Acid Essays (1162 words) - Inorganic Solvents, Mineral Acids

Acid Rain Acid rain is a serious problem with disastrous effects. Each day this serious problem increases. Many people believe that this issue is too small to deal with right now, and others believe it should be met head on. In the following paragraphs I will be discussing the impact of acid rain effects on wildlife and how our atmosphere is being destroyed. Causes Acid rain is a cancer, eating into the face of Eastern Canada and the North Eastern United States. In Canada, the main sulphuric acid sources are non-ferrous smelters and power generation. On both sides of the border, automobiles are the main sources for nitric acid (about 40% of the total). Power generating plants, industrial commercial, and residential fuel combustion together contribute the rest of the nitric acid . In the atmosphere, the sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides transform's into sulphuric acid and nitric acid. Air current can send them thousands of kilometres from the source. When these acids fall to the earth, they will have large impact on the growth and the preservation of certain wildlife. No Defence Areas in Ontario; mainly southern regions that are near the Great Lakes, have substances as limestone or other known antacids. These substance's can neutralize acids entering the body of water, thereby protecting it. However, large areas of Ontario that are near the Pre-Cambrian Shield, with quartzite or granite based geology and little top soil, there is not enough buffering capacity to neutralize even small amounts of acid falling on the soil and the lakes. Therefore over time, the basic environment shifts from an alkaline to a acidic one. This is why many lakes in the Muskoka, Haliburton, Algonquin, Parry Sound and Manitoulin districts could lose their fisheries if sulphur emissions are not reduced substantially. Acid Rain Consists Of Canada does not have as many people, power plants or automobiles as the United States, and yet acid rain here has become so severe that our government officials call it the most pressing environmental issue facing the nation. It is important to bear in mind that acid rain is only one segment, of the widespread pollution of the atmosphere facing the world. Each year the global atmosphere is on the receiving end of 20 billion tons of carbon dioxide, 130 million tons of suffer dioxide, 97 million tons of hydrocarbons, 53 million tons of nitrogen oxides, more than three million tons of arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, nickel, zinc and other toxic metals. The Global atmosphere host's synthetic organic compounds ranging from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), to toxaphene and other pesticides. A number of which may be capable of causing cancer, birth defects, or genetic imbalances. Cost Of Acid Rain Interactions of pollutants can cause problems. In addition to contributing to acid rain, nitrogen oxides can react with hydrocarbons to produce ozone (a major air pollutant responsible in the United States for annual losses of $2 billion to 4.5 billion worth of wheat, corn, soyabeans, and peanuts.). A wide range of interactions can occur with many unknown toxic metals. In Canada, Ontario alone has lost the fish in an estimated 4000 lakes and provincial authorities calculate that Ontario stands to lose the fish in 48 500 more lakes within the next twenty years if acid rain continues at the present rate. Ontario is not alone, on Nova Scotia's Eastern most shores, almost every river flowing to the Atlantic Ocean is poisoned with acid. The Dying Acid rain is killing more than lakes. It can scar the leaves of hardwood forests, wither ferns and lichens. Acid rain accelerates the death of coniferous needles, sterilize seeds, and weaken the forests to a state that is vulnerable to disease infestation. In the soil the acid neutralizes chemicals vital for growth, strips others from the soil and carries them to the lakes and literally retards the respiration of the soil. The rate of forest growth in the White Mountains of New Hampshire has declined 18% between 1956 and 1965, time of increasingly intense acidic rainfall. Acid rain no longer falls exclusively on the lakes, forest, and thin soils of the Northeast it now covers half the continent. Effects There is evidence that Acid rain is destroying the productivity of the once rich soils themselves, like an overdose of chemical fertilizer or a gigantic drenching of vinegar. The damage of such overdosing may not be repairable or reversible. On some croplands, tomatoes grow to only half their full weight, and the leaves of radishes wither. Naturally it rains on cities too, eating away stone monuments and concrete structures, and

Account for the failure of both the Power Sharing Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly essays

