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With Donald Trump’s introduction to the presidency in just a few months, environmentalists are concerned by the step back they may take over his time in office. Barack Obama’s presidency has brought a time of promising action and climate successes, but Trump’s presidency may end that era. Environmentalists will now have to fight to protect existing checks on greenhouse emissions. Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club addresses that “Trump will be the only head of state to deny that climate change is real.” Trump also promised to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, an international agreement on climate change, which would be very difficult to do but Trump could choose to encourage not participating which would have similar negative effects. U.S. inaction could lead to a negative spiral of events starting with major damage to global efforts with our nation’s  individual actions and then lead to other countries feeling less pressure to follow through with their pledges as a result of our lack of participation. Another one of Trump’s promises that would hurt the climate is his pledge to get rid of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which is lessing carbon emissions. Although Trump’s presidency is frightening to environmentalists, they believe not all hope is lost and aspire to only potentially slow the rate of climate reform progress but by no means stop.

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Donald Trump's Victory Could Mean Disaster for the Planet

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The president-elect said he would "scrap" much of the existing environmental regulation during campaign speeches

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UNICEF’s new report states that there are more than 300 million children children globally that live in areas with toxic levels of air pollution. These areas are more than six times higher than guidelines set by the World Health Organization. The report  found that approx. 2 billion children are exposed to outdoor air pollution caused by dust, vehicles and emissions from fossil fuels. Both indoor and outdoor air pollution is one of the leading dangers worldwide, killing over 600,000 annually due to links to pneumonia and other respiratory diseases.

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300 Million Children Are Living With Toxic Air Pollution, UNICEF Says

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300 million children globally are exposed to toxic levels of air pollution, more than six times higher than guidelines set set by the WHO

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The United Nations just released a new report based off of the World Meteorological Association’s observations that the time period of 2011-2015 was the hottest  five year period on record. This report shows an overview of warming trends and extreme events such as droughts and heatwaves. These events along with several others such Arctic summer sea ice level being below average and surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet can all be contributed to climate change caused by humans. Climate scientists said the WMO report underrated the need for governments to boost efforts to fight climate change beyond their pledges in the Paris Agreement. These scientists hope governments will do so to prevent further environmental damage and recognize the significance of an immediate response to better the world’s future environment.

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Climate Change’s worldwide impact posed a recent threat to thousands of lives near Mount Everest. Imja Tsho is one of the fastest growing lakes in the Himalayas that started to form when water began collecting at the bottom of the Imja Glacier. As temperatures rose as a result of climate change the glacier began to melt more and more. This sparked concerns that if the banks were to breach, a flood would have had a catastrophic impact on the lives of over 50,00 people living in nearby villages. The Nepalese Armed Forces, the Nepal government and the United Nations Development Programme worked together to drain the lake by constructing an outlet to gradually release the water.  Scientists have said that climate change will continue to pose a threat to melting Himalayan glaciers which could potentially devastate numerous mountain communities.

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Roberto Schmidt/Getty

The Nepalese Armed Forces have confirmed that a giant glacial lake near Mount Everest, threatening thousands of lives if it was to flood, has been drained to a safe level.

Imja Tsho, described in a 2009 study as one of the fastest-growing lakes in the Himalayas, is located at an altitude of 5,010 meters, just 6.2 miles south of the world's highest peak. It was formed in the 1950s when water began collecting at the foot of the Imja Glacier on the lower part of the glacier.

The surface area covered by the lake expanded from 0.15 to 0.39 square miles between 1984 and 2009, triggering concerns that it might breach its banks and flood villages downstream.

Experts said that a flood would have had a catastrophic impact on the lives of more than 50,000 people living in nearby villages and even in southern districts of the country.

The Nepal government worked together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to drain the lake, the BBC reported. Army personnel and Sherpas spent six months constructing an outlet to gradually release the water in a process that took a further two months, officials said Monday.

Scientists have said that climate change is causing Himalayan glaciers to melt at an alarming rate, creating huge glacial lakes that could burst their banks and devastate mountain communities.

Nepal was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in 2015.

See all of the best photos of the week in these slideshows

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Nepalese army drains dangerous Mount Everest glacial lake

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The Nepalese Armed Forces have confirmed that a giant glacial lake near Mount Everest, threatening thousands of lives if it was to flood, has been drained to a safe level. Imja Tsho, described in a 2009 study as one of the fastest-growing lakes in the Himalayas, is located at an altitude of 5,010 meters, just 6.2 miles south of the world's highest peak.

