"The Russian Town Where Startling Pollution Is a Way of Life"

"The trees and hillsides surrounding the Russian town of Karabash are burned and lifeless. The river is dead, its water orange and slimy, and the lake has the reddish hue of too much copper and iron. Most ominous of all, a mountain of black slag more than a mile long splits the town, filling the air with suffocating dust when the wind blows.

Pierpaolo Mittica has spent four years photographing some of the planet’s most polluted locales, and even he was surprised by what he found in this town about 100 miles north of Kazakhstan. 'I’ve never in my life seen a place like Karabash, where the pollution is so evident and visible all around you,' he says. 'It looks like a post-apocalyptic movie.'"

Laura Mallonee reports for Wired September 1, 2015.