Among the fish populations that could be harmed by the Xayaburi dam in Laos is the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s largest freshwater fish. The fish, which grows to 650 pounds and about 10 feet long, is only found in the Mekong River. It is migratory, moving between downstream habitats in Cambodia upstream to northern Thailand and Laos each year to spawn. Some experts fear the Xayaburi dam could block the migration and drive the giant catfish to extinction. (Photo by Courtesy of Zeb Hogan/University of Nevada, Reno)

Four-year-old Solaris Arias (right) jumps through water spraying from an open fire hydrant in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 20, 2012. Much of the state remained under a heat advisory Tuesday afternoon because of the steamy air mass that has moved into the region resulting in temperatures in the 90s. (Photo by Steven Senne/AP Photo)

View of the work “Divided” (2016), within the visual artist's exhibition “Urs Fischer: Lovers”, exhibited at the Museo Jumex in Mexico City, Mexico 31 March 2022. The sensations and emotions of love and life, as well as the energy and forces that create and wear it down, inhabit “Urs Fischer: Lovers”, the first solo exhibition in Mexico by Swiss plastics artist Urs Fischer. (Photo by Alex Cruz/EPA/EFE)

In this photo taken Wednesday, April 30, 2014, a dragonfly sits on the nose of a Gharial, rare crocodile-like creatures, in the River Chambal near Bhopepura village in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The narrow 250-mile stretch of the Chambal is a place of crocodiles and jackals, of river dolphins and the occasional wolf. Hundreds of species of birds, storks, geese, babblers, larks, falcons and so many more, nest along the river. Endangered birds lay small speckled eggs in tiny pits they dig in the sandbars. Gharials, rare crocodile-like creatures that look like they swaggered out of the Mesozoic Era, are commonplace here and nowhere else. (Photo by Altaf Qadri/AP Photo)

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, illuminate the sky over Flakstad beach on Lofoten Islands in the Arctic Circle on September 5, 2017. (Photo by Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP Photo)

The aerial view shows three uprooted trees at a road near Hildesheim, Germany Friday, October 6, 2017. Seven people died Thursday as high winds knocked over trees and caused widespread travel chaos in northern Germany. (Photo by Julian Stratenschulte/DPA via AP Photo)

In this May 2016 photo released by The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey, a boat sails near a coral reef that has been bleached white by heat stress in the Maldives. oral reefs, unique underwater ecosystems that sustain a quarter of the world's marine species and half a billion people, are dying on an unprecedented scale. Scientists are racing to prevent a complete wipeout within decades. (Photo by The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey via AP Photo)

A stork-billed kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis) is seen perched on a tree during monsoon rain on July 25, 2016 in Bintan, Indonesia. The stork-billed kingfisher is a tree species which is widely but sparsely distributed in the tropical Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India to Indonesia. This kingfisher is resident throughout its range. It is very large, measuring 35 to 38 cm (14 to 15 in) in length. The adult has a green back, blue wings and tail, and grey head. (Photo by Sijori Images/Barcroft Images)