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)

“Stacked Supercell with Lightning”. This huge mesocyclone supercell was near the Nebraska / Kansas border on the night of June 22nd, 2012. What a stunning structure! (Photo and caption by Jennifer Brindley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

Dancers pose after performing “El Macho Raton”, “El Toro Huaco” and “El Gueguense” traditional dances during San Sebastian festivity in Diriamba, province of Carazo, some 50 km south of Managua on January 19, 2016. Devotees of Saint Sebastian dance in traditional costumes between the cities of Diriamba and Dolores, which are some three kilometers away. (Photo by Inti Ocon/AFP Photo)

Armed Syrian Turkmen villagers are seen near the northern Syrian village of Yamadi, near the Turkish-Syrian border, Syria, November 24, 2015. Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday saying it had repeatedly violated its air space, one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Two Bulgarian tourists pose in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on their last day in the capital on March 24, 2014. (Photo by Franck Fife/AFP Photo)

While the lido was described as bringing “modernism to the masses” on the British coast it was just the latest example of a trend that had been developing since Victorian times – transforming seaside towns into resorts for leisure and entertainment. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the fashion was for local authorities to build great piers stretching from the promenade out into the sea. The Eastbourne Pier, pictured here in May 1931, was erected between 1866 and 1870 to an ingenious design by Eugenius Birch, which saw the structure sitting on special cups allowing the supporting struts to “move” in bad weather. Arranged on the pier's 1,000-foot length were kiosks, a theatre, a ballroom and a camera obscura. 1931. (Photo by Aerofilms Collection via “A History of Britain From Above”)

A combination photo shows various popular street foods under $6 from various hawker food stalls and eateries in Singapore, taken between July 28 to 31, 2016. Top row (L to R) bak chor mee, soya sauce chicken; Middle row (L to R) laksa, hokkien mee, nasi lemak, ice kachang; Bottom row (L to R) rojak, roti prata and satay. (Photo by Edgar Su/Reuters)

Smithfield meat porters march on the Home Office, bearing a petition which calls for an end to all immigration into Britain, 25th August 1972. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)