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Climate Change is a commonly disputed and discussed topic and is proven to have a dramatic impact on many factors of our environment. Scientists say that it’s latest impact is on the color of fall foliage. In areas such as Nova Scotia, fall leaves are still in bright colors whereas a century ago in the same area the radiant colors would have long faded by early November. As the seasonal change progressively becomes later in the year, scientists predict the bright colors will last longer. This prolonging of the colorful foliage not only is aesthetically pleasing, but will also bring in billions of dollars from tourism in Canada and the United States. Leading scientists such as Boston University’s Professor Richard Primack and  Harvard’s Professor Andrew Richardson have validated this effect on climate change on the colors and levels of foliage. Over an extensive period of time warmer temperatures may cause leave colors to dull, but for now the colors of the foliage will continue to flourish and captivate tourists with their beauty.

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In his 1862 essay " Autumnal Tints," the naturalist wrote: "By the twenty-fifth of September, the Red Maples generally are beginning to be ripe. Some large ones have been conspicuously changing for a week, and some single trees are now very brilliant."

He goes on to say that sugar maples, whose change generally follows red maples in short order, "are most brilliant" about the second of October.

Anyone sensitive to the onset of autumn in New England these days knows that most trees, including the maples, are still bottle green on those dates.

"In general, peak leaf color in Concord and the surrounding Boston area for these maples is now more typically a week or two later" than what Thoreau observed, said Richard Primack, a biology professor at Boston University. He has been using Thoreau's records and satellite images to track the effect of climate change on local plant cycles.

The Harvard study, which looked at the percentage and duration of autumn color in Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts from 1993 to 2010, predicted that with current climate change forecasts, the duration of the fall display would increase about one day for every 10 years. Look at it this way: Children born this year could have an extra week to enjoy the colors by the time they are 70.

The study further analyzed data for trees that turn red: red maple, sugar maple, black gum, white oak, red oak, black oak, black cherry and white ash. Only in white ash trees did the duration and full display of color decrease. In the others, the amount and duration of red leaves increased over the course of 18 years.

The Harvard study used data collected by John O'Keefe, the museum coordinator, now emeritus, at Harvard Forest, who made his observations by eye - estimating the percentage of colored leaves for each species and the duration from when 10 percent of a tree's leaves turned color to when 90 percent had turned.

Those observations have been validated by Andrew Richardson, a professor of evolutionary biology at Harvard, who has since set up a network of 350 " phenocams," cameras that quantify the duration and intensity of autumn colors in locations from Alaska to Hawaii, Arizona to Maine and up into Canada.

"John's direct observations on the ground line up pretty well with the camera data," Professor Richardson said. "In the shorter term, autumn colors may get better before they get worse."

Worse? Scientists say that in the longer term the warming temperatures could threaten cold-weather hardwoods like the blazing maples, pushing their southern border north and narrowing the band in which they can survive between the temperate and circumpolar boreal forests.

More southern - and less colorful - species like oaks and hickories may march north, eventually replacing the maples and other exhibitionists. Some scientists also say that the mechanism that makes leaves red may not work as efficiently in much warmer weather, eventually dulling those colors.

The scientific term for the color change is leaf senescence, when deciduous trees pack up their summer clothes and prepare to sleep naked through the long frigid winter. The green chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down, disappearing to reveal the yellow carotenoid pigments underneath. Those pigments break down more slowly, until the leaves eventually turn brown.

The real magic comes from the trees, maples among them, that produce a compound called anthocyanin as the chlorophyll disappears.

Anthocyanin is the pigment that makes cranberries red and blueberries blue, among other things. Its role in autumn leaves is not well understood, but current theories suggest that some trees have evolved to produce it to protect their leaves from the damaging effects of intense sunlight while the chlorophyll breaks down - the red pigment absorbs wavelengths in the green region of the spectrum that would otherwise be reflected by the disappearing chlorophyll.

Leaves that contain roughly equal amounts of yellow carotenoids and red anthocyanin appear bright orange in the fall. The higher the proportion of anthocyanin, the brighter red the tree will be, to the point of scarlet, the curious color that excites us most.

Sunlight, particularly in late summer and fall, sets off the production of anthocyanin. Cloudy weather dampens production and leads to less colorful displays. Many scientists argue that warming temperatures do not have much to do with the intensity of color, only with its timing: when it appears and how long it lasts.

But Howard Neufeld, a professor of biology at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, said climate change could eventually affect the complex processes in leaf senescence and lower anthocyanin production, dulling the autumn reds.

To produce anthocyanin, leaves need energy, which they get from the sun and from sugar in the leaves - sugar that otherwise would be metabolized by the tree.

