Acid Rain Is Literally Dissolving Vancouver's Concrete!

If acid rain is doing this to the concrete what is it doing to us and the greater ecology of BC?'

While everyone continues to blame industrial impact on climate change, they walk right past industrial impact that we never witnessed even when we were children in the 1960s, dissolving sidewalks! If you just look down while you are walking around Vancouver streets, directly under the drip edge of the awning in front of small businesses, you will see very obviously, that there are grooves cut in the concrete. Side walks new and old are dissolving and it's not because of the fact that it rains a great deal in Vancouver or the sea air. It's because of acid rain flowing in from China and other Asian and South Asian nations in the prevailing westerlies.

As you can see, the year of the pour of the sidewalk and the groove being cut into the concrete at my toe. This is due to acid rain being acidic and concrete being alkaline. It makes one connect the dots as to why that structural concrete building collapsed in Florida a few weeks back killing at least 14. Considering almost all the luxury high-rises built in Vancouver, Burnaby and the rest of the lower mainland in the greater metro area of Vancouver are structural concrete, should give developers pause.

None of the steal rebar that went into any of the luxury high rises in BC was coated. It was drenched in acid rain which can cause chemical reactions between the concrete and the steal that can accelerate aging of the concrete and the steal. I can't wait to see the forensics on the collapse of that building in Florida. Will they cover it up or start condemning other structural concrete buildings built thirty and forty years ago? As a construction expert with decades of experience in large and small projects like Boston's central artery project, I have worked with a great deal of concrete and was struck, at all the dissolving concrete everywhere here when I arrived back home after living for thirty years in the US.

In the picture below you can see clearly the corrosion in the side walk and this is the least of what I've seen. There is forty and fifty year old and older concrete completely coming apart. Concrete hardens for a hundred years and then begins to soften so the idea that some might think that this is normal is not in the cards.

There is a greater concern of 'If acid rain is doing this to the concrete what is it doing to us and the greater ecology of BC?' Forestry expert Reese Halter pointed out that acid rain is destroying the soil biome made up of mycorhizas and bacillus' that aid in root production and nitrogen fixing which keeps BC's forests attached to our mountainsides. Because of the destruction of the soil biome all plant roots will shrink in some cases up to 80% radically stunting the growth of BC’s forests. That's all we need in BC, more landslides and erosion into already under siege salmon rivers and streams.

While Trudeau was doing Trump's bidding arresting Meng Wanhsou, CFO for Huwei, he could have been negotiating a natural gas deal with the Chinese that could help China get off coal like, Russia did with a 500 billion dollar gas deal between Russia and China and we could stop the acid rain destruction of British Columbia, Canada and North America. The world must come together and end the burning of coal. But the only way China is going to get off coal is if they are brought serious resources in order to transition into a clean energy future. It is important to note that we are not ending fossil fuels to stop climate change as climate change can only be stopped by the planet itself producing enough ozone to stop the influx ultraviolet heat into our atmosphere, that we experienced oh so well this last summer. Record heatwaves and record moisture production into the atmosphere produced record rainfall, flash flooding and destruction right around the whole planet this summer. We are ending fossil fuels for our health as the pollution when I was kid produced a thirty percent asthma rate. For the environment's health.

Fossil fuels didn't cause climate change but a good enough reason to get rid of them is the acidification of the surface of the planet and the oceans that fossil fuels cause, that is the direct industrial impact of greater importance. The aerosol pollutants produced by burning fossil fuels are radically dangerous for us to be breathing and are at the heart of many respiratory illnesses.

After reading this article I know those that have not notice this unprecedented destruction of Vancouver's concrete will immediately start noticing what is a glaring admission of the political bankruptcy of Canadian leadership from all parties including the Green Party which is supposed to be a sophisticated batch of environmentalists.

Just to give some perspective on this, Canada sued the United States to stop the acid rain that destroyed 20,000 lakes in Ontario, Quebec and the eastern sea board provinces, because of unfettered coal burning in America's rust belt which then would pour acid rain on Ontario and Quebec and the eastern seaboard. The United States capitulated to Canada's demands which had the United States cut sulfur dioxide emissions from America's coal stacks by 75%. This is what we must do with China. We must sue China to put scrubbers on their coal fired power plants but we also must offer them our natural gas from underneath our permafrost that we're wasting on tar sands. If we get the gas out from underneath the permafrost and converted through use, it won't end up in the atmosphere as a far more powerful heat trapping gas and our next ice age will be less severe. When the acid rain was significantly removed from American emissions, lime was put in to acid rain destroyed lakes in Ontario and Quebec which brought them right back to life by bringing up the alkalinity in the water. Interestingly enough, lime and Portland cement which is alkaline as well, are a significant component in concrete and mortar for bricks and stone work.