What is Digg?46 Comments
- fant0m, on 12/26/2007, -5/+24Acid Rain
Some stay dry and others feel the pain
Acid Rain
A baby born will die before the sin - Insomnya3AM, on 12/26/2007, -3/+19*turns away from the mic to digg you up*
- TStanNY, on 12/26/2007, -1/+14Push the Easy button?
- wiggles, on 12/26/2007, -1/+12Limestone will do the same thing.
- wiggles, on 12/26/2007, -6/+15Excellent idea. I would like to hear your detailed plan to accomplish that task, taking in to account the steps necessary to maintain the industrial output necessary to sustain the quality of life you now enjoy. I would like to see the details of the plan you've come up with that relate to waste disposal (no more landfills), power generation (no more coal or nuclear), particularly in areas around the great lakes that don't have enough sun, wind, or geothermal hotspots, computer waste disposal and/or recycling, and how we as a nation will maintain competition with trading partners who do not adopt similar environmental policies.
- YogiWanKenobi, on 12/26/2007, -1/+8Weak. It will only neutralize the S/N compounds that physically come into contact with the building's surface.
A stronger benefit of the TiO2 coating is that it makes the building's exterior self-cleaning. Soot and other compounds will not stain the exterior. TiO2 is also hydrophilic, which makes it fun to watch the windows, especially if you've ingested some acid. - JordanFrenzy, on 12/26/2007, -2/+9What about the chocolate rain?
- pak314, on 12/26/2007, -1/+6Personally i'd just be concerned if it is as harmless as they say it is. Here is California we are still paying for the MTBE cleanup from a decade back. MTBE was some additive to gasoline that was supposed to reduce emissions. Unfortunately it also contaminated drinking water and is hard to clean up and so is no longer used. Some corporations and legislative bodies pushed it but we have to pay to clean it up.
- catalysis, on 12/26/2007, -0/+4The limestone just reacts and dissolves, but the TiO2 acts as a catalyst so it is not destroyed by the acidic rain.
- drake77, on 12/26/2007, -0/+4Why not address the causes of acid rain instead?
- hammerattack, on 12/26/2007, -0/+3titanium dioxide = white paint. No seriously, the only white pigment in use is TiO2. So use normal cement and paint it, and you're good.
- MattB123, on 12/26/2007, -0/+3I think we need to do both. The root of the problem won't go away quickly so something needs to be done to mitigate the symptoms in the mean time.
- TStanNY, on 12/26/2007, -1/+4I'd rather it rain gum drops!
- catalysis, on 12/26/2007, -2/+5This is incorrect. TiO2 is a photocatalyst so it is not used up in the reaction.
- inactive, on 12/26/2007, -0/+3Sounds like a commercial to neutralize stomach acid. It's probably ground up Rolaids.
- thomashauk, on 12/26/2007, -0/+3H_2_O + CO_2 -> H_2_CO_3
- mtekk, on 12/26/2007, -1/+3in ideal reactions, but nothing is ideal in this world.
- kholburn, on 12/26/2007, -0/+2Proof?
- FrequentFlyer29, on 12/26/2007, -0/+2Wonderful! Can I get something for my hair now?
- Smuikas, on 12/26/2007, -0/+2Redesigning manufacturing processes so they follow a sort of technological eco cycle would be much cheaper in the long run than paying for government regulation of pollutants released into the atmosphere and water. For instance, bubbling exhaust through greenhouses filled with translucent pipes which contain bacteria and/or algae engineered to consume the carbon and harmful chemicals. You release oxygen instead of pollution, you don't have to get your emissions tested, and there may even be some monetary gain from the algae / bacteria system.
It might even be cheaper than the chemical scrubbers they use now on smokestacks.
The problem is that most corporations in America look to short term profits, and not 5-10-15-30 year profits. - moduc, on 12/26/2007, -1/+3I wonder a same thing. If the salt is not hard enough to protect the material needs to be protected, it's be washed away, by wind, rain, cleaning, etc. Then, when the next time the acid rain comes, the next layer is used, and so on. At the end, no more protection left.
Also, does the salt resulted in a different look and feel of the surface. If so, it needs to be cleaned off, and that's no good as said above. - supermanred, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1It's like you've got this door frame with nails sticking out of it that keeps hurting everyone and instead of taking the nails out, you decide to hire a nurse and put her on the other side of the door to treat wounds.
Why not just get the acid out of the rain in the first place. - supermanred, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1Titanium dioxide coating everything. Sounds safe...
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safew ...
As long as you don't breath in the dust. And don't eat, drink or smoke around it. Oh and if any of it gets lose, please wear your P1 filter on your face.