Account for the failure of both the Power Sharing Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly essays Account for the failure of both the Power Sharing Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly To account for such a failure in the power-sharing executive it is necessary for one to look at the structure and the organisation of the Assemblies as well as assessing its aims and directives as well as to examine the time scale to which this has taken place. My intention is to examine from the mid-seventies to the present day and all the questions that these many and various initiatives have raised. The power-sharing executive was the first and last examples of home rule since the collapse of During this last period the establishment of Stormont lasted from 1973 to 1974. The aim of the British Government was to return the province to an eventual devolution. The issue of direct rule was to be only a temporary measure whilst the relevant sides talked it out at the negotiating table looking for a form of political settlement. Essentially the main elements that both parties were looking for was to guarantee that the province remained a part of the United Kingdom as long as the majority deem that wish . Proportional Representation was held in order to elect the new seventy-eight Northern Irish Assembly. The two most contentious issue of all the issues of were the issue of institutionalised power sharing and that of the establishment of the Council of Ireland, which had, a direct input into the system of governance as well as a probable oversight into linking the whole system into the Irish political system, therefore adding an Irish dimension to the proceedings in order to placate republican feelings and sentiment. The executive failed on a series of levels due to the various claimed inconsistency by both sides. But one must really accredit claim to the Unionists for mobilising the populace with the help of the paramilitaries in organising strikes and protest mar...

Philosophy of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Essay

Philosophy of Gandhi and Martin Luther King - Essay Example Gandhi was the proponent of nonviolence. He advocated that the success against oppressor can only be achieved when the one who is struggling makes himself stand on higher moral plinth than the oppressor. For this the means of the oppressed has to be different rather opposite of what the oppressor is adopting. Since oppressor adopts violence than the oppressed will be more successful if he adopts non violence as his strategy of dealing with the situation. He based his theory on ahimsa which does not advocate mere non violence but it also stress upon "absence of the desire to kill or harm" (Chapple 10). The philosophy is based on the love for all human even for the enemy. The concept was used to develop the Satyagraha policy which was an off shoot of ahimsa and required the unwavering stand behind one's ideals without harm to other and even without the feeling of hatred for others. Martin Luther King was influenced by Gandhi's philosophy. He also was the advocate of non violence. To him humans through their evolution now should come across new methods to solve their problems within themselves. He said "nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. ... That is why he said "the ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." Malcolm X had a somewhat variant view than Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He was of the opinion that violence has to be adopted to fight violence. It may not be always but dependence of total non violence strategy will not lead to success. That was why he said "Our objective is complete freedom, justice and equality by any means necessary." However, it was not sheer violence which he professed instead he was of the opinion that violence should be adopted according to the necessity of the situation. To adopt violence for self defense was not "violence" but "intelligence". It is evident that above mentioned three great men's philosophy can be categorized into two main philosophies. One policy of "nonviolence" i.e. of Gandhi and Martin Luther King the other one is of "selective violence" of Malcolm X. Here people might disagree and tag Malcolm X philosophy as violent and so was the opinion of his compatriot Martin Luther King. However, after going through the details of the modus operandi adopted by Malcolm X one can easily assess that he was advocate of "selective violence" instead of utter "violence". For our further

Critically analyse the relative merits of the capital asset pricing Essay - 2

Critically analyse the relative merits of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and empirical approaches to asset pricing (such as the Fama and French model) - Essay Example The CAPM is the graphically represented by the security market line (SML), which shows the expected rate of return for the individual security as a function of systematic risk (indicated by the beta of the security). The SML is shown in the following figure. Suppose an investment was made in a stock with a beta of 1.5. Assuming the return on the market portfolio at 12%, and the return on the one-year treasury bond benchmark rate to be 8%, the rate of return the investor may expect on the stock would be determined by application of the CAPM as: The stock investment is therefore expected to contribute a return of 14% to the investor’s portfolio, which is an improvement over the market return of 12%. The determination of return on the stock is important not only to balance out the portfolio, but also to enable the investor to determine the value of the stock. Knowing the value will enable the investor to decide whether or not he should purchase (or sell) the stock at the current market price. The expected rate of return is useful in the discounted dividend stock valuation method. Assume the stock’s regular per share cash dividend is $1 per annum without further growth, then the stock is priced fairly at: The price of $ 7.14 is indicative of the value of the investment at the time of consideration, and it may or may not be equal to the price of the stock presently prevailing in the market (exchange). This is then the basis for deciding what investment action to take in the asset. If the market price is presently $9 then the market overvalues the stock, and it would be a good time to sell the stock, but not a good time to buy. On the other hand, if the market price were $6, then the market underprices the stock and it would be a good time to buy, but not to sell, the stock. The CAPM is a theoretical model and like all theoretical models depends on some important assumptions. The following eight

