ABSTRACT
The geological vulnerability of a nation's land and water areas has much to do with diplomatic behavior of that nation relative to acid rain and international relations. The economic dependency of a nation on the pollution emissions which cause acid rain, especially with respect to sulfur dioxide emissions from coal and oil-fired electric power plants and metal smelters, likewise directly influences a nation's diplomatic behavior. Acid rain in Europe and North America represents the kind of international imbalance or asymmetry which guarantees the existence of a serious transborder diplomatic problem. Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are among the countries most threatened by acid rain and also among the most unified groupings of European nations. As a transboundary environmental problem, as a problem of international environmental diplomacy, in North America and in Europe, acid rain is of a much greater order of magnitude than the more long-standing problems of air and water pollution at the border and disputes over internationally shared river-basins.
