While pollution is becoming a serious problem in Vietnam with reports of cancer villages and toxic canals popping up the press recently, we live in a natural utopia compared with the residents of China.

A recent study found that 90% of Chinese cities fail meet government pollution standards and another predicted that 250,000 city dwellers will suffer an early death due to toxic smog.

To make maters worse, China’s carbon emissions (the country accounts for one quarter of total global output) intermingle with global weather patterns as seen in this animation from NASA:

Though that macro view is plenty disturbing, images of what Chinese residents are forced to endure on a daily basis are even more troubling.