The climate change reckoning looms. As scientists try to discern what the Earth’s changing weather patterns mean for our future, Rachel Rothschild seeks to understand the current scientific and political debates surrounding the environment through the history of another global environmental threat: acid rain. The identification of acid rain in the 1960s changed scientific and popular understanding of fossil fuel pollution’s potential to cause regional—and even global—environmental harms. It showed scientists that the problem of fossil fuel pollution was one that crossed borders—it could travel across vast stretches of the earth’s atmosphere to impact ecosystems around the world. This unprecedented transnational reach prompted governments, for the first time, to confront the need to cooperate on pollution policies, transforming environmental science and diplomacy. Studies of acid rain and other pollutants brought about a reimagining of how to investigate the natural world as a complete entity, and the responses of policy makers, scientists, and the public set the stage for how societies have approached other prominent environmental dangers on a global scale, most notably climate change. Grounded in archival research spanning eight countries and five languages, as well as interviews with leading scientists from both government and industry, Poisonous Skies is the first book to examine the history of acid rain in an international context. By delving deep into our environmental past, Rothschild hopes to inform its future, showing us how much is at stake for the natural world as well as what we risk—and have already risked—by not acting.

This book provides a unique overview of research methods over the past 25 years assessing critical loads and temporal effects of the deposition of air pollutants. It includes critical load methods and applications addressing acidification, eutrophication and heavy metal pollution of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Applications include examples for each air pollution threat, both at local and regional scale, including Europe, Asia, Canada and the US. The book starts with background information on the effects of the deposition of sulphur, nitrogen and heavy metals and geochemical and biological indicators for risk assessments. The use of those indicators is then illustrated in the assessment of critical loads and their exceedances and in the temporal assessment of air pollution risks. It also includes the most recent developments of assessing critical loads and current and future risks of soil and water chemistry and biodiversity under climate change, with a special focus on nitrogen. The book thus provides a complete overview of the knowledge that is currently used for the scientific support of policies in the field of air pollution control to protect ecosystem services.

The causes and consequences of acid rain are subjects of widespread concern and controversy. However the effects of acid deposition on the chemistry of lakes and streams, and on the survival of fish and other aquatic life, have been greatly clarified by the results of a recent Anglo-Scandinavian surface waters research program. This book presents a concise, nonspecialist account of the results and their implications by the director of the program. Based on studies conducted throughout the United Kingdom and northern Europe, the book includes chapters on emissions, transport, and deposition of acid pollution; hydrochemical studies in catchments; catchment process studies; catchment manipulation experiments; the role of hydrology and soil chemistry; palaeolimnological studies; the toxic effects of acidification on fish and other aquatic life; and catchment modelling studies. The highly interdisciplinary nature of the research should appeal to a wide range of scientists and to policy-makers interested in acid rain and its consequences. It is also aimed at postgraduates and third-year undergraduate students in the environmental sciences.

Representing the Proceedings of the International Speciality Conference "Acid Rain Research; Do we have enough answers?", this book provides a valuable conclusion to the coordinated research on acidification in the Netherlands from 1985 to 1994. The book focuses on atmospheric deposition, effects of acid deposition on forest ecosystems in the Netherlands, and future acidification research. Special attention is given to: trace gases; ammonia; and particle deposition; and the overall assessment of deposition loads to ecosystems and soils is also discussed.This volume will be invaluable to environmental scientists, ecologists, and those involved in atmospheric science/pollution.

Ecosystem research has emerged in recent decades as a vital, successful, and sometimes controversial approach to environmental science. This book emphasizes the idea that much of the progress in ecosystem research has been driven by the emergence of new environmental problems that could not be addressed by existing approaches. By focusing on successes and limitations of ecosystems studies, the book explores avenues for future ecosystem-level research.

How damaging is acid rain? Current opinions differ widely, in part because for every proposed link between acid rain and adverse environmental effects an alternative explanation based on other phenomena can be or has been proposed, and in many cases cannot be readily dismissed. The specific areas addressed in this volume include the emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides, precipitation chemistry, atmospheric sulfates and visibility, surface water chemistry, sediment chemistry and abundance of diatom taxa, fish populations, and forest productivity. The book then draws conclusions about the acid deposition-phenomenon relationship, identifying phenomena which are directly acid deposition-caused and suggesting others apparently caused by human activities unrelated to acid deposition.

Acid rain has changed the face of the Adirondacks, created political tensions between the Northeast and the Midwest, and served as both a harbinger of global climate change and a "fire drill" for public- and private-sector responses to environmental crises. The history of acid rain research is a striking case in which a large-scale and long-term environmental problem was addressed in part through scientifically motivated changes in public policy. In the 1970s, acid rain was viewed as a simple problem that was limited in scope and characterized by "dead," fishless lakes. Scientists now have broader insights into the processes by which acid rain sets off a cascade of adverse effects in ecosystems as its components move through air, soil, vegetation, and surface waters. Written and designed to appeal to both scientists and lay readers, this book is a landmark example of scientific communication that provides a comprehensive scientific history of the phenomenon, from its discovery to the full understanding of the scope of its effects and the ultimate responses that have mitigated some of the damage to the region's lakes and forests. This book is published in association with the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation with the support of the Wildlife Conservation Society, United States Environmental Protection Agency, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

This is a compilation of topics that are at the forefront of many technical advances and practices in air and water control. These include air pollution control, water pollution control, water treatment, wastewater treatment, industrial waste treatment and small scale wastewater treatment.

This book is the result of a conference held biannually at the Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies at Connecticut College. It uses an interdisciplinary approach to focus on important ecological impacts of acid deposition. The book combines research findings and the policy analyses of experts from different academic disciplines with the positions advanced by representatives of various nongovernmental organizations.