# Due To Less Pollution, X Is Now Visible

In early April 2020, as coronavirus lockdowns cut global air pollution, a photo of the Himalayas visible from India racked up over 100,000 Reddit upvotes and kicked off a wave of absurd photoshops. Within days, Indian Twitter users were pasting the Burj Khalifa, Star Wars planets and the entire solar system into clear skies as fake proof of the lockdown's visual upgrades.

## Origin
In late March 2020, outlets began publishing stories about air pollution falling sharply during coronavirus lockdowns, and social media users started sharing landscape photos that had been hidden behind smog for years[3]. One such photo of the Himalayas viewed from India was posted to r/interestingasfuck, where it was upvoted over 100,000 times on April 4th, 2020[1].

The photoshopped versions arrived within a day. On April 5th, 2020, Twitter user Crazy Memer posted an edit placing Dubai's Burj Khalifa behind Mumbai's Marine Drive, captioned as if lockdown air had made the Dubai tower visible from India[2]. The same day, Twitter user Abhijit Iyer-Mitra (@Iyervval) uploaded a thread of similar fakes under the tag Indian pollution humour in the times of covid[5]. From that cluster of Indian Twitter accounts, the format spread fast.

- **Platform:** Reddit (real photo) / Twitter (viral photoshop spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2020

## Overview
Due To Less Pollution, X Is Now Visible, also known as Because Of The Lockdown, X Can Now Be Seen, is a photoshop format that turns a real 2020 news story into visual nonsense[1]. Posters took the premise that quarantine had cleared the air and ran it past the point of plausibility, swapping in objects no amount of clean air could reveal.

A typical entry stacks something impossible into the sky above a known skyline or landscape. The Burj Khalifa floats over Mumbai's Marine Drive, Naboo hangs over a highway, Earth itself appears on the horizon of another country[2]. The caption always keeps the same deadpan news-headline voice, framing the obvious photoshop as if a reporter wrote it.

The joke works because the underlying coverage was real. Media outlets in late March 2020 did report sharp drops in air pollution during lockdowns, and the Himalayas really did become visible from parts of northern India after decades of smog[3]. That genuine astonishment gave posters cover to stretch the premise into solar systems, fictional planets and other absurdities[4].

## How to Use
The template is a straight photoshop plus a mock-news caption. Posters typically pick a real skyline or street photo, drop in something comically impossible to see, like a planet, a fictional building or a distant landmark, and caption it with the phrase 'Due to less pollution, [X] is now visible' or a close variant. The humor rides on the deadpan tone: the more matter-of-fact the caption, the better the joke lands.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Due To Less Pollution, X Is Now Visible?
It is a photoshop meme from April 2020 that captions obviously faked skyline photos as if coronavirus lockdown air had made impossible objects, like planets or distant landmarks, visible to the naked eye[1].

### Where did Due To Less Pollution, X Is Now Visible come from?
It grew out of real March 2020 news coverage about lockdown-driven drops in air pollution and a viral Reddit photo of the Himalayas seen from India, posted April 4th, 2020[1].

### What does Due To Less Pollution, X Is Now Visible mean?
The caption parodies news-headline framing by pretending that cleaner lockdown air revealed something that could never actually be seen from the location in the photo[2].

### How do you use Due To Less Pollution, X Is Now Visible?
Posters typically photoshop an impossible object into a real landscape and caption it with a deadpan line about lockdown air making it visible, like the Burj Khalifa behind Mumbai's Marine Drive[2].

### Is Due To Less Pollution, X Is Now Visible still popular?
It peaked during the first weeks of April 2020 alongside pandemic lockdown coverage and is now treated as a classic snapshot of early COVID-era meme culture[6].

## References
1. [https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/fuoa9x/for_the_first_time_after_world_war_2_the/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/fuoa9x/for_the_first_time_after_world_war_2_the/>)
2. [https://x.com/i/status/1246778420396036097](<https://x.com/i/status/1246778420396036097>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/due-to-less-pollution-x-is-now-visible](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/due-to-less-pollution-x-is-now-visible>)
4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/fvonxd/earth_is_healing/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/fvonxd/earth_is_healing/>)
5. [https://x.com/i/status/1246788583010086913](<https://x.com/i/status/1246788583010086913>)
6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/fvu28v/pollution_is_no_more/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/fvu28v/pollution_is_no_more/>)
7. [https://www.reddit.com/r/PrequelMemes/comments/fvsjqf/i_see_through_the_lies_of_the_jedi/](<https://www.reddit.com/r/PrequelMemes/comments/fvsjqf/i_see_through_the_lies_of_the_jedi/>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/due-to-less-pollution-x-is-now-visible
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