The amount of gases that are being released into the environment are causing a number of environmental hazards such as damage to the ozone layer, global warming, smog, and acid rain.
When looking at air pollution, we can see that there are many types, one type is acid rain. Scientists have discovered that air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels mainly in power stations and industry in countries such as Germany, United Kingdom and other economically developed countries is the major cause of acid rain. Acidic deposition or acid rain as it is commonly known occurs when "emissions of sulphur dioxide (so2) and oxides of nitrogen (no) react in the atmosphere with water, oxygen and oxidants to form various acidic compounds, sunlight further accelerates this process with the introduction of heat-(Miller). These compounds then fall to the earth in either wet form such as rain, snow, and fog or dry form. .
There are many negative effects of acid rain for the environment, one of these affects is the acid in lakes and streams and trees at high elevations. Acid rain primarily affects sensitive bodies of water those which rest atop soil with a limited ability to neutralize acidic compounds (called "buffering capacity-). Many lakes in the National Surface Water survey (NSWS) suffer from chronic acidity ,a condition in which water has a constantly low ph level. In some sensitive lakes in Scandinavia acidification has completely eradicated fish species, such as the brook trout leaving these lakes baron, in fact hundreds of lakes in Scandinavia surveyed by the NSWS have acidity levels indicative of chemical conditions for the survival of sensitive fish species. .
Acid rain has been also implicated into causing the degradation of forests in Scandinavia and Bavaria in Germany, especially in the highly elevated pine forests in the Norway's mountainous regions, causing widespread destruction of trees and along with that the homes and habitats of thousand of animals which with the long term affects of continued acidic soil will never be replaced.