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What is acid rain?

Rain is naturally slightly acidic. Rain that is made more acidic by sulfuric and/or nitric acid is called "acid rain." Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide are both gases emitted by car exhaust and industrial smokestacks. These gases react with moisture in the air to form sulfuric acid and nitric acid, respectively. The term "acid rain" was coined by British chemist Robert Angus Smith (1817-1884) who, in 1872, published Air and Rain: The Be-ginnings of a Chemical Climatology.

Acid rain causes various types of ecological damage. For one, it raises the acidity of lakes and rivers, making them inhospitable to many species of animals. Hundreds of highly acidic lakes in North America (especially northeastern United States and Canada) and in Scandinavia can no longer support fish. Acid rain also gradually eats away the surfaces of objects it encounters. Acid rain makes plants more susceptible to frost,...

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1. Ecology
   1. What is ecology?
   2. How does a food chain work?
   3. What is a food web?
   4. What is a biome?
   5. Why is El Nino harmful?
   6. How does ozone benefit life on Earth?
   7. What is red tide and what causes it?
2. Environmental Degradation
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   2. How many acres of tropical forest does the world lose annually?
   3. What products come from tropical forests?
   4. Who coined the term "Spaceship Earth"?
   5. How long will it be before all tropical forests have been destroyed, if present rates of destruction continue?
   6. What is the greenhouse effect?
   7. What are the components of smog?
   8. How do chlorofluorocarbons affect the Earth's ozone layer?
   9. What are flue gas "scrubbers"?
   10. What is acid rain?
   11. How acidic is acid rain?
   12. What are PCBs?
   13. What is eutrophication?
   14. Where are the radioactive waste disposal sites in the United States?
   15. How much oil is dumped into the seas?
   16. Where did the first major oil spill occur?
   17. Which pollutants lead to indoor air pollution?
   18. How much solid waste is generated annually in the United States?
   19. How much garbage does the average American generate?
   20. How much does packaging contribute to municipal solid waste?
   21. How critical is the problem of landfilling in the United States?
   22. What are Operation Ranch Hand and Agent Orange?
   23. What is the NIMBY syndrome?
   24. How much waste paper does a newspaper generate?
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   4. Are turtles endangered?
   5. What was the first animal on the U.S. endangered species list?
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   10. What were the smallest and largest dinosaurs?
   11. Did dinosaurs and humans live at the same time?
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   5. What was the United States' first national park?
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