Acid rain in China

Summary

Acid rain emerged as an important environmental problem in China in the late 1970s. High economic growth over several decades has been accompanied by increasing energy demand and subsequent souring emissions of pollutants. As a result of high sulfur emissions, high sulfur deposition and widespread acid rain is observed in southern and southwestern China. In fact, the deposition of sulfur in parts of China is higher than what was reported from the so called “black triangle” in Central Europe in the early 1980s. Contributing significantly to the acidification is also the nitrogen emissions from agriculture, power production and a rapidly increasing number of cars. There is considerable deposition of pollutants in forested areas previously thought to be pristine. Little is known of the effects of this acid deposition on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in China. In this article we present the current situation and what to expect in the future, based largely on results from a five-year Chinese Norwegian cooperation project.