Unit 1C towards sustainable development of the environment Use Key Geog. BK 2 Pages 28 and 29.
Location: Norway, an MEDC in Europe
What the case study shows: How changes in weather have changed an ecosystem
Causes:
Effects:
 Acid rain is caused by sulphur and
 Forest Death – trees in Norway’s
nitrogen getting into rain.
forests are killed by acid rain.
 Factories, cars and power stations in
 Norway’s streams, rivers and lakes
the UK, Germany and Poland release
have so much acid that they cannot
huge quantities of sulphur and
support plant, fish or animal life.
nitrogen into the atmosphere.
 Fish die and people whose jobs rely
on catching or selling fish are badly
 The prevailing south westerly winds
take the acid over the North Sea into
affected.
Norway.
 Acid rain dissolves the stonework on
buildings, meaning that £millions
 Once at the coast of Norway the air is
forced to rise over the coastal
have to be spent on repairs.
mountains. The acid in the air
merges with the water vapour and
acid rain forms.
 The acid rain (anything with a pH
from 1-5) falls to the ground.
Management:
 Liming – lime is an alkali, so when it
is put into streams, lakes and rivers it
neutralises the acid rain.
Liming is expensive so Norway is trying to
reduce its own nitrogen and sulphur
emissions by:
 High taxes on oil that emits over a
certain level of sulphur and nitrogen.
Global co-operation so the UK’s, Germany’s
and Poland’s gases do not affect other
countries by:
 Fit catalytic converters to cut nitrogen
emissions from cars.
 Fit chimney filters to take nitrogen
and sulphur gases out.
Success?
1985 – 30% of Norway had critical levels of
acid rain.
2010 – 11% of Norway is expected to have
critical levels of acid rain.
Unit 1C towards sustainable development of the environment Use Key Geog. BK 2 Pages 28 and 29.
How global warming causes
rising sea levels
How global warming causes
the world’s climates to change
With the aid of a diagram explain how global warming is caused.
The effects of global warming
Solutions to global warming