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)

“7584 Fish”. On a windy day right after a Cyclone passed the far northern Great Barrier Reef i took some friends out to the reef. Never before i saw that many glass fish on this particular coral “bommie”. Just when i setup my camera, this Napoleon Wrasse swam right through the school of fish building a living frame. Photo location: Cairns, Great Barrier Reef, Flynn Reef, Australia. (Photo and caption by Christian Miller/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Typhoon Bopha moves toward the Philippines, observed from the ISS, on December 2, 2012. (Photo by AP Photo/NASA via The Atlantic)

Greyhounds with stuffed and sprung model monkeys strapped to their backs before a hurdle race at Wellinborough. (Photo by E. Bacon). 21st April 1928

English comic actor and director Charlie Chaplin (Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, 1889–1977) seated on straw bales during the filming of “The Circus” with his leading lady Merna Kennedy (1908–1944). (Photo by Margaret Chute/Getty Images). 1928

In this composite image Actress Sophie Marceau has an embarrassing moment as her top falls down while she enters a screening of “Where the Truth Lies” at the Grand Theatre during the 58th International Cannes Film Festival May 13, 2005 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

(L-R) Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, J K Rowling and Rupert Grint attend the World Premiere of “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1” held at The Odeon Leicester Square on November 11, 2010 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

Chinese artist Zhou Jie takes a nap on an unfinished iron wire bed, one of her sculpture works, after lunch as a friend of hers looks on at Beijing Now Art Gallery, in Beijing August 11, 2014. Zhou started her art project titled “36 Days” on August 9, in which she would live inside an exhibition hall with an unfinished iron wire bed, some iron wire sculptures in the shape of stuffed animal dolls, a certain amount of food and her mobile phone, for 36 days. The entire process is open to visitors and she may also interact with them, according to Zhou. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)