You Won’t Believe How Bad Pollution In China Has Become

With a newly-minted elite and an economic growth rate of over 10%, the environment has taken a backseat in China, the world’s most populous country. Growing pollution has led to unusable waterways, increased incidence of birth defects, and some of the dirtiest air on earth. It’s so nasty that there’s now a word for it: “smogpocalypse”.

With that said, China is not oblivious to its ecological impacts, and according to the Harvard Business Review “is taking this challenge much more seriously than others… doing things differently, making longer-term, sustained commitments that are much larger.” In 2010, China ranked as the world’s leading investor in low-carbon energy technology, which makes sense given national political leaders’ tendency to view clean energy as a great economic opportunity.

The following photographs prove that economic growth indeed comes at a cost, and one whose long-term effects remain unclear:

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A boy swims in dense algal blooms in Qingdao, which are caused by excessive agricultural runoff and lead to ‘dead zones’ that become inhospitable for both flora and fauna.

We also recommend that you check out these videos by Vice about the severity of pollution in China:

Thank you to National Geographic, Business Insider, CBS, and us for the images above. And after you see this gallery of pollution in China, be sure to check out our other posts on photographs of life inside North Korea and the growing environmental crisis in China.