Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Language and measures
- Acknowledgements
- Permissions
- Part I The Litany
- Part II Human welfare
- Part III Can human prosperity continue?
- Part IV Pollution: does it undercut human prosperity?
- 15 Air pollution
- 16 Acid rain and forest death
- 17 Indoor air pollution
- 18 Allergies and asthma
- 19 Water pollution
- 20 Waste: running out of space?
- 21 Conclusion to Part IV: the pollution burden has diminished
- Part V Tomorrow's problems
- Part VI The Real State of the World
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
16 - Acid rain and forest death
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Language and measures
- Acknowledgements
- Permissions
- Part I The Litany
- Part II Human welfare
- Part III Can human prosperity continue?
- Part IV Pollution: does it undercut human prosperity?
- 15 Air pollution
- 16 Acid rain and forest death
- 17 Indoor air pollution
- 18 Allergies and asthma
- 19 Water pollution
- 20 Waste: running out of space?
- 21 Conclusion to Part IV: the pollution burden has diminished
- Part V Tomorrow's problems
- Part VI The Real State of the World
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Acid rain was the great horror of the 1980s. We saw the sick and dying trees on the TV news and were told that acid rain was killing our forests. Looking at publications from the 1980s one will see that they did not spare their readers when it came to descriptions. Acid rain was the “invisible plague” which was creating an “ecological Hiroshima.” The UN Brundtland report stated flat out that “in Europe, acid precipitation kills forests.” Several present-day ecology books repeat the charge.
A popular book published in 1989 with the title Acid Rain: Threats to Life told us:
An acid plague is sweeping the Earth. The rain, snow, fog, and mist have become acid because of pollution from factories and cars all over the world, and it has been converted to acid rain.
Acid rain destroys our buildings and statues but it is also threatens the natural environment.
One third of the German forests have been attacked, so the trees are either dead or dying.
4000 Swedish lakes are dead and 14,000 are in the process of dying…
In cities all over the Earth, people are being suffocated – or dying – because the smoke cannot escape…
Acid rain has become one of the most serious threats to life here on Earth.
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- Information
- The Skeptical EnvironmentalistMeasuring the Real State of the World, pp. 178 - 181Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001
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