The Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain played an important role in raising concerns of acid rain. Listen to Michael Perley and Adele Hurley, executive co-ordinators and chief lobbyists of the coalition tell their story about their battle to eliminate acid rain in both Canada and the United States.
"Why don't you just go back up to Canada and tell your government that they'd better clean up its own act and then maybe...."It took 10 years for acid rain to become a household word. Acid rain became a prominent environmental issue after a Canadian study revealed that pollution causes acid rain, which damages the environment, which in turn threatens human health and quality of life. In 1980, Adele Hurley and Michael Perley founded the Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain to make this issue part of the political agenda in Canada and the United States. They first targeted Washington D.C., to persuade US senators to acknowledge that acid rain was an important issue and that a law should be passed should control air emissions. This is the story behind how the the United States' Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Act was passed. Listen to this story to learn about Michael Perley and Adele Hurley’s experiences along their journey to kill acid rain.