Acid rain is a serious problem that creates disastrous effects. Each day this serious problem increases. Many people believe that this issue is too small to deal with right now -- they're wrong. This issue should be met head on, and solved before it is too late. Acid rain is a cancer -- eating into the face of Eastern Canada and the North Eastern United States. In Canada, the main sulfuric acid sources are non-ferrous smelters and power generation. On both sides of the border, cars and trucks are the main sources for nitric acid (about 40% of the total), while power generating plants and industrial commercial and residential fuel combustion contribute most of the rest. In the atmosphere, the sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can be transformed into sulfuric acid and nitric acid, and air currents can send them thousands of kilometers from the source. When the acids fall to the earth, no matter what form they take, it will have a large impact on the growth and the preservation of certain wildlife. Areas in Ontario, mainly southern regions that are near the Great Lakes, which have such substances such as limestone or other known antacids can neutralize acids entering the body of water thereby protecting it. However, large areas of Ontario that are near the Pre-Cambrian Shield, with quartzite or granite based geology and little top soil, do not have enough buffering capacity to neutralize even small amounts of acid falling on the soil and the lakes. Therefore, over time, the basic environment shifts from an alkaline to an acidic one, which is a serious effect because fish cannot live in acidic conditions. This is why many lakes in the Muskoka, Haliburton, Algonquin, Parry Sound and Manitoulin districts could lose their fisheries if sulfur emissions are not reduced substantially. The average mean of pH rainfall in Ontario's Muskoka-Haliburton lake country ranges between 3.95 and 4.38, which is about 40 times more acidic than normal rainfa...
