Censored in 1977: Acid Rain and Ecological Disaster

Acid rain, caused predominantly by oil and coal burning, smelting, and car exhaust, has been falling throughout most parts of the east coast of the U.S., according to an explosive feature article in Mother Jones, December, 1977. The acidity of the rain contaminates the soils, damages crops, stunts the growth of trees, lowers the pH of even the most remote high altitude lakes, thus wiping out entire native fish species and causes other potentially disastrous occurrences. In over 50 percent of all the Adirondack lakes most remote from civilization, all the fish have died. Biologists at Cornell University found that rain and snow throughout the eastern U.S. falls with 100 times more acidity that it did a generation ago. It was the #8 censored story of 1977.