Germany’s Rhine River, as seen at left, is still a tourist’s delight, but its beauty is deceptive. Polluted by more chemical and industrial plants along its banks than any other river in the world, it is dubbed Europe’s majestic sewer. It well symbolizes the deadly tracks of the invisible killer pollution, making appropriate poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s words:

“A poisonous mixture spilled into the Rhine [from a chemical warehouse fire near Basel, Switzerland], destroying 15 years of Rhine rehabilitation [and tons of fish]. . . . The Sandoz accident has caused serious ecological damage to 280 kilometers [170 mi] of the Rhine.”​—Der Spiegel.