Acid rain in the Philippines

The past 23 of February, the Greenpeace International warned the government of the Philippines that in various yields there were specifically dangerous plants as they would cause acid rain thought the years. That information was obtained by the Asia-Pacific region as they said that apparently the dangerous plants emitted Mercury and it was transformed into a gaseous substance which ascends to the atmosphere. In theory this gaseous substance will descend in the form of acid rain. This will affect the ecosystems of the Philippines as if something harms one part of an ecosystem it can have an impact on everything else, wether it's the water, the soil, the plants or the animals. If we go into much more detail we can see that acid rain affects the ecosystems in different ways, a good example could be how acid rains affects aquatic environments, such as streams, lakes, and marshes where it can be harmful to fish and other wildlife. As it flows through the soil, acidic rain water can extract aluminum from particles which then flow into streams and lakes. An increase in acid would also mean an increase in the aluminum is released to the ecosystem. This then affects how animals and plants in the sea live, as either plants or animals can just live in a specific PH, if the PH range increases or decreases, biodiversity would decrease as these plants and animals would die. Another example would be how acid rain affects plants and trees, as dead or dying trees are a common sight in areas effected by acid rain. Acid rain not only raises the Ph of the soil which harms the nutrition of the trees but also removes minerals and nutrients from the soil that trees need to grow. These issues lead to eutrophication because of soil erosion, water pollution as they want crops to grow faster. The conclusion would be that we need to stop burning fossil fuels or using anything that contaminates the atmosphere and causes acid rain.

By Marina G. 3º Blue