of a few kms. They decline rapidly with distance from the emission source. They affect organisms and materials and cause more harm at a distance up to hundreds and sometimes thousands of kms.
The dry deposition has a variety of potential environmental effects. It attacks building materials, mainly calcareous, sandstone, marble, steel, nickel and other metals, resulting in the loss of millions of rupees spent on building structures such as statues and buildings. The wet deposition has a direct as well as indirect effects. It increases the acidity of lakes and rivers which is made worse by the inflow of acids and metals from nearby solid. The wet deposition also affects aquatic as well as terrestrial ecosystems. It transports metals such as various metals into soil water, ground water, lakes and streams, depleting the stocks of nutrients in the soil, thereby causing harm to various ecosystems.