Horberry, M. (2020, October 02). After Wildfires Stop Burning, a Danger in the Drinking Water. Retrieved November 16, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/science/wildfires-water-toxic.html
Fires can cause toxic chemicals like benzene to go into the water supply. In the short term, this can cause nausea and vomiting, but in the long term can lead to cancer. After the fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, there were 2,217 parts per billion of benzene. Authorities say that one part per billion is very dangerous over the long term. After fires, water in the pipes can contaminated with an array of volatile organic compounds and semi-volatile organic compounds.
With the constant fires in California, this is an extremely serious problem. There are tons of terrible particles in the water supply, which can lead to serious health issues among the populace. We need to give more money for research to figure out how to prevent and solve bad particles leaking into the water.
This article really just shows how climate change has so many harmful effects. This is not just about global warming or changes in weather. The butterfly effect of climate change has proven to be incredibly destructive. Climate change has increased the number of wildfires, especially in California. Of course, people are dying and property is being destroyed. On top of that, there is incredible air pollution, and as the article states, there can be huge long-term effects for people, like cancer. People who don’t believe that climate change is real, or who aren’t doing anything to combat it, are harming thousands, if not millions of people. I wonder, would people act the way that they do in relation to the climate if they knew the true effects of their actions?