Acid Rain

Hello there. You might see me falling from the sky and think I’m just like any other raindrop. I go pitter-patter on your window and help all the pretty flowers in your garden grow tall. But I have a secret. I’m a little different. I wasn't always this way, but sometimes, when I float down from the clouds, I carry tiny, invisible bits of yucky stuff with me. This pollution comes from the smoke that puffs out of big factory chimneys and the exhaust that sputters from cars. It mixes with me in the air and makes me taste a little sour. I’m not trying to be a grumpy raindrop, but this sourness can be tough on the world below. I can make old stone statues look like they are slowly melting away, and I can cause the green leaves on big, strong trees to turn brown and sad. It's not my fault, it’s just what I become when the air isn't clean.

For a very long time, people were puzzled. They saw lakes where the fish couldn't swim happily anymore and forests where the trees just didn't seem to grow right. Nobody knew why. This mystery really began a long, long time ago, during a time called the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s and 1800s. That’s when people started building lots and lots of factories that puffed out big, dark clouds of smoke from burning coal. Then, a thoughtful chemist from Scotland named Robert Angus Smith noticed something very curious around the year 1852. He saw that the rain falling on the busy, smoky city of Manchester was much more sour than the fresh, clean rain in the countryside. He was like a detective for raindrops. He studied me carefully for many years, and finally, on January 1st, 1872, he wrote a whole book about me. In that book, he gave me my official name. He called me Acid Rain. Mr. Smith was the very first person to figure out that the smoke from all that burning coal was mixing with the water in the clouds and changing me from a plain old raindrop into something else entirely.

When people read Mr. Smith's book and learned that I was causing trouble, it made them feel sad, but it also made them feel determined to help. Once they understood the problem, smart scientists and important leaders all over the world started working together on big ideas to clean up the air. They made important new rules, like a law in the United States called the Clean Air Act. It was made even better in 1990 to really fight against the pollution that creates me. Because of these smart choices, factories started using special filters, and cars were built in new ways that release much less of that yucky smoke. In many places now, I am becoming less sour. I am getting closer to being the clean, fresh rain I used to be. It just goes to show you that when people decide to work together to take care of our amazing planet, they can help the forests grow green, the fish swim happily, and me become gentle once again.