Information about Acid Rain

   Acid rain is a common term for pollution caused when sulfur and nitrogen dioxides combine with atmospheric moisture to produce a rain, snow, or hail of sulfuric and nitric acids.  Such pollution may also be suspended in a fog, or the pollutants may be deposited in dry form.  Environmental damage from acid rain has been reported in northern Europe and North America.  High levels of acid rain have also been detected in other areas of the world, such as above the tropical rain forest of Africa. Acid rain has destroyed plant and animal life in lakes, damaged forests and crops, endangered marine life in coastal waters, eroded structures, and contaminated drinking water.

   Research has shown that although some of the damage attributed to acid rain is a result of natural causes, sulfur dioxide from oil and coal combustion and nitrogen oxides produced from automobile engines have greatly intensified the acid rain problem.  Winds can carry the pollutants thousands of kilometers away from their source.  The British government has recognized that sulfur emissions from power plants in the United Kingdom are contributing to acid deposition in Scandinavia.  Canadian emissions contribute substantially to acid rain in the northeastern United States, for example, and much of the sulfur falling in eastern Canada is believed to originate in the United States.  In 1986 the U.S. National Academy of Sciences acknowledged that acid rain from U.S. sources had become a serious problem in the eastern United States and Canada.  Although the Canadian government has agreed to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, the United States has not placed limitations on its sulfur emissions that may drift into Canada.

   Scientists agree that acid rain is harmful, but reports concerning its severity conflict.  A U.S. government report issued in September 1987 minimized the environmental damage caused by acid rain and concluded that the acid-rain problem is not increasing.  A 1988 survey conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, however, indicated that streams in the eastern United States were more acidic than was previously believed.  In 1990 the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP), created by Congress in 1980, issued a report on the results of its study.  The report indicated that acidic waters also occur in the southern and midwestern United States but downplayed acid-rain damage to forests.

   Many scientists urge that measures to control acid rain begin immediately.  The most direct action would be to cut off pollution at the source.  Regulations require that new coal-burning plants must install expensive scrubbers in their smokestacks to remove most of the dioxides.  Other possible measures include burning only low-sulfur oil or coal, or removing the sulfur from coal with high sulfur content.  The 1990 revision of the Clean Air Act focuses on reducing urban smog, acid rain, and emissions.  The costs of such measures are considerable, however, and who should pay these costs continues to arouse controversy.

 

Forgiveness

This essay brings the message the sense of which is: "The only way for a family to exist is to forgive your relatives whenever you was offended"

   The first fall of snow is not only an event, but it is a magical event. You go to the bed in one kind of world and wake up to find yourself in another, quite different.  If all the snow fell at once in one shattering crash, the event would be robbed of its wonder. But it flutters down soundlessly hour after hour while we are asleep. And then, what an extraordinary change it is! Indeed, sometimes it's hard to believe that such big a change can take place in a very short period of time. 

    All what surrounds us changes and we change as well. Being a little boy, I never thought that there was something I had to like my parents for. In any episode I was sure that I acted right. My parents were on the wrong side.  Having grown up, I have to point out how wrong I was. All what could be do for me was done by my parents. All what could be given to me was given by them. Despite this, I never thought I had to appreciate them. I had in mind an idea that I was the one they had to love and esteem. I never thought about how fast they forgot my offends. But I always remembered all bad things  they told me and never passed a chance to remind them about those phrases and words.

    I remember one event that took place when I was six. I'm not sure whether it happens in other families, but in our it did. I stole money. It was not much money, but I stole it from my own parents. The remarkable fact is that if I had asked for it [money] and explained what I had needed it for, I would have gotten it. Well, I did not. I was caught. My parents prohibited me to watch TV for six months. They did it not because of our being short of money, but due to the every fact of steeling. Of course, I turned to be mad at them because, according to my attitude, there was nothing to worry about: money was found and returned.I did not get how hard it was for my mother and father to understand the fact that their own son is a thief. I started to cheat on them: I watched TV when nobody was home. They found it out. It was another stroke for them because they trusted me, but I lied to them.When my watching TV was no longer a secret for my parents they permitted me do it "legally." I thought I won. Now I understand that I was wrong thinking this way. They just did not want  to have me lie to them.  Besides, I'm sure they had forgiven me long time before they found out that I cheated on them.

   I have grown up. Now I regard many thing differently than I did it earlier. I can observe my mistakes that were in the past. I'm willing to admit that I did them. I confess to myself of acting not fair towards to my dad and mom. But I continue making mistakes and offending my parents. The difference is that now I know what is necessary to say in order to turn them mad. As for them, they know  the sort of things I hate to hear.

    Now I'm well paid "behind the scene worker." Imagine the situation. I need money in order to continue my education. But I don't want to spend money I earned to pay the tuition, but I ask my parents to pay for me. I  hide my money, so that my father and mother will help me to enter the university. In other words, I steel money frommy own parents again. It does not take much time for my parents to observe that I lied to them. The short conversation takes place. Although I'm willing to admit that I was wrong many times before, I'm absolutely sure this case is an exception. I go out of home, being sure that they will look for me. I feel offended. Indeed, my parents start to worry and look for me much faster than I expect.

     So, I stole money from my parents twice: being a young boy and a teenager. Does it mean that I do not change? I think it does not. I did alter. I learned how to forgive people. Maybe, it came to me from my mother and father. Maybe, their patience and willingness to live peacefully helped me to understand one thing: we are a family.

      People always have different attitudes and points of view. They may argue and shout and even offend each other. Sometimes we are offended so deeply, that it seems impossible to forget the person who did that. Sometimes a person can be the only one who thinks that he/she was right. People tend to hide their wrong acts. Almost nobody wants to admit that he/she is wrong. Almost nobody wants to do the first move towards to "peace making." But this is the precise reason why many people cannot stand each other. If it happens not among family members, it will not make "much noise." But what if it is going on inside a family? Now I now the answer: people have to forgive each other. Whatsoever it takes, but they have to forget who is right and who is wrong -- step beyond this point -- and try not to repeat this situation again. Otherwise, the family will split.

         

      Very often it is hard and difficult to forget offends which your close relatives tell you. It seems like you live in the worst family in the entire world. Maybe, it is bad, but just try to understand that this is the only family you have.