China’s Devastating Pollution Epidemic Proves That The World Is Nearing Its End (PHOTOS)

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About five years ago I was lucky enough to spend a year working in Beijing, sucking up all the culture the city had to offer while enjoying the sense of adventure felt when living on the other side of the world. It was by far one of the best years of my life and of all the places I’ve travelled to, I would say that China has to be one of my favourites. The people, the food, the nightlife and the Baiju. Plus it was pretty interesting to live in a country that was still so heavily censored. Not having Facebook for an entire year was almost a Godsend.

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But despite its many offerings, there’s one downside to the country that is felt not only by its citizens, but also by the rest of the world – its severe pollution problem. China has the highest population rates going, holding over 18% of the entire world’s population. Combine this with the fact that it is the manufacturing hub of the world and the resulting factor has been the heavy pollution of its air and water supply.

Living in Beijing, I could see the evidence for myself. The air quality index readings reached catastrophic levels more than a couple of times and for several days of the week the skyline outside my window was not visible due to the thick smog that covered it. At the time I was working in a school and while I remembered have “wet play” break times when it was raining outside, these kids had “pollution days” where they were not allowed to play outside due to the dangerously smoggy air. And with the world heading where it is with regards to climate change and global warming, if anything China’s pollution should stand as a warning to the rest of the world that we need to be making drastic changes if we want to save the planet.

Unfortunately, what with Donald Trump being a climate change denier, this might be a slow process, but we can only try. Although it’s highly unlikely that the future US president is reading this, I’m going to aim the following photos at Trump to prove just how buggered China’s pollution problem really is:

china-pollution-24 china-pollution-23 china-pollution-22Shoot in Tianjin, PRC. A dog sleeps, peacefully ignoting the surrounding chaos.china-pollution-20china-pollution-19A fisherman fills his cupped palms with water from the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 16, 2009. The country has invested 51 billion yuan towards the construction of 2,712 projects for the treatment of eight rivers and lakes including Huaihe River, Haihe River, Liaohe River, Chaohu Lake, Dianchi Lake, Songhua River, the Three Gorges region of the Yangtze River and its upstream area, Xinhua News Agency reported. Picture taken June 16, 2009. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY IMAGES OF THE DAY) CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA - RTR24QAT

A worker looks at a photographer from a door of a factory manufacturing screws and nuts next to a polluted river in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province March 15, 2012. China's continuing reliance on heavy industry meant it failed to meet its own targets for cleaning its air and water in 2011, the head of the top planning agency told journalists on Monday. REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA - Tags: ENVIRONMENT BUSINESS) CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA - RTR2ZD8Nchina-pollution-17 china-pollution-16A woman collects plastic bottles near a river where water is polluted with a reddish dye in Dongxiang, in east China's Jiangxi Province Friday March 25, 2005. The river is polluted by waste water directly discharged from a small paper factory nearby. China's already severe water shortages are worsening due to heavy pollution of lakes and aquifers and urban development projects with a big thirst for water. A survey in January found that only 47 percent of water in China's major rivers is drinkable, while half of all lakes are heavily polluted. (AP Photo) ** CHINA OUT, ONLINE OUT ** - salomchina-pollution-14 china-pollution-13(FILES) - This photo taken on July 18, 2006 shows cyclists passing through thick pollution from a factory in Yutian, 100km east of Beijing in China's northwest Hebei province. Surging levels of carbon dioxide sent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to a new record in 2013, while oceans, which absorb the emissions, have become more acidic than ever, the UN said on September 9, 2014. AFP PHOTO / PETER PARKSchina-pollution-11 china-pollution-10LIANYUNGANG, CHINA - DECEMBER 08: (CHINA OUT) Buildings are shrouded in smog on December 8, 2013 in Lianyungang, China. Heavy smog has been lingering in northern and eastern parts of China since last week, disturbing the traffic, worsening air pollution and forcing the closure of schools. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)china-pollution-8 china-pollution-7 china-pollution-6This picture taken on December 13, 2011 shows a woman collecting a sample of the red polluted water flowing from a sewer into the Jian River in Luoyang, north China's Henan province. The cause of the river becoming apocalyptic in character was red dye being dumped into the city's storm water pipe network, by two illegal dye workshops,the Luoyang Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said on December 14, 2011, as authorities said they were working to shut down the workshops, and to disassemble the workshops' machinery. AFP PHOTO CHINA OUTA boy swims in the algae-filled coastline of Qingdao, Shandong province July 15, 2011. Picture taken July 15, 2011. REUTERS/China Daily (CHINA - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY SPORT SWIMMING IMAGES OF THE DAY) CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA - RTR2OXK8A child drinks water near a stream in Fuyuan county, Yunnan province March 20, 2009. World Water Day will be observed on March 22. Picture taken March 20, 2009. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)A woman wearing a mask walk through a street covered by dense smog in Harbin, northern China, Monday, Oct. 21, 2013. Visibility shrank to less than half a football field and small-particle pollution soared to a record 40 times higher than an international safety standard in one northern Chinese city as the region entered its high-smog season. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDITchina-pollution

And if you still don’t believe in China’s pollution problem, just be aware that Chinese residents have resorted to buying bottles of fresh air from Canada.

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