River acidification refers to a river with acid levels that have increased exponentially, which affects the natural makeup of the river. River acidification causes certain fish and other fresh and saltwater species to die out and others to become overpopulated, upsetting the natural balance of the river.

If you don’t spend time on the river, how does river acidification impact you? Why should you care? There are several reasons why river acidification should matter to you, whether you think it should or not!

First, much of river acidification is the direct result of human pollution. Illegal dumping causes river acidification, but it’s not just illegal activity that has a hand in river acidification. Some industrial companies discharge their waste into the river, often with permission. Perhaps since rivers are not often used as water sources for human consumption, they are more frequently the targets of dumping.

River acidification is also sometimes causes by nearby burning fields. Farmers and owners of land with dry, dying grass sometimes burn their land in a controlled environment so that the soil has a chance to produce new, more lively crops and grass. If this land burning occurs near a river, the river can experience higher levels of acidification.

Secondly, you should care about river acidification because it affects the food that you eat! There’s a chain of life between all creatures, and that doesn’t just mean that you can’t get a certain kind of fish on the table. If a certain kind of carnivore or omnivore can’t eat those fish anymore, they start to die out, too. And what if a fish that usually eats a bug or form of plankton that in excess can cause diseases in humans dies out?

Lastly, you’re probably part of the problem of river acidification! Even if you don’t personally dump anything into a river or burn any fields near a river, just the fact that you drive your car to work each day and use electricity contributes to river acidification.

How does that work? The gas from you car or the coal in your utility plant burns and releases a sulfur and nitrogen compound into the air. This acidic compound mixes with clouds and eventually falls back to the earth in the form of precipitation, slowly adding to the level of acid present in bodies of water such as rivers.

You’ve heard time and time again to cut back on gas and electricity usage when possible because of the negative effects on the environment. You may not have thought that using your car could make a fish extinct before, but that’s the sad result of pollution and river acidification.

To do your part to prevent river acidification, conserve energy where possible and help protest illegal dumping in the rivers closest to you! You don’t have to be a fisherman to appreciate the effort to prevent further river acidification!