Alluvial Fan, China. A vast alluvial fan blossoms across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges that form the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert in China’s XinJiang Province. Image taken by the ASTER instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite on May 2nd, 2002. (Photo by NASA/GSFC/USGS EROS Data Center)

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)

Singers “Elle & The Pocket Belles” attend day 3 “Ladies Day” of the Qatar Goodwood Festival on August 3, 2017 in Chichester, England. (Photo by David Hartley/PA Wire)

This Hawaiian cat sanctuary has created an “island paradise” for the state’s stray cats. Although most people would take a trip to one of the Hawaiian Islands’ many heavenly sights, Andrew Marttila, 32, and his partner, Hannah Shaw, 30, wanted to visit something more unusual. They decided to take a trip to the Lanai Cat Sanctuary, which is currently home to more than 500 felines. Here: Kitten Lady, 30, is surrounded by rescued cats at the the Lanai Cat Sanctuary in Hawaii. (Photo by Andrew Marttila/Caters News Agency)

A horse buggy is headed for the stables on a foggy night in New Orleans, Monday, December 18, 2017. (Photo by David Grunfeld/NOLA.com The Times-Picayune via AP Photo)

A Geoffroy's Monk Saki is seen at the Parque de Las Leyendas zoo in Lima, Peru, February 14, 2018. (Photo by Guadalupe Pardo/Reuters)

Race winner USA's Mikaela Shiffrin reacts as she is symbolically crowned on the podium after competing in the Women's Giant Slalom on January 24, 2023 in Plan de Corones (Kronplatz), Dolomites Mountains, as part of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. (Photo by Marco Bertorello/AFP Photo)

Soldiers and firefighters carry the body of Chilean President Salvador Allende, wrapped in a Bolivian poncho, out of La Moneda presidential palace after it was bombed during a coup by Gen. Augusto Pinochet in Santiago, Chile, September 11, 1973. (Phoot by El Mercurio/AP Photo)