- Were you able to wake up and breath clean air this morning? You probably have always
taken that for granted, but there are many people
in places around the world that don't have that luxury. People who live in places that are almost completely uninhabitable, because pollution has destroyed them. The following place are going to make you a lot more appreciative of
where you live right now. Here are 10 places pollution
completely destroyed. (eerie music) Number 10 is Yamuna River. (eerie music) In March of 2017, the
police department in Agra, a city in northern India, received a call that an
attempted murder had taken place. When asked who the victim was, the caller identified
them as the Yamuna River. It turns out just days before,
a high court in the country declared that the river
was a living entity, but the unbelievable amount
of pollution within in it was enough for it to be
declared almost dead. Research has shown that nearly 60% of the
waste accumulated in Delhi, India's capital territory, was
dumped into the Yamuna River, where almost all of the local residents get their drinking water from. Ironically, back in the 16th century, Babur, the first Mughal emperor, declared that water
tasted better than nectar. It's very far from being that tasty today. Number nine is Pont des Arts bridge. (eerie music) Located in Paris,
France, the Pont des Arts is a pedestrian bridge
that connects the Louvre with the River Seine's southern bank. For many years, a
tradition has been in place where couples come to the bridge and attach a padlock, or combination lock, to the side of its railings as a symbol of their undying
love for one another. But while one lock might not be too heavy, tens of thousands certainly are. Regardless of how it started, the romantic tradition
eventually became a hazard, as the weight of the
locks surpassed 45 tons. The strain on the bridge led to railings bending and breaking, which caused the Paris
government to step in. After requests to stop the
tradition fell on deaf ears, they had all of the
railings, locks included, removed and replaced
with more solid walls, covered in, of course,
lock-themed graffiti. Number eight is the Msimbazi River. (eerie music) When your basement floods,
it's a huge inconvenience. But imagine if the water
brought with it toxic substances and even piles of trash. That's the kind of
inconvenience that plagues those who live along or the near the
Msimbazi River in Tanzania, which has basically become
the means of garbage disposal over the last several years. When the rain season hits, people have to put up with flood waters entering their homes, bringing with it the waste
that they, and their neighbors, recently threw away, along
with disease-causing bacteria which has many in the area
stricken with various illnesses. What's worse is the rising population has led to even more garbage accumulating, and a larger strain on the
limited and still polluted drinking water that's available. Number seven is the Pacific trash vortex. (eerie music) When it comes to pollution in the sea, few stories are as gripping
as the floating trash island that's apparently navigating
the waves in the Pacific Ocean while gathering up more and
more garbage to add to its mass, a mass which has already
surpassed the size of Texas twice. A massive problem in the North Pacific, dubbed the Pacific Trash Vortex, the pollution in this area which includes microscopic toxins, dangerous chemicals, and
non-dissolving plastics, is trapped there due to
the rotating currents. The marine life in the region
has been severely affected with many species mistaking
certain pollutants as food, while others simply come into
contact with contaminants. Number six is the
Dampier Rock Art Complex. (eerie music) Stretching from northwestern Australia into the Indian Ocean, the
Dampier Rock Art Complex is made up of 2500 archeological sites containing over a million engravings that date back over 10,000 years. This incredible place is
full of cultural records which many believe include
those of the first human beings to ever settle in the area. However, this historically
significant collection is being threatened from multiple sources, including industrial expansion
and greenhouse gases. Already, it's estimated
that 20% of the drawings have been permanently
destroyed by dust and debris caused by construction, in addition to damage from
acid rain caused by pollutants those facilities are putting into the air. So much of history has been lost, and if nothing more is
done, a lot more to follow. Number five is the Riachuelo Basin. (eerie music) Every single individual on Earth deserves clean water
to drink and bathe in. But when 3.5 million people
live around a water source, you'd expect it to be respected
and kept clean, right? Unfortunately, that's not
the case in Argentina, where the banks of the Riachuelo Basin house thousands of factories
and around 42 garbage dumps. It's estimated that the water
that flows into the basin contains the runoff from
nearly 15,000 industries, and around 60% of the 20,000
people who live in the area. These people live in zones that have been deemed
unsuitable for human habitation. Respiratory illnesses,
cancers, and other diseases have devastated the population. Though, cleanup efforts were announced, government corruption and
the misappropriation of funds have brought them to a standstill. Number four is the Boeung Kak lake. (eerie music) What was once the biggest and most essential urban
wetland in Cambodia, the Boeung Kak lake was a
popular tourist destination where visitors could fish, swim, or even just watch the beautiful
sunsets that it offered. That is until pollution became an issue, and then the federal government stepped in and accepted money in
return for its destruction. In the early '90s as lakeside
living became popular, the waters became a dumping
ground for people's garbage. But rather than clean it
up, in February of 2007, a lease agreement to
the tune of $79 million was reached between Cambodian officials and the construction that
wanted to build a city center that they promised would be
known as the Pearl of Cambodia. Gradually, the company
filled the water with sand, and it's little more than a puddle today. Number three is Lake Karachay. (eerie music) Located in the southern Ural
mountains in eastern Russia, Lake Karachay used to be a beautiful place for a number of creatures, until it suddenly became
a dumping ground for, of all of things, nuclear waste. In the late 1940s, Mayak, one of Russia's nuclear
weapons factories, was built, and began secretly dumping
its waste in the water until it was declassified in 1990. So many accidental and deliberate
nuclear waste disposals have occurred in Lake Karachay, that experts at the World Watch
Institute in Washington D.C. have declared to be the most
polluted spot on the planet. The waters are so radioactive, that a person can get
a lethal dose of poison by spending less than 30 minutes wading in them without protection. Definitely not somewhere that
you'd like to take a dip. Number two is the Great Barrier Reef. (eerie music) As one of the seven wonders of the world, you'd think the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Australia,
would be better protected. But this colossal habitat has been devastated by overfishing, pollution, and the new
predators drawn to it. The reef is so massive and complex that there are species
of plants and animals that science has yet to
discover hiding in its depths. But while it should be
growing and thriving, it's shrinking, and it's
rapidly being overrun. Farm pollution is a key issue as nitrogen runoff not only damages coral, making it more susceptible to bleaching, but creates a perfect
haven for thorn starfish and other larvae to flourish, promoting their populations to spike. Starfish are deadly when
it comes to the creatures living in the Great Barrier Reef, and if something isn't done,
it won't be so great anymore. And number one is Earth's orbit. (eerie music) Who would have thought
the most polluted place human beings are responsible for might not be on Planet Earth at all, but instead, floating around it? Referred to as space
junk, or space debris, the garbage floating
around in the Earth's orbit includes old satellites, spent rockets, and even frozen coolants. On July 5, 2016, United
States Strategic Command revealed that they were
tracking over 17,852 artificial objects orbiting our planet. And that's just the
stuff that we can track. A number of artifacts are
too small to be located, but it's estimated that they number in the hundreds of millions. This has created an issue for operating satellites and space travel, as the space trash has a habit of crashing
into things that pass by. There's very little that
can currently be done other than trying to
protect space-faring objects and astronauts from litter. (eerie music)
