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Acid rain was a little‐known issue ten to fifteen years ago. Only a relatively small group of scientists seeking an explanation for the changes they observed in the environment were concerned with the problem. Today acid rain is recognized as an environmental problem of global proportions. Governments at all levels are moving to develop policies addressing the issue. As the topic has expanded from the scientific to the political arena, the public has become increasingly involved, and information sources have proliferated.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the tribological properties of a Cu–Cr–Zr alloy lubricated with acid rain.

The Cu 2.5 weight per cent–Cr-0.08 weight per cent–Zr alloy was produced in a vacuum induction furnace. The H₂SO₄ + H₂O, HNO₃ + H₂O and H₂SO₄ + HNO₃ + H₂O mixtures with pH of 5 were used as acid rain. Pure water was used as rain. The friction and wear properties of Cu–Cr–Zr alloy/American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) 52100 steel couples lubricated with acid rain were investigated using a reciprocating ball-on-disc friction and wear tester (Optimol SRV, Germany). For investigating the properties of the alloy and wear scars, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectrum, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscope were used.

The wear rate of the Cu–Cr–Zr alloy lubricated with H₂O containing HNO₃ (pH = 5) was larger than pure water under the same conditions. The tribofilms containing Cu, Cr, Zr, S and N formed during sliding with acid rain, but corrosion also took place at that time.

The wear rate of the Cu–Cr–Zr alloy lubricated with H₂O containing HNO₃ (pH = 5) was larger than pure water, the wear and corrosion took place during sliding. As the trolley wires, the life of the Cu–Cr–Zr alloy was influenced by the environment.

With the proliferation of environmental science literature during the past two decades, librarians find it increasingly difficult to determine which sources of information are relevant to their clientele. This difficulty is compounded for the non‐science librarian by a lack of familiarity with journals currently available and the decidedly technical language of most environmental science publications. There are, however, a wide range of periodicals which are appropriate for informed readers at academic university libraries and public libraries that offer a wealth of information on the environmental sciences. It is this type of publication that will be identified in this annotated bibliography. As with all selected bibliographies, it does not attempt to identify all environmental science journal titles that may be used in an academic university library or public library. Titles selected will be those thought to be appropriate for the informed reader.

Investigates the effects of acid precipitation on nutrient mobilization in vegetation, in the Nottingham (UK) area near a large coal‐fired power station. In stem flow and canopy throughfall samples, from holly, yew and a grass, mobilization of Ca, K and Na was enhanced. Examines the importance of leaf presentation and foliar stratification. Loss of elements as a result of mobilization by acid precipitation is deleterious to autotrophs and may affect the populations of heterotrophs.

Sustainable atmospheric management today involves a complex set of issues arising from the deliberate or inadvertent use of the atmosphere as a repository for waste products arising from human activities. Urban pollution affects human health, building materials and vegetation. Acidic emissions and excess nutrients produce both acid rain and dry deposition that affect terrestrial, freshwater and ocean chemistry and ecosystems. The production and effects of atmospheric pollution can transcend national boundaries and thus mitigation will require cooperation on regional and global levels, as well as local action. Global pollution includes greenhouse gases and atmospheric particles which are changing the global climate and affecting human health. While technological solutions will play an important part, the large reductions in emissions necessary to achieve sustainability will involve adopting lifestyles that conserve energy and minimise pollution. These concerns were foreshadowed in the writings of Fritz Schumacher.

Birds are implicated in spoiling and decay of buildings, especially through their droppings. Pigeons are considered the main culprits, and several studies have examined the effects and chemistry of accumulations of droppings without evidence to the exact origins of the source of the excreta. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study reviews and summarises the state of knowledge with regard to the impact of bird excreta on buildings. It experimentally assesses the acidity of fresh pigeon excreta with different diets and examines the development of the acidity of the excreta after voiding.

Feral pigeons in urban settings are known to be fed by a range of foods. Urban food scraps-derived diets produce more acidic excreta than more natural diets such as seeds. This is a first study of its kind to examine the impact of a bird’s diet on the pH and thus the resulting (potential) decay of masonry.

This study showed that from a management’s perspective, pigeons that subsist entirely on human provided foods will be depositing more initially acidic faeces. If faecal accumulation occurs; then, mould and other bacteria quickly alter the chemistry from acidic towards basic, but the damage may already be done.

