Forbes: The World's Most Polluted Places
Black snow. Coal dust. Sulfuric air. Welcome to life in the world's most polluted places.
Chockablock with heavy metals, chemical waste, air pollutants and, in the case of infamous Chernobyl, Ukraine, deadly radiation, these are the worst industrial cesspools on earth–and they rarely make headlines. Nothing in the West compares.
"In some towns, life expectancy approaches medieval rates, and birth defects are the norm, not the exception," according to the nonprofit Blacksmith Institute, which compiled the list earlier this fall. "In others, children's asthma rates are measured above 90%, and mental retardation is endemic."
China, India and Russia landed six cities on this list of 10. Fast-track economic growth and years of unregulated mining and chemical production have laid waste to the homes of millions. …
Four of the locations are in the former Soviet Union; two are in China, two are in India, and one each in Peru and Zambia.
I wrote last week about the economic fallacy that Free Markets Destroy the Environment. I made the case that the biggest contributors to environmental destruction are poverty and the absence of well-protected property rights. People who are poor can't afford to be worried about their environment, and in the absence of the rule of law, especially with regard to property rights, people have no recourse against pollution externalities. Six of the ten top pollution sites are in communist or formerly communist nations. India is a developing nation that has, until recently, operated under a socialist model. The remaining two are developing countries.
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