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)

Stella McCartney has launched its Summer 2024 campaign, the brand's most sustainable collection to date – crafted from 95% conscious materials. Starring eco-activist, model and actor Cara Delevingne, it is shot at the Veolia recycling plant in South London in March 2024. (Photo by Stella McCartney)

Solid Light, an exhibition of the immersive works of Anthony McCall, opens at Tate Modern in London on June 25, 2024. Installations use beams of light projected through a thin mist to create large three-dimensional forms. (Photo by Guy Bell/Alamy Live News)

Sandra Brown, 40, rides the Skyslide on the 69th and 70th floors of the U.S. Bank Tower which is attached to the OUE Skyspace LA observation deck in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 20, 2016. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

A man grimaces walking by the “Lettuce Ladies”, a group of PETA activists, during an event promoting a vegan lifestyle, downtown Bucharest, Romania, Monday, August 14, 2017. Two PETA vegan ambassadors distributed vegan food to passers by in the Romanian capital, the latest stop in a tour including the United States, Russia and Turkey aimed at promoting a vegan lifestyle. The sign reads in Romanian “start fresh: become vegan”. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)

Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA. 7th October, 2016. Kaleigh Black, 14, left, and Amber Olsen, 12, run for cover as a squall with rain and wind pelt them while they explore the Cocoa Beach Pier on Friday (10/7/16) after hurricane Matthew passed to the east on Florida's east coast.(Photo by Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News)

A young woman flashes the victory sign in front of a bonfire as Turkish Kurds gather during Newroz celebrations for the new year in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, on March 21, 2018. Newroz (also known as Nawroz or Nowruz) is an ancient Persian festival, which is also celebrated by Kurdish people, marking the first day of spring, which falls on March 21. (Photo by Ilyas Akengin/AFP Photo)

Mahmoud El Komy, a 26-year-old Egyptian mechatronics engineer, stands beside Cira 3, a remote-controlled robot that runs tests on suspected coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients, to limit the human exposure to the virus, amid a second wave of infections in Tanta, Egypt, November 18, 2020. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)