Is Acid Rain Harmful?
Answer: 'Yes, But. .
by Boris Wdntraub
National Geographic New* Service
WASHINGTON -- The infuriat
ing thing about acid rain is this:
Nobody is absolutely sure about
its effects. There are lots of ideas,
but few are guaranteed to hold up.
Does acid rain affect lakes and
rivers? Certainly, the scientists
answer, some of them. But not all.
Does it threaten forests and
cropland? Probably, the scientists
say, but they aren't sure.
|Fouil Fuel Product
? How do the acidic substances get
into the air? Most likely, from the
burning of coal, oil, and natural
gas, which releases sulfur dioxide
and nitrogen oxides into the air.
There they circulate with the great
air masses from that form our
weather systems.
But scientists aren't sure what
happens then to airborne acid, so it
is impossible to "prove" that acid
^rain in New York was caused by
^smokestacks in Ohio.
Does it affect animals? Scientists
are pretty sure it is harmful to fish
and amphibians indigenous to
acidified waters. But how about
mammals? Maybe, some say; but
they don't know, and haven't been
able to prove it.
And what about mankind? Are
we in any danger from acid
deposition. Again, some scientists
THE ARTS JOURNAL
THE ARTS JOURNAL is a
t paradigm of what a good local arts
review should be. Any North
Carolina newspaper could be en
hanced by including copies in their
Sunday papers once a month. This
is not to say its appeal is exclusively
local, but that it provides valuable
information and a calendar on local
arts opportunities, divided by
regions.
THE ARTS JOURNAL shows a
' deep commitment to the arts of our
time and our nation, with a
particular focus on what is hap
pening in the Southern Appala
chian Mountain region and in
North Carolina. The framework of
national an^l intcrnatiopal ,?rt oj
deavors is always kepfin mind. It is
even-handed in treating the dif
ferent media.
There were not many sections
exclusively concerned with painting
\ and sculpture in this July 1980
issue. But there were three articles
on dance, from the popular to the
concert level.
"Maybe 1 am overly optimistic,
but I also see in it (kicker dancing)
a sign that some of the new
generation are discovering that they
can make their own fun." Harold
Farwell.
In this issue there is an interview
I with the outstanding photographer
Harry Callahan and seven of his
photographs printed between 1947
and 1968. There are news notes
concerning crafts markets and an
introduction to the work of Don
Davis, fine potter. Among the
theater news are reviews of newly
written and newly performed plays
and of drama festivals. There is a
diary of a music critic.
In the literary field there are not
only book reviews, but also a
1 complete and moving short story, a
gallery of five poets, a collection ot
poems by Marita Gavin, and a
feature on the black woman poet,
Jaki Shelton Green, who performed
at Lake Julian, in Ashevillc. in July.
"i wore you tight/ tight as a
funeral glove/ that holds the
widow/ and squeezes her pain."
Jaki Shelton Green
"My grandmother was eighty
1 four when she died. I can not
remember her face at all, though it
has been a very short time ago. I
remember only a photograph, ot
another wind, another time, of a
beautiful young girl with a parasol
and a smile." (from the short story
by Lee Zacharias.)
The clear, refreshing visual illus
trations throughout the articles and
the calendar complement the litera
ture and criticism.
Foster Robertson
You may order THE ARTS
JOURNAL (Editor, Patricia
Arcuri) for SI. single copy; S10 tor
a year's subscription (12 issues)
from 324 Charlotte Street. Ashe
ville, NC 28801.
The reviewer is a published poet
and an art historian living in
Austin, Texas.
think so, others say no, and nobody
has proved anything conclusively.
There are some things that
scientists do know about acid rain,
Anne LaBastille reports in the
November National Geographic,
and few of them are reassuring.
Among the certainties is the fact
that 6 percent of all the ponds and
lakes in the Adirondack Mountains
of New York have no fish because
of the high acidic content of their
waters. The acidity has increased
substantially in the past few de
cades. as burning of fossil fuels has
increased.
In tern at tonal Problem
The problem is not unique to the
eastern United States. According to
one chemist in Sweden, an esti
mated 20,000 of the country's
100,000 lakes are either fishless or
about to become so.
The problem is thought to be the
discharge that drifts northward
from Europe's industrial belt.
Scientists have been working
hard to find out more about acid
rain, its causes and its effects. In
the late 1970s, a nationwide net
work of 84 monitoring stations was
set up to analyze samples of rain,
snow, and dry fallout from 32
states. A similar group is monitor
ing samples from 55 sites in
Canada.
Some areas of the eastern U.S.
and southeastern Canada are re
ceiving rainfall as acidic as vinegar,
the studies show.
But what this means, what its
consequences are, and what should
be done about it -- these are
questions that have not yet been
definitely answered.
While some scientists blame
loose standards in some Mid
western states for permitting more
than 10 times as much sulfur
dioxide per ton of coal into the air
as Eastern states allow, coal com
pany scientists say there is no
substantive proof that their smoke
stacks are responsible.
