Evidence Indicating Increases in Atmospheric Concentration of Oxides of S and N (1 Viewer)

[Dreamerish*~]

Okay chemistry people, listen up.

For the syllabus dot point: Assess the evidence which indicates increases in atmospheric concentrations of oxides of sulphur and nitrogen, well, what are is evidence?

What I wrote for this was:

After the Industrial Revolutions in the 1800s, there was a great increase in the emissions of sulphur dioxide in the air in large cities, mainly from burning coal and fossil fuels. During the 1950/60s, air deteriorated to the point where a series of pollution problems caused sickness and deaths in London and north-east USA.
Serious NO_x pollution did not occur until the 20^th century, when electricity generation and combustion in power stations and vehicles became more and more common. The NO_x released caused the production of ozone in the atmosphere, leading to photochemical smog in sunny cities.

I don't know if this is sufficient, or even correct. They are asking for evidence, does it mean what techniques were used to measure atmospheric levels of these pollutants?

Give me help. I'll thank you later.

 

[Dreamerish*~]

I'm going to be a major hypocrite because I hate it when people post questions and then double post straight away, begging for help in the second post of their own thread...

SOMEBODY HELP ME NOW, DAMN IT.

 

[wanton-wonton]

The combustion of fossil fuels has released millions of tons of sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere mostly from power-generating plants, ore smelting, petroleum refining, motor vehicles and industrial furnace. The estimated man-made production of sulfur dioxide in 1980 in the USA was 26 million tons which was 98.5% more than that produced by the Mt. St. Helens eruption, which produced at around 400 000 tons of sulfur dioxide.

I'm not too sure if I'm correct. I didn't really take note of the *verbs*, but .... I think that's correct.

Aren't you glad that you helped me last time.

And no, I don't think you need to know techniques for measurements, etc.

 

[Dreamerish*~]

Aren't you glad that you helped me last time.

Yes, indeed I am. Thank you very much.

 

[xx__savannah]

i thought you had to talk about evidence in the answer, like the levels of SO2 and NOx found in the ice caps and which are then dated to give evidence?

 

[Dreamerish*~]

i thought you had to talk about evidence in the answer, like the levels of SO2 and NOx found in the ice caps and which are then dated to give evidence?

We're only talking about recent increases of atmospheric concentrations of SO₂ and NO_x. Reliable data is only available for the last 50 years or so, it was only during the last few decades of the 20^th century that we were able to measure the concentrations of these gases below 0.1 ppm with sufficient accuracy.