Growing cities, overuse of fertilizers and factory wastewater have degraded China's water supplies to the extent that half the nation's rivers and lakes are severely polluted. China aims to spend $850 billion to improve filthy water supplies over the next decade, but even such huge outlays may do little to reverse damage caused by decades of pollution and overuse in Beijing's push for rapid economic growth. Photo: Fishermen row a boat in the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 19, 2009. (Photo by Jianan Yu/Reuters)

Saint Nicholas poses with students during a traditional parade in central Brussels, Belgium December 3, 2016. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

The six-months-old female koala cub holds on to the back of zoo keeper Lena at the zoo in Duisburg, Germany, 23 October 2015. The yet unnamed baby weighs 580 grams. (Photo by Roland Weihrauch/EPA)

A man walks through the morning mist in a park in Rozzano, near Milan, northern Italy, Thursday, December 17, 2015. (Photo by Antonio Calanni/AP Photo)

A supercell thunderstorm develops, May 8, 2017 in Elbert County outside of Limon, Colorado. With funding from the National Science Foundation and other government grants, scientists and meteorologists from the Center for Severe Weather Research try to get close to supercell storms and tornadoes trying to better understand tornado structure and strength, how low-level winds affect and damage buildings, and to learn more about tornado formation and prediction. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A woman stands on the footbridge over the river Garry near Pitlochry, Scotland, Britain on October 10, 2018. (Photo by Russell Cheyne/Reuters)

Capturing this picture of lightning striking near Blackpool Tower has earned Stephen Cheatley the UK Weather Photographer of the Year award 2018. (Photo by Stephen Cheatley/Bav Media)

Montegut fire chief Toby Henry walks back to his fire truck in the rain as firefighters cut through trees on the road in Bourg, Louisiana as Hurricane Ida passes on August 29, 2021. Hurricane Ida struck the coast of Louisiana on August 29 as a powerful Category 4 storm, 16 years to the day after deadly Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern US city of New Orleans. “Extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Ida makes landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana”, the National Hurricane Center wrote in an advisory. (Photo by Mark Felix/AFP Photo)