Like, ***** why cant we just stop putting the acid into the rain instead of adding more chemicals to life. - NeonElixir, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1And viola!
- supermanred, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1Nothing has changed, now they are scaring the kids with "terror" drills.
- Comatose51, on 12/26/2007, -1/+2Because it won't generate any profit for anyone? Greed is good right? Government mandated public good is bad.
- inactive, on 12/26/2007, -1/+2Great idea - except acid rain was here long before humans were.
- whitehatlurker, on 12/28/2007, -0/+1Old news. I'm surprised it got to the front page this time.
http://digg.com/general_sciences/Architecture_in_I ...
http://digg.com/general_sciences/Three_Cheers_for_ ...
http://digg.com/environment/Titanium_Dioxide_Cemen ... - the999, on 12/27/2007, -0/+1What a great bandaid!
- Smuikas, on 12/26/2007, -0/+1Rolaids is primarily calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Stomach acid is Hydrochloric Acid (HCl).
CaCO3 + 2HCl = CaCl2 + H2O + CO2
You end up with Calcium Chloride in an aqueous solution (a common electrolyte in sports drinks), water, and carbon dioxide. That's why you burp some after you eat some tums.
TiO2 (the coating referred to in the article) is simply a catalyst that speeds up the decay of nitric acid and sulfuric acid. I'm not sure of the exact chemical process involved, but because the TiO2 is a catalyst and not a reactant, it isn't used up the same way Rolaids does when ingested to relieve heartburn. - Prototek, on 12/26/2007, -0/+1Painted cement. That's classy.
- edwartica, on 12/26/2007, -0/+1But putting a band aid on the problem is a problem in itself, so they were more pointing out the fact that there's a new problem.
Meh, fuzzy logic. But still - I agree with xili. We need to be putting just as many resources into finding a solution as to treating the symptoms of the problem. - kholburn, on 12/26/2007, -1/+1How about you outsource the polluting manufacturing work to a country that wants the work and is prepared to live with the pollution (or that the people can't object to it) like for instance - China?
Of course when China produces enough pollution it will probably reach around the pacific and land in the US. - OwdenBowden, on 12/26/2007, -1/+1Yeah - but what if you have chocolate rain?
- vikki77, on 12/26/2007, -0/+0Isn't this kind of like putting a chewed piece of gum on a crack in the Hover dam?
- 47f0, on 12/26/2007, -1/+1Yay! Now we can keep burning lots of coal. All we have to do is coat all the trees in our forests with this stuff and we're good to go.
- Smuikas, on 12/26/2007, -1/+1Go read "Cradle to Cradle," by Douglas McDonough. He's the guy who redesigned the river rouge Ford plant - which now outputs cleaner water than it takes in, cuts operating costs by utilizing green roofs and other technologies, and so on and so forth. In fact, McDonough's design for Ford's plant was even cheaper than their original design. They don't have to go through clean water regulation, because the system of runoff marshes and filtration systems built into the parking lots makes the runoff cleaner than the rain. Much of the acid rain comes from coal power plants; if we replaced those with breeder reactors (which have little to no nuclear waste, as they use ALL of the fuel, while typical uranium reactors use something like 20% of the fuel) we could cut acid rain pollution by a very, very large margin.
There are whole mountaintops in eastern tennessee and western north carolina that are covered in bare trees due to the acid rain created by all of the coal-burning plants in the midwest - north carolina has tried endlessly to get the other states to beef up their regulation on such pollutants because the wind patterns blow all of that pollution down onto them. Unfortunately most of this has been in vain. - djpants428, on 12/26/2007, -0/+0Just like my first dorm room...
- swankboy, on 12/26/2007, -2/+1I loved going to grade school in the 80's and one of the many things that was going to kill us was acid rain. Teachers and "scientists" made it sound like one day you'd walk outside and the rain would just melt the skin off your body. That's if nuclear fallout didn't get you first. I love education.
- sst4ab, on 12/26/2007, -2/+1It would probably be just your basic concrete.
- canadalolz, on 12/26/2007, -1/+0Acid + Base => Water + Salt
new cement rediscovers basic grade school chemistry - wiggles, on 12/26/2007, -3/+2Simply restating a known problem is useless unless you have a workable solution to offer. Everyone knows we need to stop pollution, but the problem is not one of desire, it's a problem of ability. It doesn't mean, however, we should stop talking about the problems, because it is through discussing them that workable solutions are presented.
- pe5t1lence, on 12/26/2007, -3/+1Haha, I was about to post the exact same thing!
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