Acid Rain: No Longer Sulfuric Acid but Nitric Acid

We won't be happy until everything is destroyed despite your efforts to live in a sustainable environment, the masses aren't listening and the rich who profit will see you dead before they let anyone stop the use of fossil fuels.

Food is the new weapon of mass destruction.

Here's a somewhat older (1998) but reasonably detailed USFS Abstract on the effects of nitiric acid on trees:

"Nitric acid (HNO3) vapor is an important component of photochemical smog and occurs in high concentrations in forests of the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains of southern California. Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex. Laws.) and California black oak (Quercus kelloggii Newb.) seedlings were exposed to H15NO3 in a series of short-term experiments performed in a Teflon cuvette system. The highest H15NO3 deposition occurred on foliar surfaces of both species. Substantial transcuticular transport of the pollutant into the leaf interior and stems and roots of two species was determined. Exposures of pines for 12 h in light to 50 ppb H15NO3 caused deterioration of needle cuticle (lesions and collapsed cells). After 12 h of dark exposures to 200 ppb H15NO3 epicuticular wax structure of oak started to disintegrate and trichomes showed a wilting appearance. Exposures to H15NO3 changed chemistry of epicuticular waxes of pines — content of fatty acids decreased and alkyl esters increased. Results of this study showed a potential for HNO3 phytotoxic effects in southern California forests in addition to the observed damage caused by ozone."

In my own unsubstantiated opinion I believe wider leaf trees such as maple, and citrus tress are even more susceptible to more immediate and greater physiological damage from nitric acid air pollution than fir and pine tree crops.

It's astonishing and tragic how completely far behind the United States is in dealing with this problem compared to Europe. But, given the political make-up of the Executive and Legislative branches of the U.S. government from 2000 to 2008, I guess it's not really all that surprising.

this is just one of the many reasons why the move to produce and consume locally is such a good idea. Smaller farms means less NH3 required to produce those big mono-crops that end up who knows where, and marketing smaller amounts of agricultural products to a closer consumer means less fuel being spewed to bring tomatoes from across the nation when the Farmer's market can do that job just as well, if not better.

Nitric acid is used in many explosives.

So stop polluting unless you want to supply terrorists!

The second part of that was a joke btw.