Environmental_Essay

Environmental Essay The measure of acidity is called pH. Our water has a pH of 7, meaning neutral. A substance with a pH of six would be considered mildly acidic, but a pH of 1 is extremely acidic. The average pH of rain in most of the Northeast is 4.3, a highly acidic rain. This is the result of a long history of industry that has existed in the area, and also because of weather patterns carrying pollution from the Midwest and similarly polluting regions. Acid rain can harm both the land and the water. It is most damaging when it falls in streams, lakes, and on thin, sandy soil low in calcium carbonate (lime). Lime neutralizes the effects of the acid. Aside from polluting topsoil acid rain can alter entire ecosystems. Desert areas of the United States such as Arizona and New Mexico have a fairly basic topsoil. The change that acid rainfall to those and other like areas could be potentially disastrous to the biological organisms that are adapted to the environment there, especially the plant life which ultimately provides food for all the animals of any ecosystem. The main sources of sulfur dioxide in the United States are fifty high-sulfur-coal-burning electricity-generating plants rain, acid, water, united, problem, ph, states, power, dioxide, chemicals, weather, topsoil, sulfur, soil, plants, nations, lakes, areas, air, time, source, solar, smoke, reduce, pollution, polluting, pollute, water, patterns, over, much, life, industrialized, human, highly, heavy, grows, global, fuels, fossil, forms, filled, evaporated, environment, disastrous, clouds, canada, both, becomes, acidified, acidic