With eight worlds, our solar system has long taken the prize for the biggest planetary lineup. But no longer. Our corner of the galaxy now shares the record with another system, Kepler 90. To add insult to injury, Kepler is also larger than Earth.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke reprimanded David Smith, superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park, for climate-change-related tweets the park sent. Zinke did not take any formal disciplinary action, and the tweets at issue weren’t deleted, but, as one source described it, Smith “got a trip to the woodshed” and was told “no more climate tweets.”

Using taxpayer dollars, the EPA hired Definers Corp, a Republican PR firm that specializes in digging up dirt on political opponents. The EPA claimed the contract was just to collect news clippings, nothing more, but canceled the contract four days after news of it broke.

The National Butterfly Center filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security after agents from the U.S. Border Patrol told visitors they weren’t authorized to enter the sanctuary because of border-wall construction. “The center is private property,” said Dr. Jeffrey Glassberg, the association’s president. “It doesn’t belong to the federal government.”

Water fountains began leaking black sewage at EPA headquarters.

On Wednesday, a federal judge declared a mistrial in the prosecution of Nevada cattleman Cliven Bundy, his two sons, and a co-defendant. 

B.H.P. Billiton, one of the world’s largest coal companies, announced a plan to withdraw from the World Coal Association because of its anti-environmental lobbying. The World Coal Association said it was “disappointed” and that it “always supported a balanced approach that integrates climate and energy policy.”

The world’s first solar train made its inaugural voyage in Byron Bay, Australia. The train, a retrofitted vintage affair powered by batteries and rooftop solar panels, was commissioned by a coal baron turned resort magnate.

Tardigrades, the 530-million-year-old, seemingly indestructible species, may also be a victim of climate change. 

2017 will join 2016 in the list of top five warmest years in recorded history. 

2017 is also likely to be the most expensive year ever in the United States for weather-related damages.

Congress voted to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. On the same day, the French government voted to ban any new licenses for oil and gas exploration and ordered an end to all oil extraction by 2040. Some speculated that this was some next-level America trolling.

Disputes broke out over whether the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had banned employees from using words like “science-based,” “evidence-based,” and “diversity,” or whether they had merely recommended avoiding those words as a way to keep CDC grants flowing under the current administration. 

California water regulators found that Nestlé has been pumping four times as much water out of the San Bernardino National Forest than the company has rights to. The national forest is one of the company’s primary sources for Arrowhead Spring Water. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now estimates that power will not be fully restored in Puerto Rico until the end of May, eight months after Hurricane Maria. 

Wisdom, a Laysian albatross, returned to Midway Atoll National Refuge and promptly laid an egg. At 67, Wisdom is the oldest known bird in the wild that is still reproducing. Since 2016, she's raised nine chicks, and migrated millions of miles.