Influence of Co₂ Reduction on Acid Deposition: A Case Study in Thailand

Abstract:

CO2 is not only a major greenhouse gas, it is one of precursors causing acid formation in atmosphere; increasing of man-made CO2 emission can cause extension of acid deposition in regions. As the department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Silpakorn University, Thailand is one of the member of the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET), Five-years-dataset of acid deposition monitoring in Western region of Thailand was analyzed to figure out influences of atmospheric CO2 levels on other ion species i.e., Ca2+, NH4+, SO42-, HCO3-, NO3-, Na+, Cl-, CH3COO- , Mg2+, K+, H+, HCOO-, PO43-. Local meteorological parameters -temperature, relative humidity and rain fall- were also included in the analyses. The statistical analyses – Pearson correlation and Factor Analysis – indicate that increment of atmospheric CO2 are significantly relevant to the changes of the major ion species as well as local meteorological conditions. This result, in turn, reveals that CO2 level increase is not only a cause of global warming but also one of the factors playing a significant role in acid deposition phenomenon. In other words, mitigation measures devote for man-made CO2 emission will be of benefit to the reductions of climate change and also acid deposition.

Keywords: climate change, acid deposition, air pollution