Standards Vary
The clean Air Act, which is up
for reauthorization by Congress
this year, requires that emissions
from fossil fuel-burning facilities
meet certain standards.
But each state is permitted to set
its own standards, which leads
some officials to blame the act for
the increase in acid rain. Mean
while, industry is reluctant to spend
billions of dollars to modify existing
plants unless it is proved they are
responsible.
Such equipment, and others to
control sulfur dioxide emissions,
can make a difference, Miss La
Bistille writes. She cites the case of
Japan.
Japanese officials issued strin
gent sulfur oxide controls in 1968
and encouraged the use of low
sulfur fuels and desulfurization. By
1975, emissions had dropped by 50
percent, even though energy con
sumption had doubled.
Even stricter limits have been set
since then, and 1.200 scrubbers to
reduce emissions from smokestacks
have been installed, compared to
about 200 in the United States so
far.
LAW
F or Laypersons
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, Part II
North Carolina's Domestic Vio
lence Act goes a long way in
protecting the victim of violence in
the home. If a person seeking relief
files a petition alleging acts of
domestic violence, the court may
grant a protective order against the
person who has caused the vio
lence. If the violence reoccurs, a
law enforcement officer, who has
been shown the protective order
and has reasonable cause to believe
that certain provisions of (hewsvder^
have been violated, must arrest and
take into custody the offending
person and then bring him or her
before an appropriate District
Court Judge to show cause why he
or she should not be held in civil
contempt.
What kind of violence must be
alleged before the court will issue a
protective order? Naturally, if one
member of a household inten
tionally causes bodily harm to
another, then that is the type of
domestic violence which the statute
was designed to prevent, and a
protective order should be issued.
Domestic violence, however, is not
always evident and easy to see. The
General Statutes, therefore, have
expanded the definition of acts of
violence to include an attempt to
cause bodily injury and the placing
of another in fear of imminent
serious bodily injury by threat of
force. Domestic violence entitling
one to a protective order thus
includes not only past acts of
violence but potential acts as well.
The adjective "domestic" before
the noun "violence" in the statute
implies that the violence must
occur between spouses and not
between friends or strangers. The
General Statutes do, therefore,
provide that the violent acts en
titling one to petition for protective
order must occur between spouses.
The legislature, however, very care
fully added that the violence could
also occur between past spouses
because violence frequently occurs
between ex-husbands and wives as
a result of stormy divorces.
**? What ?aboutjkifrtrnee between a
man and womSn who live together
as husband and wife but who are
not married? Certainly domestic
violence can occur between those
two parties just as readily as
between spouses. North Carolina's
Domestic Violence Act includes
violence occuring between persons
of the opposite sex "who are living
together or have lived together as if
married."
The party who seeks relief need
not be a tax-paying citizen of North
Carolina. The Domestic Violence
Act provides that a party "re
siding" in the state may seek relief;
thus even a military family, which
maintains its tax residence in
another state, can seek relief under
North Carolina's law.
"This article is written as a
matter of general interest only. It is
not to he construed as legal advice,
and you should not rely on the
statements made in the article to
govern your actions in any specific
case. If you have a particular
question or problem, you should
contact an attorney. "
MANAGING
YOUR
uLS ffu oLj| lifn ^yr
8re8Jinife 1
Investors concerned about
the future of their dollar
can learn the tools to sur
vive in the inflationary
economy of the 1980s from
more than 20 leading econo
mists, stockbrokers, finan
cial writers, currencies and
commodities experts at the
New York Hilton Sept.
13-16, 1979.
menti could be a good
investment of your time.
The conference, say its
producers. Investment Semi
nars International, can assist
people from a broad spec
trum of financial back
grounds. The speakers have
been carefully chosen
to provide a balance of
viewpoints.
The International Invest
ment Seminar will feature
presentations by Robert M.
Bleiberg, editor of Barron's,
Louis Rukeyser, ho?t of
TVs "Wall Street Week"
and syndicated columnist,
the Hon. Philip Crane, U.S.
Representative from Illinois
and candidate for the
Presidency in 1980, and
James Dines, editor and
publisher of the Dines
Letter.
Free leaflets and registra
tion applications can
be obtained by writing
to Investment Seminars
International, Inc., United
First Federal Building,
Bradenton, FL.
The Johnson Company
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Now You See It,
Now You Don't
Sulfur dioxide, photographed through a spe
cial ultraviolet filter, streams from the stacks of
a TVA coal-fired power plant near Kingston,
Tennessee (left). But to the naked eye, as well
as an unfiltered camera lens, the gas ? some
8,000 tons of it the month these photographs
were made ? issues unseen from the same
stacks (below), accompanied by invisible ox
ides of nitrogen.
'Mystery Bird' Discovered
In New Guinea Mountains
by Joy Aschenbach
National Geographic News Service
WASHINGTON - Scientists
had never seen it before, but
somewhere in the New Guinea
region there was supposed to be an
outlandish "yellow-fronted garde
ner bowerbird."
