Acid Rain
Acid rain forms when sulfur and nitrogen dioxides combine with moisture
in the atmosphere to produce rain, snow, or another kind of precipitation. This
kind of pollution may also be suspended in fog or deposited in a dry form. Acid
rain is most common in North America and Europe. Acid rain has also been
detected in other areas of the world such as tropical rain forests of Africa.
Canada has placed limitations on the sulfur emissions. The United States has
not, so the emissions may still drift into Canada.
The acid rain cycle begins with hundreds of power plants burning
millions of tons of coal. Burning coal produces electricity for us. Coal is
made of carbon, but the coal that we mine is not pure carbon. It is mixed with
other minerals. Two of these are sulfur and nitrogen. Then the coal is burned
some of the sulfur changes into sulfur dioxide and nitrogen changes into
nitrogen oxide. These escape in to the air as poisonous gases. Some smokestacks
release......
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