Firefighters monitor a section of the Thomas Fire along the 101 freeway on December 7, 2017, north of Ventura, California. The firefighters occasionally used a flare device to burn off brush close to the roadside. Strong Santa Ana winds were rapidly pushing multiple wildfires across the region, expanding across tens of thousands of acres and destroying hundreds of homes and structures. #

On January 18, 2017, the sun sets on the west front of the U.S. Capitol building ahead of inauguration ceremonies for President-elect Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. #

Revelers attend the Texas Black Tie and Boots Inaugural Ball on January 19, 2017, in National Harbor, Maryland, the day before President-elect Donald Trump was sworn in as America's 45th president. #

Protesters scuffle with police during an anti-Trump demonstration on January 20, 2017, in Washington, D.C., attempting to block an entrance to the inauguration ceremony. #

A limousine burns after being smashed by anti-Trump protesters on K Street on January 20, 2017, in Washington, D.C. While protests were mostly peaceful, some turned violent. #

Protesters attend the Women's March on Washington on January 21, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Large crowds attended the anti-Trump rally a day after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th U.S. president. #

Reporters attempt to pose questions to President Donald Trump during a news conference announcing Alexander Acosta as the new Labor Secretary nominee in the East Room in the White House on February 16, 2017. #

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fireworks are launched above the Pavao-Pavaozinho favela community on the first official day of Carnival on February 24, 2017. Around 1.5 million Rio residents live in favela communities which often lack proper sanitation, health care, and education. Residents also sometimes suffer from violence between gangs and police or rival gangs. #

Demonstrators gather during a protest against proposed federal government reforms on March 15, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Protestors rallied nationwide—mostly peacefully—against proposed rules tightening pensions as the country continues to suffer through a financial and political crisis. #

A young man practices a skateboarding move in front of a fire set by protestors following a demonstration against proposed federal government reforms on March 15, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. #

Aerial view of the remains of the tennis facilities (left) in the Olympic Park on March 17, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Seven months after Rio hosted the first Olympic games in South America, many of the costly venue sites have been mostly abandoned in spite of promises from organizers that the games would provide a legacy benefit for the citizens of Brazil. The country remains in a deep economic and political crisis following the games. Critics believe the money spent on the games could have been better spent on developing infrastructure in the country. #

In Pituffik, Greenland, a snowshoe hare stands near Thule Air Base on March 25, 2017. NASA's Operation IceBridge was flying research missions out of Thule Air Base and other Arctic locations during their annual Arctic spring campaign. Thule Air Base is the U.S. military's northernmost base, located some 750 miles above the Arctic Circle. NASA's Operation IceBridge has been studying how polar ice has evolved over the past nine years and flew a set of eight-hour research flights over ice sheets and the Arctic Ocean to monitor Arctic ice loss aboard a retrofitted 1966 Lockheed P-3 aircraft. #

A glacier is seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft along the Upper Baffin Bay coast on March 27, 2017, above Greenland. Greenland's ice sheet is retreating due to warming temperatures. According to NASA scientists and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), sea ice in the Arctic appears to have reached its lowest maximum wintertime extent ever recorded on March 7. Scientists have said the Arctic has been one of the regions hardest hit by climate change. #

Grandmother Maria Jose holds her twin granddaughters Heloisa and Heloa Barbosa, both born with microcephaly, outside of their house as they pose for photos at the twins' one-year birthday party on April 16, 2017, in Areia, Paraiba state, Brazil. The twins turned one on April 14, but mother Raquel decided to hold their birthday party on Easter Sunday. Raquel said she contracted the Zika virus during her pregnancy. As many of the babies born with microcephaly—believed to be linked to the Zika virus—approach or have already turned one year old in the region, doctors and mothers are adapting and learning treatments to assist the children. Many suffer a plethora of difficulties including vision and hearing problems. Doctors are now labeling the overall condition as "congenital Zika syndrome." Authorities recorded thousands of cases in Brazil in which the mosquito-borne Zika virus may have led to microcephaly in infants. Microcephaly results in an abnormally small head in newborns and is associated with various disorders. #

