As I drive along a road to my grand-father’s house on the week-end, I can’t help but notice the monster smokestacks that spoil Sudbury’s landscape. They can be spotted from miles away; towering over the (unusually) short vegetation and blackened granite. You can actually see a line where the exposed rocks have been blackened, and the recently broken or weathered rocks are pink and light grey (their natural color). Then it happened; a terribly geeky science moment! I remembered reading about acid rain problems in Sudbury being the cause for the lack of lush forest and bountiful wildlife; all because of the mega-smokestacks: Acid rain is produced when pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) are chemically transformed to sulphuric acid in the atmosphere; they are then transported and eventually deposited in the form of rain or snow. Over 90% of acid rain in North America is the result of burning fossil fuels for energy (such as coal), and more importantly smelting or refining sulphur...