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)

“Winter shapes, Moscow river”. Moscow river at this part is never covered by ice. When the temperature is very low it's possible to see a strong fog. Morning light and pipes of the oli factory creates a fantastic landscape. Photo location: Moscow, Russia. (Photo and caption by Sergey Rumyantsev/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A three wheeled “cabin” scooter manufactured by German aircraft engineers Messerschmitt & Co at factories in Regensburg. (Photo by Hans Enzwieser/BIPs/Getty Images). 1955

People look at smoke and flame rising from the Nevskaya Manufaktura textile factory founded by English merchant J. Thornton in 1841, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, April 12, 2021. The emergencies ministry said the fire had broken out over several floors of the red-brick Nevskaya Manufaktura building on the Oktyabrskaya Embankment of the Neva River. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Patarawan fixes her boots as her parrot, Sim sits on her head as she goes shopping for dinner at a busy flooded market near the Chao Phraya river October 27, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand. Hundreds of factories closed in the central Thai province of Ayutthaya and Nonthaburi as the flood waters began to reach Bangkok. Around 350 people have died in flood-related incidents since late July according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, with Thailand experiencing the worst flooding in 50 years. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

(L-R) Shiri Appleby and Kevin Zegers of “What Just Happened??! with Fred Savage” attend the Pizza Hut Lounge at 2019 Comic-Con International: San Diego on July 19, 2019 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images for Pizza Hut)

Snow covers roofs, streets and the Charles River following a winter blizzard in Boston, Massachusetts January 28, 2015. A powerful blizzard struck Boston and surrounding New England on Tuesday, leaving some 4.5 million people grappling with as much as three feet of snow and coastal flooding. (Photo by Brian Snyder/Reuters)