3-1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

3-1 - Essay Example As listed by Jackson-Cherry and Erford (2014), the common symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorders and Acute Stress Disorder include palpitations, nausea, headaches, muscle tension, fatigue and increased consumption of alcohol and use of other mood altering substances. Other symptoms are reduced concentration, anxiety, impatience, forgetfulness, rumination, preoccupation, irritability, anger, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, detachment, dissociation and depression. The listed symptoms are actually the diagnostic criteria for the conditions. The difference that separates ASD from PTSD attributes to time when either occurs. As elaborated by Jackson-Cherry and Erford (2014), diagnosis of ASD is possible if the related symptoms occur within a month of traumatic experience. Diagnosis of PTSD is possible if traumatic condition or experience occurred one month earlier before manifestation of the symptoms. In addition, PTSD is chronic if the symptoms persist for over three month s. With reference to the above analysis, Maryam’s situation relates to Acute Stress Disorder (ASD). This is due to the fact and understanding that Maryam began displaying traumatic symptoms such as anxiety, sleeplessness, nausea and increased use of alcohol and related substances before the setting in of the actual trauma. The real trauma occurred later and manifested through inability to drive car, concentrate in class and regrets for making a terrible mistake that almost led to loss of life of her passengers. Furthermore, trauma evidenced through occurrence and expression of suicidal thoughts to deal with perceived stupidity and inferiority that led to

