The Acid Rain Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Acid Rain - Research Paper Example Looking back in the history, the rate of emission of these harmful substances has increased to a very dangerous level leading to a severely polluted environment. The depletion of the ozone layer, noise pollution, global warming and acid rain are some of the dangerous affects of the increased pollution that are concerning the scientists nowadays. Acid rain has been a major concern for the scientists throughout the world after global warming. Acid rain is called as excessive quantities of acidic gases such as carbon dioxide, nitric oxide in the air. These gasses accumulate in the air increasing its ph to less than 5.6 and fall on the earth in either solid or wet forms. The wet form could be rain, fog or snow while the dry form could be the in the form of dust settling on the surface (Bubenick 1984). The effects of this falling rain and the dust settling on the surface of earth are detrimental. The causes of acid rain are mainly the excessive smoke generated by the burning of fossil fuels in the factories and the smoke emitted by the increased number of vehicles sunning on the roads. Although the fumes emitted by the volcanoes also add to this acidity but the human factor is considered more important and contributing to the increased acidity. The major gasses to contribute in the formation of acid rain are sulphur dioxide, nitric oxide and carbon dioxide. These gasses combine with the water droplets in the air and form acids such as sulphuric and nitric acid. The acids formed as a result come down on the earth in the form of rain, snow or fog (Bubenick 1984). The detrimental effects of acid rain are observed on all the aspects of human life and the environment. The major effects observed are on the water life of earth. The water that is falling on the earth follows down in the form of streams and channels to the seas and increased the acidity of all these water channels kill the aquatic life including the frogs, the fish and other small animals. These dead

Toxic waste-see information I sent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Toxic waste-see information I sent - Essay Example the December 3, 1984 incident in Bhopal wherein 3,000 residents were immediately killed after an industrial accident and produced toxic wastes that continued to cause adverse effects to the residents of the said city. In the same manner, this paper would look into the actions of the government in trying to solve these problems and why they are always blamed for their inefficiency and apathy when it comes to environmental problems. On September 11, 2000, the environmental group, Greenpeace blamed the Indian government for its failure to protect the country from being a dumping ground for toxic wastes (Bbc.co.uk 1). According to the same group, industrialized nations such as Germany, the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway all contribute in the exportation of their industrial wastes and hazardous materials to India. These include the following: (1) zinc ash; (2) lead waste; (3) used batteries; and finally, (4) metal scraps. BBC.co.uk (1) says that these toxic wastes continue to enter the country despite the ban implemented by the Indian Supreme Court back in 1997 due to the country’s lack of mechanism that could help in the enforcement of these laws. Aside from blaming the inefficiency of the government in dealing with environmental problems, Greenpeace, in BBC.co.uk (1) also blames the exporting country governments in taking advantage of the limitations of the India’s regulatory structure, thus continuing to export more toxic wastes to the country, Baynham (1) also recognized the inability of the Indian government to enforce laws to help in preventing the toxic wastes mentioned above from entering the country. In fact, India is a signatory of various international laws such as the Basel Convention which aims to curb the trade of toxic materials and the Stockholm Convention Persistent Organic Pollutants which says that landfills are not proper disposal sites of PCB wastes. The aforementioned is said to have