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)

Bride Yulia Tagil sits on the backseat of a bike as she arrives for her alternative wedding ceremony on a square in Tel Aviv July 25, 2010. The alternative wedding ceremony was intended to demonstrate against the current situation in Israel, where the only way for Jews to get married by law is through the Chief Rabbinate. (Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters)

Labourers pour molten iron into a container at a foundry in Xiangfan, Hubei province in this July 2, 2010 file photo. Iron ore is enjoying its biggest rally in years, outpacing copper and oil so far in 2016, but still weak forward prices show it may be tough to stretch the bullish outlook. Improving steel prices in top market China are helping fuel iron ore's climb as producers gear up for a seasonal uptick in demand. Yet there is no shortage of doubters who see gains in the bulk commodity as fleeting given a large glut and challenges for China's economy. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Residents of the Korean port of Inchon surrender to American troops. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Getty Images). 1950

An attendee dances at the start of the “Big Goth Dance Party” during the Porcupine Freedom Festival, or PorcFest, the Free State Project's annual summer gathering in Lancaster, NH on Wednesday, June 25, 2014. (Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh/The Washington Post)

An Afghan girl carries washed clothes on her head in Bamiyan, Afghanistan on March 2, 2023. (Photo by Ali Khara/Reuters)

Russia's Andrey Rublev tries to remove a cricket from the court during the men's singles match against USA's Sebastian Korda on day six of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 19, 2024. (Photo by David Gray/AFP Photo)

American actress Heather Rae Young feeds an alpaca a carrot stick from her mouth during her bridal shower hosted by PETA at Kindred Spirits Care Farm on September 2, 2021. On Thursday morning, PETA and rescued animals from Kindred Spirits Care Farm will host a bridal shower for Heather Rae Young in honor of the longtime animal rights activist and Selling Sunset star’s upcoming nuptials to Tarek El Moussa. (Photo by Snorlax/The Mega Agency)