Warmer temperatures, Professor Neufeld said, may speed up enzymes involved in nighttime respiration, when leaves exhale carbon dioxide and absorb oxygen, as humans do. Respiration requires sugar for fuel, and burning it faster would leave less available for anthocyanin production.

The result: drearier leaves.

So far, however, warmer temperatures do not seem to have had this effect. Mr. O'Keefe noted that despite this year's record warmth and one of the latest onsets of fall color that he had seen in 27 years, in his neck of the woods it had been "a brilliant red year."

Professor Neufeld, too, concedes that "even though we thought colors might be dull, they are bright this year."

For someone standing in a Nova Scotia dell amid the glowing golden light of the sun filtered through buttery beech leaves and a fiery orange sugar maple, the science seems less important than the simple, sublime beauty of the trees. As Thoreau wrote, "I am more interested in the rosy cheek than I am to know what particular diet the maiden fed on."

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How a Changing Climate Is Shaping a Leaf Peeper's Paradise

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In his 1862 essay " Autumnal Tints," the naturalist wrote: "By the twenty-fifth of September, the Red Maples generally are beginning to be ripe. Some large ones have been conspicuously changing for a week, and some single trees are now very brilliant."

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The highly populated city of New Delhi, India's capital, is ridden with smog that has settled over the city and is polluting the air. The cause of this thick smog can be attributed to the combination of burning crops, fireworks from the recent Hindu festival of Diwali, dust and vehicle emissions. The smog contains highly dangerous particles called PM 2.5 that if exposed over a long period of time is comparable to smoking 40 cigarettes a day. These particles can increase the risk of stroke and heart failure and can cause severe respiratory problems including asthma and pneumonia. Due to these severe risks, more than 1,800 public schools in New Delhi were closed on Saturday, November 5th to protect more than a million children. Prior to the school being officially shut down,  teachers and parents saw visible effects and symptoms of the smog on the children such as a common cough among students,  physical tiredness, burning eyes and heavy congestion. Health treatments are not definitive or promising but members of Delhi's education committee had hopes to reopen schools once the weekend passed. The widespread issue of air quality in this city is serious and has left a huge impact on the air quality. Unless if vehicle emissions and the other contributing factors are lessened, New Delhi's outdoor environment will continue to be unsafe and polluted.

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Teachers and parents said the effects on children were visible.

Meenakshi Sahni, the principal of the Modern School, closed her private school because of air pollution for the first time on Friday and advised parents via text message to keep their children indoors. There was "widespread coughing" among students and faculty members this week, she said.

"You could actually feel that there was something weighing down on them physically," Ms. Sahni said. "Even at the gathering in the auditorium, you could feel as if somebody is strangling you."

Foreigners and Indian elites have expressed growing alarm about winter air pollution in recent years, and some embassies have begun discouraging families with children from moving here.

But this year is the first time Indian schools have taken such precautions. As they waited to pick up children after school on Friday, parents described an array of their children's symptoms, including burning eyes, incessant coughing and congestion that does not clear.

Seema Sansanwal, 38, said when she takes her 3½-year-old son to the doctor, the doctor "tells us, 'Go out for an excursion and leave the city for some days, and he will be fine,' instead of diagnosing."

Poonam Tokas, 35, said she could not believe her eyes at the smog on Monday, the day after Diwali, and has forbidden her children from playing outside until it clears. "We are going to buy masks this evening," she said. "But I do not think anyone can save us from the wrath of nature."

Indu, a municipal councilor from South Delhi and a member of the municipal corporation's education committee, said it was the first time the city had taken such measures. "We took stock of how bad the smog and pollution level had reached," said Ms. Indu, who uses only one name. "Even doctors are advising against going for walks. Television channels are presenting reports showing that pollution is as bad as smoking two dozen cigarettes."

She said that "we are hoping weather conditions will improve on Monday," allowing schools to reopen. "But at least children would have stayed away from the polluted outdoors over the weekend."

Keeping children at home reduces their level of activity and lessens their exposure to air pollution, especially in areas where vehicle emissions are at their highest, Mr. Guttikunda said.

But he added that the air quality inside a house often was not much better than outside, unless doors and windows were closed and sealed.

"If you open them for even half a minute, it's gone," he said.

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Delhi Closes Over 1,800 Schools in Response to Dangerous Smog

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Teachers and parents said the effects on children were visible. Meenakshi Sahni, the principal of the Modern School, closed her private school because of air pollution for the first time on Friday and advised parents via text message to keep their children indoors. There was "widespread coughing" among students and faculty members this week, she said.