Acid Pollution: The International Community's Continuing Struggle

Abstract Acid pollution was at the top of the list of environmental policy concerns in many countries during the late 1970s and 1980s, after scientists revealed that sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides (gases produced by burning fossil fuels) were leading to increased acidification of the environment. Improved monitoring soon provided a clearer picture of the problem, sounding an increasingly familiar litany of dying forests, declining crop yields, acidified lakes and soils, corroding buildings, and threats to human health. By the 1990s, however, public and media interest in acid pollution had tailed off as other pressing issues, notably global warming and threats to the ozone layer, competed for their attention.