Hurt – Moscow, Soviet Union

• Timeline: 1920s to 1980s

The Soviet Union was a relatively powerful collection of nations, dominated by Russian influence. The member states of the USSR include Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Belorussia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Of course, many joined to keep up with the rest of Europe and Asia while others were forced in. However, let’s not ignore the facts of the matter. The Soviet Union was hoping to become a major power in terms of technology, agriculture, and medical knowledge. They did accomplish this mostly. Yet they also wanted to be feared as a major threat to the world.

After World War II, they were economically anemic and needed to modernize to keep up. They did manage to do this and even became a huge part of the aerospace community. Yet they did not consider how their rapid industrial expansion would hurt them, and Moscow more than most felt that harm. Total emissions in the USSR by 1988 were around 79% of the US total, yet the Soviet gross national product was only 54% of the U.S. at this time. Meaning they created 1.5 times more pollution per unit of GNP. Air and water pollution along with deforestation and desertification from nuclear meltdowns just wrecked the overall Soviet Union territory.

Helped – Zurich, Switzerland

• Timeline: Present-Day

Switzerland is known for being a relatively tech-friendly nation. After all, this is the home of some notable companies like Victorinox, which was started back in 1884 and likely made “Swiss Army Knives” a household name. We also cannot forget major Swiss watch brands like Tissot which opened in 1853 and the luxury watch brand Rolex, which opened in 1905. While the Nestle company is also based here, the major pharmaceutical brand Novartis can also be found here too. They make notable medications like Excedrin and Theraflu today. The ABB Group is relatively popular too, known for its automotive and engineering work.

That said, the Swiss have been massive tech buffs for hundreds of years now so it should come as no surprise that one of their cities made this list. Zurich is an incredible city and home to several major start-ups and inventors. In fact, Switzerland has the highest ratio of European patent applications per capita. Plus, the Swiss love their environment and like to treat it properly. This led to several major green initiatives, allowing Zurich to become the least polluted city on the face of the planet. This is likely thanks in no small part to their Pollution Liability Insurance, which helps companies keep track of any pollutants.

Hurt – Beijing, China

• Timeline: Present-Day

While Ancient China benefitted heavily from its technological expansion and innovation, today the nation has been hurt horribly by it. Their environment has taken a massive hit for a while. China was a superpower and slowly began losing that power it once held, so the nation chose to improve economically. This led to a push to industrialize and increase trade. Several major companies then began putting factories and other industrial work in China due to lower costs. That slowly built their economy and even allowed them to advance their technology.

Today, they are a huge part of the artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity, financial tech, biotechnology, and aerospace fields along with weapons enabled by autonomy. Not to mention their movement into weapons and nuclear technology overall. Yet their environment is garbage all over, especially in Beijing. The nation refuses to cut down on waste as they use things like coal to power most of its cities today. Beijing is hit hard by this due to its surrounding mountains. They form a natural barrier on all sides, allowing pollution to collect quickly and not disperse easily from wind and other processes. The pollution gets even worse in the Winter.

Helped – Silicon Valley, United States of America

• Timeline: Present-Day

Technically speaking, Silicon Valley is not a city in the United States. Rather, it is an area where a lot of major technology companies reside. Most refer to the territory as the Bay Area but Silicon Valley itself involves a little over 15 cities. This includes Belmont, Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Menlo Park, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, and Sunnyvale. On top of this, many consider San Francisco to be part of the valley system too. All of these cities each play a major role in the region itself.

What makes this place so notable today? The companies that reside here, for sure. The following companies either started in Silicon Valley or have their main corporate office here: Apple, Alphabet (Google, YouTube, Android), Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Hewlett Packard (HP), Oracle, Intel, Cisco Systems, Broadcom, Adobe, eBay, Visa, Wells Fargo, Chevron, Alien Technology, Netflix, Cerebras, Nvidia, PayPal, Western Digital, and the Aha! Company. These places employ millions of people in total and have become massive in not just America but in the entire world today. Big technology companies literally put this territory on the map.

 

Where Do We Find this Stuff? Here Are Our Sources:

United Nations

European Union

European Commission

Harvard University

Consumer Technology Association

Global Competitiveness Report

Global Innovation Index

Innovation Cities Program Index

World Economic Forum

International Trade Administration

IQAir