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acid rain

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acid rain

rain that contains a high concentration of pollutants, chiefly sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal or oil
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Acid rain

The precipitation of dilute solutions of strong mineral acids, formed by the mixing in the atmosphere of various industrial pollutants, primarily sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, with naturally occurring oxygen and water vapor.
Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

acid rain

[¦as·əd ′rān]
(meteorology)
Precipitation in the form of water drops that incorporates anthropogenic acids and acid materials.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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References in periodicals archive
In 1984, New York State passed the first law in the nation to control acid rain, the State Acid Deposition Control Act.
When acid rain flows via soils in a watershed, aluminum is leached out from soils into the lakes and streams present in that watershed.
I have asked scientists at Cardiff University if a grand recovery from the effects of acid rain is on the way or has nature in its inimitable way developed a strain of fish that can withstand the strains of acid rain.
The term, 'acid rain' refers to a phenomenon in which falling rain sometimes can be acidic.
* Scottish chemist Robert Angus Smith coined the term acid rain in his 1872 book Air and Rain: The Beginnings of a Chemical Climatology.
Many people have received the acid rain message over the past several days.
With average acidity in rivers falling due to improvements in the levels of acid rain, the researchers expected up to 29 insect species should have re-colonised the improving Welsh streams.
Acid rain is a complex environmental problem which affects the United States and many other countries around the world.
The trail is a living laboratory of protected slices of land that could reflect environmental changes such as higher ozone levels, acid rain, smog, and other air quality indicators.
Since the Ontario government introduced the Countdown Acid Rain program the company has spent close to $1 billion to reduce S02 emission in its Greater Sudbury operations.
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