This study describes the origins of acid rain, how it is formed, the ecological and human effects, and prevention methods. It also examines debates within the scientific community as a basis for evaluating policy decisions. A comprehensive review of pollution control techniques questions which technologies are currently available, their future availability, or whether they are merely theoretical. The authors frame the economic and political context for making decisions about acid rain control policy and offer valuable insights about the underlying dynamics of the environmental policymaking process for the near future.

Representing the Proceedings of the International Speciality Conference "Acid Rain Research; Do we have enough answers?", this book provides a valuable conclusion to the coordinated research on acidification in the Netherlands from 1985 to 1994. The book focuses on atmospheric deposition, effects of acid deposition on forest ecosystems in the Netherlands, and future acidification research. Special attention is given to: trace gases; ammonia; and particle deposition; and the overall assessment of deposition loads to ecosystems and soils is also discussed. This volume will be invaluable to environmental scientists, ecologists, and those involved in atmospheric science/pollution.

The climate change reckoning looms. As scientists try to discern what the Earth’s changing weather patterns mean for our future, Rachel Rothschild seeks to understand the current scientific and political debates surrounding the environment through the history of another global environmental threat: acid rain. The identification of acid rain in the 1960s changed scientific and popular understanding of fossil fuel pollution’s potential to cause regional—and even global—environmental harms. It showed scientists that the problem of fossil fuel pollution was one that crossed borders—it could travel across vast stretches of the earth’s atmosphere to impact ecosystems around the world. This unprecedented transnational reach prompted governments, for the first time, to confront the need to cooperate on pollution policies, transforming environmental science and diplomacy. Studies of acid rain and other pollutants brought about a reimagining of how to investigate the natural world as a complete entity, and the responses of policy makers, scientists, and the public set the stage for how societies have approached other prominent environmental dangers on a global scale, most notably climate change. Grounded in archival research spanning eight countries and five languages, as well as interviews with leading scientists from both government and industry, Poisonous Skies is the first book to examine the history of acid rain in an international context. By delving deep into our environmental past, Rothschild hopes to inform its future, showing us how much is at stake for the natural world as well as what we risk—and have already risked—by not acting.

The causes and consequences of acid rain are subjects of widespread concern and controversy. However the effects of acid deposition on the chemistry of lakes and streams, and on the survival of fish and other aquatic life, have been greatly clarified by the results of a recent Anglo-Scandinavian surface waters research program. This book presents a concise, nonspecialist account of the results and their implications by the director of the program. Based on studies conducted throughout the United Kingdom and northern Europe, the book includes chapters on emissions, transport, and deposition of acid pollution; hydrochemical studies in catchments; catchment process studies; catchment manipulation experiments; the role of hydrology and soil chemistry; palaeolimnological studies; the toxic effects of acidification on fish and other aquatic life; and catchment modelling studies. The highly interdisciplinary nature of the research should appeal to a wide range of scientists and to policy-makers interested in acid rain and its consequences. It is also aimed at postgraduates and third-year undergraduate students in the environmental sciences.