A military police officer fires tear gas toward protestors during a nationwide general strike on April 28, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The general strike was conducted in cities across Brazil against the government's proposed pension reforms and other austerity measures. Brazil remains in a deep recession. #

Agatha, 13, who wants to become a model, does her makeup in the window of her family's home in a set of occupied buildings in the Mangueira favela community on May 2, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro. There is little light inside the home so she does her makeup at the window. Hundreds of residents who live in the occupied structures must collect water from hoses as there is a shortage of running water in the buildings. A World Bank report released earlier this year stated that Brazil's deep economic crisis could push up to 3.6 million people back beneath the poverty line by the end of 2017. #

Artist Carlos Bobi paints graffiti in the Providencia favela, the oldest favela in Rio, as part of the "Providencia Gallery" project on May 6, 2017. Artists created an open-air street art gallery to promote local business and tourism with local culture at a time when many of Rio's favelas are suffering from a wave of violence amidst a deep recession in Brazil. #

An excavator works at the Bom Futuro open-air tin mine, one of the largest tin mines in the world, in a deforested section of the Amazon on June 27, 2017, in Bom Futuro, Brazil. Around 5,000 workers make their living at the mine. Mining is one of many causes of deforestation in the Amazon. Deforestation is increasing in the Brazilian Amazon and rose 29 percent between August 2015 and July 2016. According to the National Institute for Space Research, close to two million acres of forest were destroyed during this timeframe amid a hard-hitting recession in the country. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, "Deforestation causes climate change on a global scale, and is responsible for about 15% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions." #

Cowboys herd bulls at a cattle feed lot in the Amazon on June 28, 2017, near Chupinguaia, Rondonia state, Brazil. The confinement farm currently holds about 38,000 head of cattle and employs around 125 full-time workers. At peak capacity the farm dispenses around 900 metric tons of feed to the cattle per day. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of red meat and poultry and annually exports more than $12 billion per year. Brazil holds 212 million head of cattle—the largest herd of commercial cattle on the planet. #

Dancers from the group Lemi Ayo pose at an Afro-Brazilian festival held next to the Valongo slave wharf, an entry point in the Americas for nearly one million African slaves, on July 15, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Valongo site was designated UNESCO heritage status on July 9 and the festival marked the distinction. The wharf was only recently rediscovered in 2011 during renovations in Rio's port district ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Brazil is estimated to have received four million African slaves in total, approximately 40 percent of the total enslaved people shipped to the Americas. #

A female Brazilian soldier searches women during a "Mega Operation" conducted by the Brazilian Armed Forces along with police against gang members in seven of Rio's most violent favelas on August 21, 2017. Many favela residents were searched both entering and departing the communities during the operation. Brazil has deployed 8,500 members of the armed forces to Rio in an attempt to increase security amidst a spike in violence and crime. In the first six months of 2017 there were 3,457 homicides in Rio state, the highest level of violence seen there since 2009. #

Mourners react above the casket during the burial of 16-year-old student Denilson de Souza Moraes, who was killed by a stray bullet on August 31, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro. Denilson was working in a scrapyard in the Chapadao favela when he was killed. Family members believe he was killed by a bullet fired during a police operation. In the first six months of 2017, 632 people were hit by stray bullets and at least 67 were killed in Rio de Janeiro state. #

Brazilian Armed Forces patrol in the Rocinha favela on September 22, 2017. The Brazilian army and other armed forces entered the favela in an operation following firefights involving drug gangs in the favela, one of Rio's largest. #

A girl steps into a doorway beneath stairs as Brazilian soldiers stand on patrol in the Rocinha favela on September 25, 2017. The Brazilian Army and other armed forces entered the favela on September 22 in an ongoing operation following firefights involving drug gangs in the favela, which is one of the largest in Latin America. Rio suffered an uptick in violence following the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. #

Women's activists march for pro-choice rights on September 28, 2017, in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian law currently only allows abortion in cases of rape, incest, or dire health threats endangering the life of the mother. #

