Mexican environmentalist and indigenous leader Isidro Baldenegro Lopez was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2005. He was shot dead this week, less than a year after another winner of the award was slain in Honduras. Pablo Aneli/AP hide caption
This solar panel from 1980 is one of the oldest in National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Outdoor Test Facility. Skepticism about climate change under the Trump administration could threaten funding. Grace Hood/Colorado Public Radio hide caption
EPA Administrator nominee Scott Pruitt testifies at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption
A group of false killer whales is stranded near the Florida Everglades. AP hide caption
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., meets Jan. 6 with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate Scott Pruitt (right) on Capitol Hill. Pruitt's confirmation hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Zach Gibson/AP hide caption
Interior Secretary-nominee Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., tells a Senate committee that if he is confirmed, he'll take President Theodore Roosevelt as his model for managing federal lands. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption
A NASA scientist with project IceBridge took this photo of the crack in November. John Sonntag/NASA hide caption
Dictyoneurum californicum, which Dennis Judson uses to make the basis of dashi soup stock. Joy Lanzendorfer for NPR hide caption
Trees can't talk — or can they? Ecologist Suzanne Simard says tree communicate with each other in a unique way. Courtesy Suzanne Simard hide caption
Helen Dahlke, a scientist from the University of California, Davis, stands in an almond orchard outside Modesto that's being deliberately flooded. This experiment is examining how flooding farmland in the winter can help replenish the state's depleted aquifers. Joe Proudman/Joe Proudman / Courtesy of UC Davis hide caption
A smog alert day in Dalian, China. The photo was taken on December 19. VCG/Getty Images hide caption
The 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee is among the vehicles that allegedly have emissions-altering software. AP hide caption
A storm dumped rain on Hollister, Calif., on Tuesday and Wednesday, but appeared to have blown through by Thursday. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP hide caption
The hyolith Haplophrentis extends the tentacles of its feeding organ (lophophore) from between its shells. The paired spines, or "helens," are propping the animal up off the ocean floor. Danielle Dufault/(C) Royal Ontario Museum hide caption
Gas prices are shown on a sign at a 7-11 in Oklahoma City last month. Amid a state budget slump, Oklahoma lawmakers are considering raising gas taxes for the first time in 30 years. Sue Ogrocki/AP hide caption
Volkswagen has agreed to plead guilty to three criminal felony counts as part of the settlement announced Wednesday by the Justice Department. Damian Dovarganes/AP hide caption
The Ninglick River is eating away at the shoreline in Newtok, Alaska, shown here in August 2016. Engineers estimate the village is losing 70 feet of land per year. Eric Keto/Alaska's Energy Desk hide caption
Dungeness crabs for sale at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. California's Dungeness crab season was shut down in 2015, when record high ocean temperatures and lingering toxic algae blooms raised the domoic acid in shellfish to unsafe levels. A new study links dangerously high levels of the neurotoxin to warmer ocean temperatures, suggesting such closures could become more common in the future. Eric Risberg/AP hide caption
A foreign tourist and a child wearing protection masks walk through Tiananmen Square in Beijing as the city was blanketed by heavy smog last week. Andy Wong/AP hide caption
