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in a few more decades
if
that weakens their
that sometimes hangs over
AcidRain
nothing drastic is done. By
resístance to drought, frost,
Alaska is thought by some
From
then. grOl.ndwater will be
fungi and bacteria.
authorities to come from
undrinkable unless treated,
Other biologists report
Japan.
theSkies-
and much of Scandinavia's
acid rain can also eat away
lt's ironic that the tal!
forests will be destroyed.
leaves, leach nutrients from
industrial smokestacks that
An lmmediate
The major source of
soil, interfere with
were built in past decades
pollutants causing acid
photosynthesis and affect
to reduce poUution in areas
Global Threat
precipitation over large areas the nitrogen-fixing capabilities surrounding plants are the
ot
severa! continents is the
ot
plants such as peas and
major villains for spreading
vastty expanded use
ot
soybeans. In many places in
acid rain hundreds or
One would be strained to
tossil fuels-mainly coa! and
Europe forest growth is
thousands
ot
miles away.
devise a more subtle, yet
oil-by industry and motor
slowing down. Forests in
These giant stacks merely
deadly and effective form of vehicles since World War
l .
East Gennany and
spew poUutants higher into
chemical warfare to destroy
Normal rain ís slightty
Czechoslovakia are reported the atmosphere where they
vast areas of the earth:
acid. containing carbonic
to have worse forest
have more time to mix with
rains more acid than
acid formed from carbon
mortality than West Germany moisture and fall as acid
vinegar; mists and fogs that
dioxide occurring naturally in
because of vast outpourings
precipitation far away.
corrode machinery, buildings the atmosphere. Acid rain is
of industrial pollutants.
There is one ameliorating
and paint ; snow that when it created when sulfur and
factor for some areas
melts kills aquatic life with
nitrogen oxides emitted by
Source of Tensions
affected by acid rain. lt soils
concentrated toxic runoff.
power plants, industries,
Acid rain is the cause of
are blessed with limestone in
And, in addition, these tragic motor vehicles and other
growing tensions between
their composition or
results: slowed timber
sources combine with
nations. Scandinavians claim
bedrock, the acid in rainfall
growth; reduced crop
moisture in the air to form
they are being
"bont>ed"
can be somewhat
production; soil leached of
more dangerous Stifuric and with other nations' poUution
neutralized.
But
if
soil
tertility; corroded metal pipes; nitric acids. About 90
and the destruction seems
covering is thin and the
and increased toxic metal
percent of the suffur comes
little different from battlefleld
underlying rock is acidic
poisoning in drinking water.
trom
man-made sources.
chemical warfare. They claim granite, there is little to
lt's all caused by acid
Scientists report rain and
British, West German and
buffer the acid corrosion.
precipitation falling trom
snow over many areas of
other European tactories'
Energy and economic
industrially polluted skies.
the earth are many times
polluted air converges in their crises have worsened the
The pollution is carried by more acidic than normal
areas. The Swedes claim 75
prospects for quick action to
prevailing winds from city to
precipitation.
percent of their acid rain
solve this problem. To the
city, nation to nation, and
Vast Acld Scars
comes from potlutants
contrary, more coa!, and
even continent to confinen!.
originated elsewhere;
the
particularty more high sultur
tt
ís a pollution time
bomb
Areas most devastated by
Norwegians clam 90 percent coal ,
is
being substituted for
already devastating many
acid rain so far are North
ot
theirs does.
oil in more power plants and
areas of the wortd's
America, Scandinavia and
United States and
industries. Industrial and auto
ecosystems. Many scientists other parts of Europe.
Canadian officials are up in
emission standards are
and environmentalists regard
In West Germany,
arms at each other for tailing
being relaxed in some areas
acid rain as the world's
deformed limbs and gray
to take proper action to
to reduce costs tor
most serious environmental
skeletons of countless
reduce exports of industrial
industries struggling to cope
problem.
diseased trees,- victims of
pollutants that turn into acíd
with intlation and recession.
"The acidification of land
acid rain, resemble the
rain. Canada says it is worse
Although "scrubbers" can
and water is perhaps
defoliated forests of a
off as it receives four times
remove up to 90 percent
ot
Europe's most serious
battleground. One West
as many pollutants from
the
sulfur emíssions in coal-fired
environmental problem in
the
German torestry expert
United States as winds carry
plants, the costs of such
'80s," said Mats Segnestam estmates 30 percent of
trom Canada to the United
equipment are staggering
of the Swedish Society tor
West German woodland is
States.
and prohibitive for many
the Conservation
ot
Nature.
succumbing to airbome
Hundreds
ot
lakes in
industries.
" lt is hardly an exaggeration contamination. In Bavaria,
Canada and the United
Yet to do nothing now
to cal! it an environmental
more than 50 percent of
States, particularty in the
means more nightrnarish
disaster."
pine trees are endangered.
northeastern regions of each environmental disasters in
About 4,000
ot
Sweden's
This forestry expert
country. have had fish and
the future.
lakes and more than 1,500
believes the ground has
aquatic lite eliminated.
Acid rain is becoming an
of Norway's have had all
been poisoned by decades
Aquatic reproductive cycles
international nightrnare.
1t
will
fish lite destroyed.
of falling sulfur dioxide and
and plankton have been
require world cooperation
Thousands of other lakes
heavy metals such as lead
destroyed. Thousands of
and global changes in living
are endangered. One
and cadmium. He feels such other lakes, streams and
pattems to solve it.
But
that
authority estimates most of
pollutants put trees in a
rivers in North America are
cooperation is nowhere on
Sweden's lakes will be killed state
ot
permanent stress
threatened. The acidic haze
the horizon.
February 1983
25