In Orocovis, Puerto Rico, damaged homes stand on a mountainside more than two weeks after Hurricane Maria swept through the island on October 6, 2017. By this time, less than 11 percent of Puerto Ricans had electricity and only 42 percent had working phones. #

In Aibonito, Puerto Rico, Sonia Torres poses in her destroyed home while taking a break from cleaning, three weeks after Hurricane Maria hit the island, on October 11, 2017. The area is without running water or grid power and a nightly curfew remains in effect. Despite multiple visits from FEMA, the town had yet to receive any FEMA aid. #

People use a rope line to cross the San Lorenzo de Morovis River more than two weeks after Hurricane Maria hit the island on October 6, 2017, in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico. Flooding from the hurricane destroyed the bridge and San Lorenzo residents are forced to cross the river on foot or in four-wheel-drive vehicles. #

A U.S. Army soldier tosses bottled water, provided by FEMA, to be passed on to residents in a neighborhood without grid electricity or running water on October 17, 2017, in San Isidro, Puerto Rico. The food and water delivery mission included people from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Coast Guard and Puerto Rico Hacienda forces. Residents said this was the first official governmental delivery of food and water to the community. #

Above Antarctica, the western edge of the famed iceberg A-68, calved from the Larsen C ice shelf, is seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft, near the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula region, on October 31, 2017. The massive iceberg was measured at approximately the size of Delaware when it first calved in July. NASA's Operation IceBridge has been studying how polar ice has evolved over the past nine years and flew a set of nine-hour research flights over West Antarctica to monitor ice loss aboard a retrofitted 1966 Lockheed P-3 aircraft. #

NASA Operation IceBridge project scientist Nathan Kurtz photographs from NASA's research aircraft in the Antarctic Peninsula region, on November 3, 2017, above Antarctica. According to NASA, the current mission targets "sea ice in the Bellingshausen and Weddell seas and glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula and along the English and Bryan Coasts." Researchers have used the IceBridge data to observe that the West Antarctic ice sheet may be in a state of irreversible decline and directly contributing to rising sea levels. #

A nunatak (top center), or mountain peak, is seen projecting through ice as seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft, near the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula region, on October 31, 2017, above Antarctica. The National Climate Assessment, a study produced every four years by scientists from 13 federal agencies of the U.S. government, released a stark report on November 2 stating that global temperature rise over the past 115 years has been primarily caused by "human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases." #

In Los Angeles, California, a reveler rides a horse during the 86th Annual Procession and Mass in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the traditionally Hispanic community of East Los Angeles on December 3, 2017. The Catholic procession is the oldest religious procession in Los Angeles and honors the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Tepeyac, Mexico in December 1531. #

Embers from the Creek Fire burn on a hillside in the Shadow Hills neighborhood on December 5, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Strong Santa Ana winds were rapidly pushing multiple wildfires across the region, expanding across tens of thousands of acres and destroying hundreds of homes and structures. #

In Morovis, Puerto Rico, contractors apply a FEMA tarp to a home damaged by Hurricane Maria and without electricity on December 20, 2017. Barely three months after Hurricane Maria made landfall, approximately one-third of the devastated island is still without electricity and 14 percent lack running water. While the official death toll from the massive storm remains at 64, The New York Times recently reported the actual toll for the storm and its aftermath likely stands at more than 1,000. Puerto Rico's governor has ordered a review and recount as the holiday season approaches. #

Faithful churchgoers hold hands during "midnight mass" at the Nuestra Senora Del Carmen Church on Christmas Eve on December 24, 2017, in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. The mass finished well before midnight this year to accommodate those who live in areas without electricity. The church ran the mass with a generator. #

Jesus M. Montijo poses with his son Damian Kaleb, 1, in a shelter for Hurricane Maria victims where they currently reside. They pose in front of the shelter's Christmas tree on Christmas day, December 25, 2017, in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. He said their home was destroyed by Hurricane Maria and they have been forced to live in shelters ever since. Around 600 Hurricane Maria victims remain in shelters across Puerto Rico. #