Its existence was known only
from three skins sold to British
zoologist Lord Rothschild by a
plume merchant in 1895. Of' the
many spectacular species of birds
ot paradise and bowerbirds that
also first turned up in the plume
markets ot London, Paris, Amster
dam, and Singapore, it was the
only one that had never been traced
to its home ground.
Rain Forest Hide-Out
At last, the mystery bird of New
Guinea, Amblyornis flavifrons, has
been found. Early this year, on his
ninth research expedition to the
region. California ornithologist
Jared M. Diamond discovered the
bird high up in the largest un
explored mountain range in New
Guinea, the thickly rain - forested
Gauttier (Foja) Mountains in the
island's Indonesian half.
Dr. Diamond described this
species as looking like "a fat.
chunky robin with an incredibly
glorious golden orange crest." It
presumably had not been seen since
unknown Malay or Papuan plume
hunters snared the three male skins
more than 85 years ago.
The lure for ornithologists was a
strange bird whose bower-building
relatives were known to construct
the most elaborate structures in the
avian world to woo as many
females as possible.
When these remarkable court
ship bowers were first discovered in
the 19th century, they were thought
to be the work of human artistry
because of the complexity of their
architecture and design. Built on
the ground, some towering 7 feet
high, they are the unique creation
ot small birds who work alone and
are found only in Australia and
New Guinea.
The search for the elusive yellow
-fronted bowerbird had taken some
ot the world's leading naturalists
and collectors - even a crown
prince of Belgium -- halfway
around the world. But all of the
more than a dozen expeditions,
including one supported by Na
tional Geographic in 1964, had
ended in failure. And at times, the
missing bowerbird was thought to
be extinct.
This year's attempt, partly
funded by the National Geo
graphic Society, succeeded because
Diamond went to a mountain range
never explored by scientists. "If we
didn't have those skins, the tame
ness of the animals would make it
seem that no human being has ever
been up there before. It's like being
in the world 30 million years ago,"
remarked Diamond, who had to be
helicoptered in at 5,200 feet with a
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chainsaw to construct a landing
site.
Discovery a Bonus
Ironically he came across the lost
bifd when he wasn't really looking
for it. "When I and anyone else
who goes to New Guinea have
dreams, we dream about finding
the mystery bowerbird, but my goal
on this trip was simply to do a
general bird survey of this moun
tain range and help the Indonesian
government plan a national park
there. The discovery was a totally
unexpected bonus."
Far from being extinct. Diamond
reports, the yellow - fronted bower
bird may number a thousand or
more -- still a small number for a
bird species. He actually saw about
30 and heard as many more. He
found bowers spaced about a
quarter - mile apart along the crests
of ridges, within a narrow altitude
band of 5,400 to 5.900 feet. The
bird's range, he believes, is re
stricted to the Gauttier Mountains
at altitudes above 4,000 feet.
Remarkably Diamond sighted
both the bird and the bower on the
first day (Jan. 31, 1981) of his
two-week stay and within two
minutes of his camp. With the help
of an Indonesian forester and two
New Guinea workers he was start
ing to clear a trail up to 6,500 feet
and down to 3,200.
Initially, he almost ignored the
bird, thinking its bower looked like
that of another well-known species.
"Only when I noticed that the crest
was a golden orange and came
down to the nostrils did 1 realize
that 1 might be on top of the
mystery bird of New Guinea." he
recalled.
But he wasn't absolutely certain
until he returned home and ex
amined the Rothschild skins at the
American Museum of Natural His
tory in New York. The live birds
and the skins were identical except
for the color of the crest. On the
live bird, it is a rich golden orange;
on the skins, it has faded to a paler
yellow .
Witness to Courtship
Diamond's most extraordinary
encounter with the live bird oc
curred when he stood within 10 feet
of a male courting a female at his
bower. It was the only time he saw
two birds together.
"It happened one day when 1 was
walking along a ridge and heard a
loud sound about SO yards away. It
sounded like gravel rolling down a
mountain slope and I thought it
must be a wild pig."
Instead Diamond discovered the
male bowerbird "making these
crazy wooing sounds while holding
a blue fruit about a third the size of
its head in its bill. The sounds
ranged from clicks, croaks,
whistles, and screeches to noises
like crumpling paper or chopping
wood."
Huts and Lawns
Depending on the species,
bowers may be walled avenues,
thatched huts. Maypoles, or care
fully laid out lawns. They are
usually decorated with dozens or
even hundreds of colorful flowers,
berries, shells, or pebbles. Some
birds bring fresh flowers to the
bower daily and carry oflf withered
blossoms.
Others paint the wails with
crushed plant matter, using a stick
or leaf for a brush. Near populated
areas, the birds have incorporated
bits of civilization into the design -
clothespins, bottle caps, marbles,
shotgun shells, and car keys.
To enhance their own domain,
some birds also steal from their
rivals' bowers and sometimes even
wreck them.
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