Cracking the AP Environmental Science Exam, 2013 Edition by Princeton Review

Author:Princeton Review [Review, The Princeton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-94584-6
Publisher: Random House Information Group
Published: 2012-09-03T16:00:00+00:00

SMOG

As you might be aware, the setting for many of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries was the foggy, smoggy city of London. The smog that covered London throughout the nineteenth century and well into the middle of the twentieth was industrial smog—also known as gray smog. As deadly as any of Holmes’s adversaries in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, gray smog killed more than 2,000 people in a prolonged smog incident in 1911. However, the worst pollution-related incident in London occurred in 1952 and led to the death of about 10,000 city dwellers from pneumonia, tuberculosis, heart failure, and bronchitis. It was this disaster, resulting from the burning of large amounts of low-quality coal to heat homes and combat a cold fog, that prompted the Clean Air Act of 1952 in England.

Industrial smog is formed from pollutants that are typically associated with the burning of oil or coal. When CO and CO2 are released in the process of combustion, they combine with particulate matter in the atmosphere and produce smog. The production of smog can also be aided by weather conditions—air inversions, for example, which trap the pollutants; or fog, which holds the pollutants. As we mentioned above, sulfur dioxide may be another component in gray smog, combining with water vapor to form sulfuric acid that is suspended in the cloud of smog.

Photochemical smog —also known as brown smog— a different type of smog, is usually formed on hot, sunny days in urban areas. In photochemical smog, NOx compounds, VOCs, and ozone all combine to form smog with a brownish hue. The intensity of sunlight on these days also promotes the formation of ozone from the combination of NOx compounds. Los Angeles, California and Athens, Greece are two cities that are particularly susceptible to photochemical smog. Athens has enacted mandates that have already reduced the number of cars driven each day in the city and improved the quality of the air. For example, in Athens, by law, cars with even numbered license plates can only be driven on even-numbered days—and cars with odd-numbered license plates can only be driven on odd-numbered days!

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.