Atmosphere

5 Pages 1195 Words

There are many environmental problems that are currently plaguing the earth. Many of them are caused by humans and some just occur naturally. Environmental pollution isn’t just an issue that has just been noticed now. Investigators in England during 1661 noticed that emissions coming from industrial plants were contributing to pollution. While working as a consultant for the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology and Government, Michael E. Kowalok wrote the article “Common Threads” expressing the concern for the environmental problems that are happening in the world and some of the obstacles that stand in the way of improvement. Many of the problems that are currently hurting the environment are acid rain, stratospheric ozone depletion and global warming.
As early as 1661, investigators realized that the waste product being released from smoke stacks in England were releasing harmful emissions that had the ability to change the environment. The main problem that they were concerned with was that it had the ability to travel long distances across Europe. The problem they were dealing with would later be known as acid rain. Britain’s first Alkali inspector Robert Angus Smith, noticed that the acidic rain made metals corrode and textiles to fade faster. In the book he wrote, “Air and Rain: The Beginnings of Chemical Climatology,” he explains the main principles that make up acid rain and the chemistry that makes it up. Scientists also 100 years later used the foundation of his research and went to Sweden to study different types of rain and noted that rain coming from the sea contained more salt and the rain coming from industrial areas contained more sulfuric acid. Connections were being made that ecosystems were being polluted with acidic rain coming from industrial areas.
Scientists were using data from other fields of research to help study their main areas a focus and research. Svante Oden is a soil scientists who ...