This runoff can be highly toxic to aquatic plant and animal life. In the atmosphere, SO2 becomes an aerosol of sulfuric acid that is commonly known as acid rain. When the SO2 concentrations are very high in rainfall, they can cause severe respiratory damage to humans and substantial damage to buildings. Fortunately for humans, most of this sulfur falls back onto the earth in unpopulated regions. Unfortunately, the areas that do get damaged are our agricultural regions, forests, and lakes.
Natural forests die from the acid rain, along with their biologically diverse species.
Thousands of lakes in the U.S. and Canada have suffered serious losses of aquatic life due to acidic rain. While the environment might be the hardest hit by the increasing use of oil for transportation, our economy doesn't escape unscathed either. Oil imports account for almost half of the U.S. trade deficit - the gap between what a country sells and what it buys overseas. This has an enormous impact on our economy. U.S. Trade Deficit.