Impacts of Acid Rain on Central and Southern China Research Paper

Impacts of Acid Rain on Central and Southern China - Research Paper Example Environmental pollution take the form of air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution among others that affect the general livelihood of the people who live in certain areas of the world. One of the effects of the environmental pollution is the production of acid rains, which has been witnessed in many parts of the world as a result of excessive emission of substances with hydrogen ions into the atmosphere. The effect is that the hydrogen ions combine with the environmental water to produce an acidic substance which falls to the ground as rain and it has very many negative impacts. Acid rain has its water with a pH value which is lower than the normal pH7 for neutral substances such as clean water, which contain no hydrogen ions or hydroxide ions. The pH value of water in the acid rain can be lower than seven as a result of emission of carbon (IV) oxide, oxides of sulphur and those of nitrogen (Chen, Li & Gao, 2010). The water that result from acid rains are as cannot be healthy for drinking and has a corrosive impact on the metal substances as well as negative impacts on the plants, which may be seen through falling of young plant leaves. To some other things like clothes and paintings, the acid rains can have a bleaching effect in addition to corrosion that happens (Ribeiro, Taffarel, Sampaio, Flores & Silva, 2013). This implies that acid rains are not in any way friendly to the environment in which they are experienced and they can lead to devastating impacts on vegetation cover in a given place. In evaluation of the impact of acid rains on the environments, it is important to consider its impacts on the forest cover and other species with a focus of the issues experienced in the Southern and Central China. Formation of acid rain Acid rains are formed mostly as a result of combustion of fossil fuels which lead to emission of sulphur and nitrogen oxides that are released to the environment. The problem happens when sulphurous and nitrogenous products in their gaseous forms go to the atmosphere and combine with the water. When a react fossil fuels consisting of sulphur as an impurity burn, they form a gaseous product known as sulphur (IV) oxide, which rises to the atmosphere and combine with other components thereof. In the presence of hydroxyl radicals, the sulphur (IV) oxide is oxidised to sulphur (VI) oxide, which reacts with atmospheric water molecules to form sulphuric acid (H2SO4). The acid rain that results from sulphur oxides contributes to about 70% of the acid rains in the environment all over the world (Ribeiro, Taffarel, Sampaio, Flores & Silva, 2013). On the other hand, nitrogen oxides, which make nitric acid rains, are formed as a result of combustion of fossil fuels which contain nitrogen particles as part of their components. When fuels are burned, they produce nitrogen oxide, NO, which is oxidised by the ozone (O3), and hydrogen dioxide (HO2), to form nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas, which is very reactive. In the reacti on, the gas reacts with hydroxide ions in the atmosphere to form an acidic substance known as nitric acid, (HNO3). Both cases of sulphuric and nitric acid cause acid depositions into the earth when they fall to the ground from the atmosphere during the either rain seasons. The acid rains can reach the earth in high amounts or as few drops to the ground but have similar devastating effects on the living and the non-living things (Ribeiro, Taffare

Ethics and Law in Business and Society. History and Implementation of Research Paper

Ethics and Law in Business and Society. History and Implementation of SOX - Research Paper Example However, there are those who say that the price is not commensurate to the benefits that the law appears to be bringing to the corporate world and especially when it comes to the high compliance costs. History and Implementation of SOX: Following several high profile accounting scandals in the 1990s and particularly the infamous Enron and WorldCom scandals, the ensuing intense soul-searching in the US corporate world concluded that effective safeguards needed to put in place if a repeat of the two scandals was to be completely obviated and if the investor confidence was to be restored. This is how the Public Company Accounting Reform Protection Act, the so-called Sarbanes-Oxley Act was conceived. Enacted in July of 2002, the Sarbanes Oxley Act was informed by need to put an end to corporate scandals and particularly to restore the public confidence in the capital markets (Roberts, & Mahoney, 2004). According to Section 404(a) of this Act, the management ought to not only assess but a lso report on the effectiveness of the business internal controls over financial reporting (Roberts, & Mahoney, 2004). ... There are a number of laws governing SEC, however and after the 1940’s Investment Adviser Act, SOX is arguably SEC’s most recent law that it is charged to oversee. Other than SEC, SOX has implementation power that it exercises through the US Department of Justice whose primary function is to prosecute the federal crimes that are associated with acts like; conspiring or even attempting to commit fraud, verifying false financial statements, destroying or tampering with documents, and retaliating against whistleblowers (Heath, & Norman, 2004). In corroboration with the office of the Attorney General, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is charged with the responsibility of investigating crime related with corporate fraud while still retaining its mandate as the only detective agency that can investigate and apprehend those accused of committing corporate bad behavior (Heath, & Norman, 2004). SOX immense power can be looked from its Titles that include; acting as a Pu blic Company Accounting Oversight Body; enforcing the independence of auditors; policing corporate responsibility; improving financial disclosures; analyzing conflict of interest; upholding the accountability of corporate and criminal fraud; and enhancing penalties on white collar crimes (Brannick, & Roche, 1887). According to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, SEC was to adopt rules requiring the management of all companies with publicly traded securities (apart from registered investment companies) to annually report their assessment of the effectiveness of their internal controls as well as an auditor’s independent confirmation of the effectiveness of the said internal controls. Adopted on 27th March 2003, these rules laid out