Miljørapport 1988:14

Acidification is one of the most serious environmental problems - especially in Sweden, which suffers most from the consequences of acid rain. Besides international negotiations to reduce sulphur emissions - 85% of the acid load on Sweden can be traced to emissions from outside the country itself - the Swedish Government has employed large-scale, operative liming activities to counteract acidification of surface waters. The scientific results show that - although acidification cannot be solved by liming alone - the measures taken resulted in substantial improvements to around 8,000 Swedish lakes and watercourses. The idea is that other countries affected by acidification may also profit from this experience.

The Acid Rain 2000 Conference in Tsukuba, Japan, held 10-16 December 2000, was the sixth such conference in the series, starting with Columbus, Ohio, USA, in 1975, and including Sandefjord, Norway, in 1980, Muskoka, Canada, in 1985, Glasgow, UK, in 1990, and Göteborg, Sweden, in 1995. This series of International Conferences on the acid rain problem has made a very important contribution to the process of summarising the state of current understanding and making this information available. In the 6th Conference, approximately 600 papers were presented, including talks and posters. About 300 peer-reviewed papers from the presentation appear in this volume, and will provide readers with a comprehensive review of the history and scientific aspects of the acid rain problem. The papers appear in three volumes: the first containing the plenary and keynote papers and the other two the remaining scientific papers. (Volume 1: ISBN 0-7923-7132-1; Volume 2: ISBN 0-7923-7133-X; Volume 3: ISBN 0-7923-7134-8). The Conference was arranged under the joint auspices of The Science Council of Japan, The Japanese Society of Limnology (representative academic society), Japan Association of Aerosol Science and Technology, The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry, Japan Society for Atmospheric Environment, Chemical Society of Japan, The Ecological Society of Japan, The Japanese Society of Environmental Education, Society of Environmental Science, Japan, The Japanese Forestry Society, Japanese Society of Snow and Ice, Japanese Society of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, and Japan Society on Water Environment, with the cooperation of Ibaraki Prefecture and Japan Environment Agency.

The environmental impacts of acid rain: on human health, on buildings and materials, on forests, freshwaters, crops and biodiversity and on global warming have been well-documented. Less is known about the extent and economic costs of these impacts. This book describes the first major implementation of an integrated scientific and economic assessment of the consequences of acid rain. It provides an extensive data review and examines how this unique approach to assessment modelling can be can be used to calculate an acidification cost per unit of pollutant in monetary terms. Part One focuses on the methodological issues of scientific measurement of acidification, dose-response relationships and economic approaches to acidification control. Part Two looks at the environmental impacts and economic consequences of acidification. Affected environmental media and human health are investigated in separate chapters, each including both scientific and economic analyses. Part Three provides a summary of the findings and makes recommendations for further application of these types of results to policy actions.