The beauty and the beast?

Yesterday, I went to Guarujá, a city on Santo Amaro island about 100km from Sao Paulo on the Atlantic Ocean. Given the nice beaches at Guarujá, it's an attractive weekend get-away for many Paulistanos. During our drive, I took these two pictures less than 15 minutes apart from each other.

<-- The first picture shows the Atlantic Rainforest, which surrounds Sao Paulo and is considered the biggest urban natural forest in the world.

<-- The second picture shows Cubatao, an industrial city hosting more than 20 different industries mostly in the oil refinement domain. It was long considered one of the most polluted cities in the world. In Brazil, it is often referred to as the "Valley of Death". The city was known for numerous pollution scandals, which led to health problems for many of its inhabitants. Even though the government has in recent years invested a lot of money to clean up the pollution, the long-term environmental damages will remain a challenge for decades to come.