Environmental Citizenship and Interconnectedness Report - ENV0002

This report, focusing on environmental citizenship, explores the phenomenon of acid rain, detailing its causes, such as the burning of fossil fuels and the resulting release of pollutants like nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, which react with atmospheric water droplets to form sulfuric and nitric acids. The report discusses the far-reaching effects of acid rain, including its impact on human health through respiratory irritation and reduced visibility, as well as the damage to water bodies, reducing the pH levels of streams and lakes, and affecting aquatic life. Furthermore, it examines the effects on biodiversity, leading to fish death and habitat destruction, and the varied effects on different soil types. The report emphasizes the importance of environmental citizenship and individual responsibility in addressing and mitigating these environmental challenges, highlighting the interconnectedness of the ecosystem and the need for proactive measures.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL CITIZENSHIP
GEOGRAPHY ASSIGNMENT
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
Environmental citizenship is the idea that describes that each individual on earth is a
part of a larger and integral ecosystem upon which our future depends (Black et al). These
aspects helps to identify the factors that affects our activities of daily life and hence, it is the
responsibility of every individual to understand the challenges and act responsibly to reduce
the negative outcomes for the betterment of the society (Cheng et al.). Despite that due to
increase industrialisation and misuse of natural resources, the negative consequences of
environmental aspects has increased.
This report would discuss one such aspect, Acid raining as the topic and then would
discuss the interconnectedness of this to the natural aspects such as biodiversity, water,
human life, land and water.
What is acid rain?
Acid rain is a phenomenon which occurs due to the increased a=mount of air pollution
that arises due to the burning of fossil fuels that includes several type of gases, due to which
such phenomenon occurs. As per Cheng et al., due to higher amount of pollution in the air,
some of the pollutant gases such as nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxides reacts with the water
droplets in the clouds. This eventually develops nitric and sulphuric acid in the cloud which
then rains as weak acid.
The effects of acid rain
While describing the effects of acid rain, it should mentioned that acid rain is the
phenomenon that not only could travel from one country to another country, but could travel
between continents and take form of different forms of water such as snow, dry dust and mist
as per the environment they are in (Black et al.). The acid present in rain travels from one
area to another however, the complication that it creates could affect the water, soil, trees and

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biodiversity of the location where it is falling. While describing the harmful effects of acid
rain, the harmful effects it has brought in a specific reason could be understood from the
example of Scandinavia (Northern Europe), in which all the lakes are dead and no living
creature lives including plant life (Wang et al.). As mentioned by Hailegnaw et al., extensive
acid rain is one of the primary reason due to which freshwater of Britain are also facing
complication as they are unable to control their pollution content in the country.
For detailed and proper analysis of the connectedness of acid rain with land,
biodiversity, water, and human life, these aspects should be discussed separately.
Human life
As per Nowak et al., humans are not directly affected with the harmful effects of acid
rain however, the pollutants that are reason for the occurrence of acid rain, such as nitric
oxide and sulfur dioxide are the primary reason for the harmful effects of acid rain upon
humans. This is because due to these pollutants lungs gets irritated that could increase up to
damage in the cellular structure of lungs (Sudalma, Purwanto, and Santoso). Further,
exposure to acid rain can decrease the visibility of human eye sight and hence, indirect but
harmful effects of acid rain on human life has been observed.
Water
Water and associated water environment is primarily affected with the acid rain and
majority of the harmful effects has been observed upon lakes, streams and marshes. As per
Du et al., the pH of healthy water stream should be present between 6 and 8 however, due to
acid rain, the pH of water streams could reduce up to 4, that drastically affects the water and
associated water habitats. For example the harmful effects of Acid rain could be easily
observed upon Echo Pond in New York that has a pH of 4.2 and as per the environmentalists,
the primary reason for this is the presence of multiple factories, and these factories, their

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emissions and wind pattern increases the chances of acid rain upon this lake due to which the
water ecosystem and habitats has been destroyed (Sudalma, Purwanto, and Santoso).
Biodiversity
As per Haigh et al., due to the occurrence of acid rain, multiple cascades develops that
increases the death of fishes in the water, affects the biodiversity and then decreases the
number of fishes from the water body. Watmough et al. mentioned several type of fishes that
can tolerate the harmful effects of acid rain however, majority are pH sensitive and could be
lost due to the higher acidic pH water. Further, as per Dolomatov et al. acid rain is also
inclusive of aluminium and therefore, this is harmful for plants and aquatic plants.
Land
Different effect could be observed on different type of soils after acid rain. Such as, in
soil with limestone, acid rain could help them to neutralise their alkaline soil and hence, the
fertility of the soil increases (Goulding).
Conclusion
While concluding this report, it should be mentioned that the primary aim of
developing the environmental citizen is understanding that to protect and prevent harmful
effects of environment, it is the duty of every individual to fulfil their role. This report
provided an example of Acid rain and discussed the way it affects the human life and its
interconnectedness with water, soil and environmental aspects.

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References
Black, Benjamin A., et al. "Acid rain and ozone depletion from pulsed Siberian Traps
magmatism." Geology 42.1 (2014): 67-70.
Cheng, Yafang, et al. "Reactive nitrogen chemistry in aerosol water as a source of sulfate
during haze events in China." Science Advances 2.12 (2016): e1601530.
Dolomatov, Sergey, et al. "Role of nitrates in the adaptation of fish to hypoxic
conditions." Water Resources 43.1 (2016): 177-183.
Du, Yan-Jun, et al. "Effect of acid rain pH on leaching behavior of cement stabilized lead-
contaminated soil." Journal of Hazardous Materials 271 (2014): 131-140.
Goulding, K. W. T. "Soil acidification and the importance of liming agricultural soils with
particular reference to the United Kingdom." Soil use and management 32.3 (2016): 390-399.
Haigh, Rowan, et al. "Effects of ocean acidification on temperate coastal marine ecosystems
and fisheries in the Northeast Pacific." PLoS One 10.2 (2015): e0117533.
Hailegnaw, Bekele, et al. "Rain on methylammonium lead iodide based perovskites: possible
environmental effects of perovskite solar cells." The journal of physical chemistry letters 6.9
(2015): 1543-1547.
Nowak, David J., et al. "Tree and forest effects on air quality and human health in the United
States." Environmental pollution 193 (2014): 119-129.
Sudalma, S., P. Purwanto, and Langgeng Wahyu Santoso. "The effect of SO2 and NO2 from
transportation and stationary emissions sources to SO42− and NO3− in rain water in
Semarang." Procedia Environmental Sciences 23 (2015): 247-252.

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Wang, Lihong, et al. "Combined effects of lanthanum (III) chloride and acid rain on
photosynthetic parameters in rice." Chemosphere 112 (2014): 355-361.
Watmough, Shaun A., Catherine Eimers, and Scott Baker. "Impediments to recovery from
acid deposition." Atmospheric environment 146 (2016): 15-27.