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Title: Acid rain: Rhetoric and reality

Abstract

Acid rain is now one of the most serious environmental problems in developed countries. Emissions and fallout were previously extremely localized, but since the introduction of tall stacks policies in both Britain and the US - pardoxically to disperse particulate pollutants and hence reduce local damage - emissions are now lifted into the upper air currents and carried long distances downwind. The acid rain debate now embraces many western countries - including Canada, the US, England, Scotland, Wales, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, West Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland - and a growing number of eastern countries - including the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. The problem of acid rain arises, strictly speaking, not so much from the rainfall itself as from its effects on the environment. Runoff affects surface water and groundwater, as well as soils and vegetation. Consequently changes in rainfall acidity can trigger off a range of impacts on the chemistry and ecology of lakes and rivers, soil chemistry and processes, the health and productivity of plants, and building materials, and metallic structures. The most suitable solutions to the problems of acid rain require prevention rather than cure, and there is broad agreement in both the politicalmore » scientific communities on the need to reduce emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides to the atmosphere. Book divisions discuss: the problem of acid rain, the science of acid rain, the technology of acid rain, and the politics of acid rain, in an effort to evaluate this growing global problem of acid rain.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
5858160
Resource Type:
Book
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT; ACID RAIN; GLOBAL ASPECTS; AIR POLLUTION; DEPOSITION; ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; EMISSION; GROUND WATER; NITROGEN OXIDES; RUNOFF; STACKS; SULFATES; SURFACE WATERS; ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS; CHALCOGENIDES; DISTRIBUTION; ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT; HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS; MASS TRANSFER; NITROGEN COMPOUNDS; OXIDES; OXYGEN COMPOUNDS; POLLUTION; RAIN; SULFUR COMPOUNDS; WATER; 540120* - Environment, Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-); 540320 - Environment, Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-); 010900 - Coal, Lignite, & Peat- Environmental Aspects

Citation Formats

Park, C C. Acid rain: Rhetoric and reality. United States: N. p., 1987. Web.
Park, C C. Acid rain: Rhetoric and reality. United States.
Park, C C. 1987. "Acid rain: Rhetoric and reality". United States.
@article{osti_5858160,
title = {Acid rain: Rhetoric and reality},
author = {Park, C C},
abstractNote = {Acid rain is now one of the most serious environmental problems in developed countries. Emissions and fallout were previously extremely localized, but since the introduction of tall stacks policies in both Britain and the US - pardoxically to disperse particulate pollutants and hence reduce local damage - emissions are now lifted into the upper air currents and carried long distances downwind. The acid rain debate now embraces many western countries - including Canada, the US, England, Scotland, Wales, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, West Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland - and a growing number of eastern countries - including the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia. The problem of acid rain arises, strictly speaking, not so much from the rainfall itself as from its effects on the environment. Runoff affects surface water and groundwater, as well as soils and vegetation. Consequently changes in rainfall acidity can trigger off a range of impacts on the chemistry and ecology of lakes and rivers, soil chemistry and processes, the health and productivity of plants, and building materials, and metallic structures. The most suitable solutions to the problems of acid rain require prevention rather than cure, and there is broad agreement in both the political scientific communities on the need to reduce emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides to the atmosphere. Book divisions discuss: the problem of acid rain, the science of acid rain, the technology of acid rain, and the politics of acid rain, in an effort to evaluate this growing global problem of acid rain.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5858160}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1987},
month = {Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1987}
}

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