Word: sulfurously
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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ACCORDING TO MOST REPORTS, the two films dealing with acid rain--"Acid From Heaven" and "Acid Rain: Requiem or Recovery"--present a low-key, moderate account of one of the most highly injurious forms of air pollution. Acid rain, which results from sulfur dioxide emissions from coal and some power plants, poses a tremendous threat to the environment. Produced mainly in the Eastern U.S., it acidifies lakes and streams, killing fish and other aquatic wildlife, and has been found to cause excessive root decay to forests and crops and to corrode man-made structures. The human dangers of acid rain...
...large swatches of the earth in a multiplicity of colors, some of them beyond the range of human vision. Returning to the same site every 16 days, it can sound the alarm to changes in the health of crops, spot flows of pollutants into bodies of water, or track sulfur-laden clouds from fuming volcanoes...
...penalty unless it was preceded by terror, torture and humiliation, preferably in public. One of history's most spectacular executions was that of Damiens, the unsuccessful assassin of Louis XV, in Paris in 1757. His flesh was torn with red-hot pincers, his right hand was burned with sulfur, his wounds were drenched with molten lead, his body was drawn and quartered by four horses, his parts were set afire and his ashes scattered to the winds. The execution was accomplished before a large crowd...
Such natural processes as volcanic eruptions, forest fires and the bacterial decomposition of organic matter produce some of the damaging acidic sulfur and nitrogen compounds. But most experts believe that the current problem is directly traceable to the burning of fossil fuels by power plants, factories and smelting operations and, to a lesser extent, auto emissions. When tall smokestacks vent their fumes, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and traces of such toxic metals as mercury and cadmium mix with water vapor in the atmosphere. Chemical reactions follow that form dilute solutions of nitric and sulfuric acids-acid rain...
Most utilities are vociferously opposed to any emission-control program without further research into the causes of acid rain. The industry argues that 1) scientific data on acid rain are still fuzzy, especially in the crucial matter of precisely who is responsible; 2) costs of eliminating sulfur-dioxide emissions by installing expensive "scrubbers" (which collect harmful substances before they are expelled) are prohibitive; and 3) it is questionable whether the situation is critical enough to justify immediate action. Says Joseph Dowd, general counsel for American Electric Power, which serves 2.5 million customers in the Midwest: "Installing scrubbers could break...