How Acidic Is Your Rain?
ES1807  Acid Rain in the News

Stories about acid rain are common in print and on television. Below are several recent news items that describe the effects of acid rain on the environment.
CNN

Acid rain still endangers Adirondacks

SARANAC, New York (CNN) -- A new federal study finds that acid rain still devastates lakes in the Adirondacks, 10 years after Congress amended the Clean Air Act to deal with the problem. The report comes as no surprise to 94-year-old Clarence Petty, who for a lifetime has seen the trout steadily disappear from his boyhood haunts.

Petty's lake was slowly poisoned by acid rain, pollution that comes from burnt oil and coal, blown in primarily from Midwest utility plants.

April 19, 2000, Cable News Network

Appalachian Mountain Club

Acid rain eats away at Northeast

Acid rain continues to plague the northeastern United States, and legislation enacted in 1990 has done little to remedy the situation, according to a recent report by the federal General Accounting Office.

Saturday, April 1, 2000, Environmental News Network
courtesy Biointo

Acid rain affects Virginia trout

Only half of Virginia's mountain streams support brook trout populations, down from 82 percent 100 years ago, say scientists at the University of Virginia. The researchers believe acid rain is primarily to blame.

...Unless acidic emissions from power plants and other sources are reduced dramatically, Bulger says, that number will be about 42 percent by 2050.

May 14, 1999, Environmental News Network
courtesy NREl

Acid rain works fast, study finds

Acid rain dissolves forest nutrients much faster than previously believed, posing a threat to future forest productivity, according to a study conducted by researchers from three universities in the southeastern United States.

March 12, 1999, Environmental News Network

In spite of the national attention this issue often receives, the causes and effects of acid rain are still poorly understood by many citizens.

1. List at least three things that you currently know about acid rain.

 


	

 	

		
			
	

	
	

		 
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