Word: acidity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...percent of the 24 tons of sulfur dioxide dumped into the air of the Midwest and Northeast each year. There is no doubt that this sulfur dioxide is carried hundreds of miles away, with a final resting place somewhere in northeastern North America. And there is no doubt that acid rain has engendered an international--and international--debate marked by some appropriately acerbic rhetoric...
...aside from the fact that sulfur dioxide goes up, and acid rain comes down, the coal producers, utilities, environmentalists, and politicians involved agree on virtually nothing...
After nearly a decade of research, the effects of acid rain on the lakes and forests of the Northeast are still not clear. The Canadian Government and environmentalists in this country insist that acid rain is killing millions of fish and trees. American electric utilities and coal producers dispute this conclusion. And for two years, the Reagan Administration equivocated, claiming that not enough research had been done to take a position. Last June, though, two reports on acid rain from two prestigious sources changed the whole complexion of the conflict...
...first report--released on June 24--was prepared by a blue-ribbon panel appointed by Presidential Science Advisor George Keyworth II Concluded the committee. "If we take the conservative point of view that we must wait until scientific knowledge is definite, the accumulated deposition [of acid rain] and damaged environment may reach the point of 'irreversibility." The recommendation: "Steps should be taken now which will result in meaningful reductions in the emissions of sulfur compounds into the atmosphere, beginning with those steps which are most cost-effective in reducing total [acid rain] deposition...
...committee expressed special concern for the yet unknown effects of acid rain on the microorganisms in soil that break down natural wastes into carbon and nitrogen. Committee Chairman William A. Neirenberg--director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography--called this "a worrisome thing...that you're not going to sit around and wait 20 years" to confirm...