A Dream for a Better World

Acid rain, is the acid rainfall with PH less than 5.65. The “acid” of acid rain mainly means sulfuric acid and nitric acid which come from nitrogen oxides discharged by industrious production, coal burning and automobile exhaust.
Acid rain will cause the following harmful results: 1. fish and shrimps will be killed 2. Heritages outdoor will be damaged 3. Buildings and industrial equipment will be corroded 4. Forest will be damaged 5. Water contaminated by acid rain is harmful to people’s health 6. Soil will be destroyed and crops growth will be badly affected.
At present, there are three areas all over the world suffering from acid rain and they are west Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. Some south parts of our country are terribly suffering from acid rain and in recent years, acid rain can be found more and more in our country. In 1980s, acid rain mainly occurred in Chongqing, Guiyang and Liuzhou and the acid rain area was about 170 square kilometers. In the middle of 1990s, acid rain expanded to the south of Yangtze River, Qinghai-Tibet plateau and Sichuan Basin and more 100 square kilometers area was suffering from acid rain. Changsha, Guangzhou, Nanchang, Huaihua and other cities which are polluted more terrible than the rest cities in China. The PH is lower than 4.0 and once it rains, those cities suffer from acid rain. In addition, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Qingdao etc are also badly affected by acid rain. Acid rain area has been up to 29% of whole national area and the area is becoming larger and larger year by year. According to some statistics in south part of China, crops loss is up to 42.6 billion every year and limber loss is up to 18 billion. In the whole country, direct loss caused by acid rain is up to 140 billion every year.
In west Europe, acid rain has also damaged environment. In Sweden, 18000 lakes are destroyed by acid rain. People in Germany consider acid rain as “green plague” because half forest in Germany is damaged by acid rain. “Black forest” has turned into “yellow forest” in Germany. In North America, people also cannot escape acid rain because of rapid industrial development. According to some test, acid rain occurred in south of Canada is more acid than tomato juice and acid rain in Virginia OG America is far more acid than acetic acid. Some lakes damaged by acid rain seem very clean and clear but they have been dead lakes actually.
As for acid rain damage, people in different countries have taken some pressures to control it. In the past 10 years, sulfur dioxide discharge in Sweden has been decreased by 40%. Norway also has reduced waste discharge in accordance with the level of the lowest standard in Europe. Government in Athens imposes strict rules on automobiles. Canadian government also formulated some laws to control sulfur dioxide waste. In China, the government makes every effort to develop advanced equipment to eliminate sulfur dioxide waste and strictly control coal with much sulfur exploitation. Though people have got great achievement for acid rain treatment, they still have a long way to go.

Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated electricity.  In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half.  The secret? A piece of dark polymer foil, as thin a sheet of paper. It is so light it can be stuck to the sides of buildings. It can be mass-produced in cheap rolls like packaging – in any color. The “tipping point” will arrive when the capital cost of solar power falls below $1 (51p) per watt, roughly the cost of carbon power.

Coal is finally getting a bad rap.  For example, in America, a judge in Georgia has cancelled a permit for a new coal power station citing carbon dioxide emissions concerns. Environmentalists think this is the beginning of the end of conventional coal-fired power plants, because of the enormity of their emissions.  In the UK, a think tank is recommending a minimum two-year block on coal-power investment. The Institute for Public Policy Research says this is needed to hit Europe’s 21% reduction in heavy industry greenhouse emissions by 2020.  Finally, in Australia, eco-campaigners have decried a new AU$750 million coal power plant as “complete madness”.

Many people focus on South America, and Brazil in particular, as the major culprits of deforestation. But Africa is losing forest land just as quickly and mainly due to the desperation of the poverty stricken population. Coal is lighter, cheaper and easier to produce than other forms of fuel. 80% of fuel is still coal based in Africa, which leads to a huge amount of legal and illegal logging to supply the demand for fuel. And people will continue to log the forests until the find an alternative cheap fuel and income.