Farmer at Yellow River

Photograph by Greg Girard

GENTE DE CHINA (中国人):
CHINA PEOPLE (中国人):

A farmer watches water being pumped from China’s Yellow River. His ancestors began diverting the river's waters for irrigation more than 2,000 years ago, but unwelcome changes have been rapid in recent years.

China’s economic boom has spawned farms, factories, and ever growing cities that are draining the 3,400-mile-long (5,470-kilometer-long) river dry. Pressures are unlikely to ease. China has about as much freshwater as the U.S., but four times as many people. What remains is seriously polluted and 50 percent of the Yellow River is biologically dead—without any aquatic life.

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