This paper is the first study of its kind to examine the effects of fresh pigeon droppings of known origin and age once voided from the intestine. This allows the authors to assess the impact during the first few days.

The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of rhamnolipid biosurfactant complex on the corrosion and the repassivation of a freshly cut Al-Cu-Mg aluminium alloy surface.

The electrochemical methods, supported by quantum-chemical calculations and scanning electron microscopy data, were used.

It was established that the rhamnolipid biosurfactant effectively inhibits corrosion of the alloy in synthetic acid rainwater. The efficiency of inhibition becomes stronger with the increase of biosurfactant concentration; however, above the critical micelle concentration, the further improvement in inhibition is minor. It is believed that the mechanism of corrosion inhibition is related to the adsorption of the biosurfactant molecule on the aluminium alloy surface and the formation of a barrier film; however, the formation of a complex compound (salt film) between aluminium ions and rhamnolipid on anodic sites of the alloy is not ruled out. In case of surface mechanical activation of the alloy, the biosurfactant molecule effectively prevents corrosion. Furthermore, addition of the biosurfactant to the corrosion environment increases the repassivation kinetics of the alloy by two to four times as compared with an uninhibited environment.

The commercial impact of the study consists in the possibility of obtaining of environmentally safe corrosion inhibitors of aluminium alloys by biosynthesis from renewable agricultural raw materials.

The originality of this paper is to study the effectiveness of “green” corrosion inhibitor based on biogenic product on freshly generated surface of aluminium alloy.

Incineration strengths of hazardous (2.8×10⁸μg/s) and nonhazardous (6.31×10⁸μg/s) materials were found from the quantities to be incinerated, chemical formulas, and the incineration time. The smoke stack geometry, exhaust dynamics, and different atmospheric stability conditions were used in the Gaussian model to predict the maximum concentration distances of 0.5 to about 6 km at the ground level in the downwind direction. However, trailing edges of some of exhaust distributions were found to extend beyond 120 km under some atmospheric stability conditions. The counties of Jefferson, Lonoke, Pulaski, Dallas, Cleveland, Calhoun, and Grant in the state of Arkansas are more likely to be affected than others. The possible major products in the hazardous incineration exhaust are chlorinated compounds. The results of this study are important to know the areas that fall under comparatively higher concentrations of incineration exhaust for further observations because of its inherent impact upon living beings, crop production, and environmental conditions.

To those concerned with challenges and challengers to conventional wisdom, the entirely credible perception of ours as a planet in the midst of a deep environmental crisis offers fruitful grounds for analysis. Crises stimulate those who have, in the existence of the crisis, firm proof that the wisdom which girds the status quo is deficient and/or those who apply it are. This is particularly true when the crisis is perceived to be grave and dread‐laden. Skin cancer due to the depletion of the ozone layer is on the increase. Large, at times devastating, climate changes are loose upon the planet. Whether given quasi‐ scientific names like the “greenhouse effect” or lumped together in a melange of “acid rain”, “toxic waste” and “industrial cancers”, the result is the same. Rational citizens of the everyday‐person‐on‐the‐street sort feel threatened. The threat is given shape and substance by the mass media. The environmental crisis is a credible crisis. One need not list radical political activism as one's vocation to list the environmental crisis as one of one's fears as we enter the 1990's.

This paper analyzes two external costs often associated with port development, cost to fisheries from marine dredge disposal and damages from air pollution, using estimates of development and operation for a proposed (but since cancelled) container port as a case study. For dredge disposal, a bio-economic model was used to assess short- and long-term and indirect (joodweb) damages to fisheries from marine disposal of clean sediments. In the case of air pollution, estimates of annual activity levels and emission coefficients are used to estimate incremental annual emissions of three key pollutants (NOx, HC and CO) for trucks, trains, yard vehicles, and vessels. These estimates allow for phasing in of strict new air pollution regulations. For both external costs, sensitivity analyses are used to reflect uncertainty. Estimates of shadow values in year 2002 dollars amount from $0.094 per cubic yard to $0.169 per cubic yard of clean dredged material for the selected disposal site and from $0.0584 per mile (jor current control standards) to $ 0. 0023 per mile (after phasing in of new regulations) for air pollution from heavy trucks.