Just 30 miles from Johannesburg, in a South African region known as the Vaal Triangle, 1.7 million people are living in a crossfire of some of the most\u00a0dangerous pollution on Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From the highway into Vanderbijlpark, you can see the heavy veil of smoke that cloaks Africa\u2019s biggest steel mill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To the southeast, near the town of Vereeniging, the Lethabo coal power plant, whose name means \u201chappiness,\u201d joylessly belches out ash and toxic sulfur dioxide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Further south, outside a petrochemicals plant in Sasolburg, an adjacent neighbourhood regularly reeks of rotten eggs from hydrogen sulfide in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plants offer steady work for residents\u00a0at a time when\u00a0one in three South Africans\u00a0are unemployed, yet they\u2019re also pumping out harmful emissions at levels so high that Vereeniging is by some measures the most polluted city in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The toxins are causing hundreds\u00a0of premature deaths every year across the Vaal Triangle, and respiratory disease for many of those still breathing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The situation is a stark reminder of the toll the world\u2019s dependency on steel, oil and coal is having on human health \u2013 and the difficulty a green transition faces if it costs the livelihood of the\u00a0workers who depend on old economy jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n