And beyond that, trying to keep a connection with the rest of life, too -- the birds, the bees, the rocks, things like that.

CNN: Vaccine may shift odds against deadly brain cancer

The 24-paged editorial, shot by photographer Steven Meisel, captures model Kristen McMenamy, covered in black grease, writhing about in feather dresses on a rocky, post-apocalyptic-looking beach, evoking the real-life images of oil-coated birds gasping for breath that dominated coverage of the spill.

FORBES: BP Oil Spill Provides Inspiration For Italian Vogue Shoot

The Louisiana wetlands -- the nursery to fish, birds and shellfish and the foundation of life in the Gulf -- are eroding before our eyes.

CNN: BP defaulting on debt to people of the Gulf

Two of the best are " Ice Lights", a light-installation at Vancouver City Hall that looks like ice framing the historic building, and " The Birds", a pair of larger-than-life bird sculptures that once stood sentry at the site of the Olympic Village and now roost at the Southeast False Creek Plaza.

BBC: Vancouver after the Games

According to the Northwest Marine Conservation Initiative, the nets are responsible for killing tens of thousands of marine life, mammals and birds every year.

CNN: Stimulus money pays fishermen to snare lost nets

Zach McCue of Clean Ocean Action, a coalition of more than 130 environmental organizations in New Jersey and New York, said the manufacture of thin-film plastic bags consumes millions of trees and barrels of oil, takes up space in landfills for a long time and is harmful to marine life, especially birds and sea turtles that ingest the bags, or pieces of bags, or get entangled in them.

MSN: Reusable shopping bag measure advances

Scarborough Sea Life Centre said it had treated a number of birds and seals affected by the oil.

BBC: Finding source of Yorkshire oil deposits is 'unlikely'

Over countless millennia it evolved its own vibrant ecosystem, its volcanic peaks cloaked in deep tropical forests still riot with life: exotic birds, flowers and reptiles, many of these species found nowhere else on the planet.

BBC: Blending of cultures in Mauritius