How climate change impacts blue-green algae growth, water safety

Toledo, Ohio residents are starting to drink tap water again after a weekend of warnings that an algae bloom in Lake Erie made the city's water unsafe to drink.

The same sort of algae prompts warnings each summer on lakes around Minnesota that can harm people and pets and recent weather patterns are making the problem worse.

Extreme rain events - like this year's unusually wet June - washed more phosphorous into lakes. Longer, hotter summers cause algae that feeds on the phosphorous to bloom.

On this week's Climate Cast, we'll find out more about blue-green algae and how a changing climate could affect the safety of the water around us.