As the acid rain falls or, worse, as the acid snow melts, the soil beneath is affected. Swedish scientists who repeated a 1927 study concluded that at a depth of 28 inches [70 cm], the acidity of forest soil had risen tenfold. This chemical change seriously affects a plant’s ability to take up vital minerals, such as calcium and magnesium.

What effect does all of this have on man? He suffers when lakes and rivers formerly teeming with life become acidic and lifeless. Moreover, Norwegian scientists conclude from their studies that the increased acidity of the water, whether in lakes or soil, dissolves aluminum. This poses a definite health hazard. Scientists have noted “a clear relationship between higher mortality statistics and increasing aluminum concentrations” in the water. Possible links between aluminum and Alzheimer’s disease and other ailments of the aged continue to cause alarm.

True, in areas like Britain’s Mersey River and France’s Entressen garbage dump, efforts have been made to improve the situation. However, this type of problem does not go away. It reappears all over the world. But there is yet another kind of pollution​—invisible.

Ozone​—The Unseen Enemy

Burning fossil fuels, whether in power stations or in domestic furnaces, produces other pollutants in addition to sulfur dioxide. These include oxides of nitrogen and unburned hydrocarbons.

Scientific opinion now places increasing blame for air pollution on these nitrogen oxides. Under the effect of sunlight, they help produce a deadly gas, ozone. “Ozone is the most important air pollutant affecting vegetation in the US,” stated David Tingey of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He estimated that this was costing his country $1,000 million a year in 1986. Europe’s loss was then put at $400 million annually.

Hence, while acid rain is killing waterways, many feel that ozone, linked ultimately to automobile exhausts, is more to blame than acid rain for the death of trees. The Economist stated: “Trees [in Germany] are being prematurely killed not by acid rain but by ozone. Though the death blow may be delivered by frost, acid mist or disease, it is ozone that makes the trees vulnerable.”

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Worse Than the Ravages of Time

After years of exposure to the elements, this carved stone face presented a mere death mask. Worse than the ravages of time are the corrosive effects of air pollution. Old buildings throughout the world suffer the gnawing erosion of the acidic rain that washes them, from the City Hall in Schenectady, United States, to the famous edifices of Venice, Italy. Rome’s monuments reportedly crumble away at a touch. Greece’s famed Parthenon is believed to have suffered more damage in the last 30 years than in the preceding 2,000. Such damage is often compounded by a mixture of environmental factors including temperature, wind, and humidity, as well as by bacteria living on the building’s walls. With these consequences for inanimate objects, what must be the effect of pollution on living creatures?

[Picture]

Carving on a cathedral in London