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)

A worker roasts a row of pigs on bamboo poles at a roasting pit, in Manila, Philippines, December 21, 2020. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

Ukrainian artillery fires towards the frontline during heavy fighting amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near Bakhmut, Ukraine on April 13, 2023. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

A black bear cub performs for its mum at the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife park in North Carolina, US in January 2022. (Photo by Jennifer Hadley/Animal News Agency)

A pitch invader attempts to evade a security official during the 2019 Cricket World Cup group stage match between England and New Zealand at the Riverside Ground, in Chester-le-Street, northeast England, on July 3, 2019. (Photo by Lee Smith/Action Images via Reuters)

Canadian fashion model Winnie Harlow and American rapper Doja Cat attend Darren Dzienciol & Richie Akiva's Oscar Party 2021 on April 25, 2021 in Bel Air, California. (Photo by Rochelle Brodin/Getty Images for Darren Dzienciol)

Artist Sayna Soleimanpour shaves her legs in a bathtub as she performs a photoshoot in protest against the mistreatment and alienation of Turkish women based on their clothing, during a two-day curfew amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on a street leading to the historical Galata Tower in Istanbul, Turkey, late December 25, 2020. (Photo by Umit Bektas/Reuters)

A doll in a children's gas mask is seen amongst beds at a kindergarten in the abandoned city of Pripyat near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine on March 28, 2016. Deadly radiation still spews from Chernobyl 30 years after the worst nuclear meltdown in history, as a newly built giant arch is pulled into place to cover the stricken reactor for the next century. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)