Air Pollution In Acadia

When people approach Acadia National Park, they are left in awe with the beauty and diversity of the park and of all of the attractions that the park has to offer. Every step takes visitors into an alluring and historic adventure, which constantly attracts people to the park and keeps them coming back. As Acadia increases in popularity, the quality of the park is also decreasing in environmental quality. The attractions that have kept people visiting for many years, might be at risk of nonexistence. Acadia National park has been around for almost a century, providing breathtaking scenery and wondrous adventures for those visiting, but recent increases in air pollution, aquatic mercury content, and climate changes might not only dissuade potential …show more content…
The location of Acadia National Park puts the environment of the park at higher risk of degradation. Acadia sets below higher located urban and industrial areas, which causes the park to suffer the backlash from our man-made pollutants. Since Acadia has to suffer from the repercussions, they are placed in Class I under the Clean Air Act, meaning that the park requires the highest level of air-quality protection (Air Quality). “… More than 30 years of air quality monitoring has shown that Acadia National Park has some of the highest air pollution levels in the Northeast” (Air Pollution in Acadia). This means that our park is at high risk of losing a lot of the great qualities that resound within the park. With a great area filled with earthly communities and thousands of populations of plants and animals, air pollution highly affects the living and the normal flora of these organisms. …show more content…
This is especially true considering that a species is best suited for their original environment. When an environment changes, the species is either forced to change or to suffer from natural selection and die off. According to Catherine Burns, recent studies have shown that climate changes, particularly caused by human-made pollutants, has caused many of the species within the park to die off (11476). One of the main pollutants that is affecting the climate is increase in carbon dioxide (Harris 340). Carbon dioxide is one most commonly associated with the greenhouse effect and distributes throughout the atmosphere causing the main changes in climate (Plass). There has been an increase in transformed or new species which is causing other species to also die out, and an increase in competitive interactions within the organisms, plant life included, as well. The climate shifts also alter when vegetation blooms, which affects those who live off of vegetation (11476). Animals are a prime example of those that are dependent on plant life. If a plant is to bloom later or earlier than usual, along with many of the other forms of vegetation that are also greatly affected by the climate change, then these animals may not be acquiring sufficient nutrients or food. Climate change also increases the amount of precipitation and flooding, which, in this case, is filled with acids