Effects of the Financial Crash on Australias Economy

Effects of the Financial Crash on Australias Economy Executive Summary: This is a report of current Australian economic situation, and a forecast of Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate movements in 2015. This report will help the board and management to formulate budget and set goals for the upcoming years. The report will look into and analyse in details all economic indicators and other internal non-numeric based factors such as geographical advantages, politics, policies, regulations as well as external factors such as world economy, politics and laws of major trade partners, international exchange rates, etc. that directly and indirectly impact the economy. The report will show how simple forecasting of cash rate movement is a complex process, as it is directly related to Reserve Bank of Australia’s fiscal and monetary policy. Introduction: Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd once described â€Å"Australia to be a nation whose origins lie firmly in the west, but whose geo-political and geo-economic circumstances are shaped in large part by our location in the east, this is the inescapable expression of the Australian condition. (Economy Watch, 2010)† And he was right because where in the early 19th century Australia’s major trade partner was the Western world, along with time it shifted to the eastern side, and Asia became the primary focus of Australia’s economic policy. And understanding this is crucial to all large, medium, and small business in Australia, for budget forecasting, and goal setting, and this is true for every sector from hospitality and tourism, to mining and banking sectors. We will now look into current Australian economic situation and will conclude with a forecast of Cash Rate Movement. Body: The Australian Business Review published a report by Steen Jakobsen, Saxo Bank chief economist on 14th of November 2014 (AAP, 2014). In his report Mr.Jakobsen said Australian Economy will face recession in 2015, he also pointed out that ASX is dominated by mining companies and financial institution, and that the country should focus on technology sector, and small and medium size enterprises. Like many in past, the economist supported the idea that education and research should be the back bone of an economy. Understanding Australian Economy: The table below will show a summary of Australian Economy as at Demeter 2014 (Trading Economics, 2014). From the table we can see that Mr. Jakobsen’s reasons for such declaration. The Australian currency rate is still higher than sustainable, the stock market is down, high unemployment rate, lower consumer spending, budget deficit, everything contributed to it, and even an all-time low cash rate failed to attract more investments, for which probably high Australian labour cost may be liable. Australia | Economic Indicators The chart below will help us understand the current Australian economy from the viewpoint of the federal government. Where it shows how the western part of the country is based on mining industry where the eastern part especially New South Wales and Victoria are manufacturing, finance, and service based. The contrast between these two regions has often led to disagreements within the Australian government over developmental plans. Australian GDP is still dominated by service and financial industries, although they are struggling a lot after 2008 global financial crisis. On the other hand Western Australia is and its mining industry is enjoying a boom, even though some economist argue that resource based industry is highly depended on exports to China, and if the world economy is not doing well, then it will hurt the Chinese economy, and find its way to Australia (Economy Watch, 2010). Unemployment rate: From the graph released by trading economics using the data realised by Australian Bureau of Statistics, we can clearly see that in last four years (January 2011 to November 2014) the unemployment rate only went high and is now sitting at 6.30 % which is the highest in 11 years, the month of December 2014 should have a similar rate too. The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 42,700 to 11,637,400 in November 2014 (seasonally adjusted). The increase in employment was driven by increased part-time employment for females (up 36,400) and full-time employment for males (up 23,300) offset by a fall in female full-time employment (down 21,400). Total full-time employment increased, up 1,800 (Trading Economics, 2014). Cash rate, Inflation, and exchange rate: On 2nd of Demeter 2014, the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to leave cash rate unchanged at 2.5%, even though American and Chinese is showing some sign of strength, Euro Zone, and Japan both seen weakness recently, some key commodity prices such as petrol has declined significantly in recent months, which indicated softer demand but increased supply, and therefore the central bank decided to keep the cash rate unchanged for the 16th month in a row. Inflation is running between 2 and 3 per cent, as expected, with recent data confirming subdued rises in labour costs. The exchange rate has traded at lower levels recently, in large part reflecting the strengthening US dollar. But the Australian dollar remains above most estimates of its fundamental value, particularly given the significant declines in key commodity prices in recent months. A lower exchange rate is likely to be needed to achieve balanced growth in the economy (RBA, 2014). The benchmark price for iron ore, which accounts for more than $1 out of every $5 of export income has fallen to around a third its 2011 high of $US190 (Greber et al, 2014). As at December 2014 it is $63 per tonne, and it seems like it will fall more in 20145. (Massola, 2014). Australian Economy and Cash Rate Movement in 2015: During a parliament briefing Joe Hockey says the federal budget will be used as a shock absorber to protect the economy from the largest fall in the terms of trade since 1959. The Treasurer who will unveil a larger deficit in 2014-15 and a slower return to surplus when he releases the midyear economic update on 15th of December 2014, said economic growth would remain about 2.5 per cent, while conceding unemployment would rise to levels higher than those forecast in the May budget (Massola, 2014). So both the Treasurer and the economist Steen Jakobsen agreed to the fact that currently Australian economy is not doing well, and there are many good indicators that it could get worse. I would agree with them that there are still hope, if the government invest in roads and infrastructure such as the East West, as well as further decrease the cash rate in 2015 as Jakobsen has advised to 2% percent or even down up to 1.5%, along with simplification of taxation and regulations might help in b oosting the economy and improving investments (AAP, 2014). The cash rate is sitting 2.5% for 16 consecutive months (RBA, 2014) but it was not good enough to turn the wheel of Australian Economy, and from the parliament bribing of the Honourable Treasurer Joe Hockey it could be argued that the Federal Government may push Reserve Bank of Australia to further decrease cash rate in 2015 to 2% along with taking other measures hoping it may help to improve the growth to 3% which Mr. Hockey is hoping to achieve. And if IMF is right the Treasurer will be able to achieve 3% growth in 2015, and added it will will remain there until 2019 (Jerico, 2019) Conclusion: To conclude, Australian economy showed a little sign of recovery in 2012 after the global financial crisis of 2008, but started to fall and 2014 is finishing without any sign of recovery, in fact data shows that 2015 could be even worse. IMF, The Treasurer of Australia, and economist Steen Jakobsen all believed that despite all there are still hope that the economy may grow 3% in 2015, even though unemployment rate might rise further and cash rate might continue to stay low at 2.5% or go even lower. World economy, investor’s confidence, fiscal and monetary policy as well as other internal and external factors will determine the end result.

Volunteering at a Nursing Home Essay -- Contribution to My Community Se

Volunteering at a Nursing Home I ambitiously decided that I would brighten the lives of the elderly by volunteering at a rest home, but discovered that the elderly were being neglected, shoved aside and forgotten. As I stepped into the home a pungent odor penetrated my nostrils, causing an instantaneous gagging reflex. The place was abounded with neglected and subdued inhabitants, yearning for attention. Anybody that passed them caused a sudden outburst of ranting. The negligence and disregard the home displayed appalled me, but helped me to realize that I wanted to make a difference and change the condition people live in. As I walked down the corridor I noticed a man lying in a hospital bed with only a television, two dressers, and a single window looking out at nothing cluttering his room. Depression overwhelmed me as I stared at the man laying on his bed, wearing a hospital gown stained by failed attempts to feed himself and watching a television that was not on. The fragments of an existence of a life once active and full of conviction and youth, now laid immovable in a state of unconsciousness. He was unaffected by my presence and remained in his stupor, despondently watching the blank screen. The solitude I felt by merely observing the occupants of the home forced me to recognize the mentality of our culture, out with the old and in with the new.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I then sat with a woman who was gazing out of the window. The woman appeared to be in her early eighties, but...