BLUE PLANET ALMANAC™

Spring 2012 at a once forbidding stretch of land in Virginia has brought more optimism and hope than usual this year. Foxes, beavers, geese, butterflies and frogs - they're all here and growing in numbers on land that was once considered hopelessly contaminated.

When George Washington University’s Class of 2012 marched across the Mall to accept its degrees Sunday morning, the nation’s back yard was transformed into an eco-fashion runway.

The California condor population just topped 400, which is the most since the effort to save the species began 30 years ago as it teetered on extinction's edge. But challenges remain, such as lead poisoning caused by condors eating animals, or gut piles from animals, shot with lead ammunition.

“We used to live sustainably, and only took what we needed from the land. We need to get back to that.” These words by Chief Gordon Planes inspired the T’Sou-ke First Nation in Sooke, British Columbia, to implement an ambitious project to re-build their traditional ways in a green way.

Fourth-graders at Rockwood School District's Center for Creative Learning haven't been idle in working to promote clean air at their Ellisville campus. The 53 students were honored for their work on "Action4Air," a campaign to lessen vehicle idling.

An innovative study that uses biological indicators to assess the health of the ocean off New Jersey shows life on the sea floor is remarkably healthy, even with the stresses of pollution from the Hudson River and naturally occurring ocean upwellings.

The hip and happening young folk in big cities back East are learning they don't need toxic chemicals - they can clean with washing soda, borax, vinegar, baking soda, essential oils, vegetable oil-based liquid soaps, spray bottles, shaker jars, cotton rags, natural scrub pads and brushes.

At Amsterdam’s first Repair Cafe, people can bring in whatever they want to have repaired, at no cost, by volunteers who just like to fix things. To some, the project’s social benefits are as appealing as its ecological mission.

Near the junction of the New Jersey Turnpike and Interstate 80, lies a body of water that was once a murky soup of reeking refuse. But after a recent renaissance, Overpeck Creek and the new park abutting it, have become a destination for a refined hobby.

The Credit River in Scott County for years has been listed as one of Minnesota's thousands of polluted bodies of water. But now, it is one of a handful to be removed from that list -- to be credited, so to speak, as unimpaired.

Solar-reflective shingles are atop the University of Colorado's Center for Community building.

So you recycle, drive a small car and try to eat organic. But what about running an eco-sustainable fish farm combined with a naturally fertilized vegetable patch in your kitchen?

In an eco-friendly initiative, a fleet of battery-powered pollution-free vehicles were inducted into Delhi's transport system on Friday to provide commuters feeder services from the Metro Railway stations.

Bald eagles are not the only majestic birds raising young in Richmond. Pesticides pushed peregrines to the brink of extinction after World War II. The banning of the pesticide DDT in 1972, and scientists' efforts to encourage nesting, helped bring the falcons back.

Newcastle environmental officials say a world-first salinity trading scheme is paying dividends, cutting salt levels in the Hunter River by 20 per cent. The scheme began in 2002 using an economic mechanism for environmental control.

Pictures of the great birds struggling to rise from the oiled surface became the iconic image of the disaster. Scientists wondered: Would the bay's population of pelicans, and their sea and shorebird cousins, collapse? Yet the number of birds nesting appears as high as before the spill.

For the Alzahraa School in Kafr Kasim, winning a Green Globe award is more than just a tribute to the hard work of the students and teachers in transforming the school into an environmental oasis.

All of a sudden, the porpoises are back in the San Francisco Bay. The reason remains a mystery, though some scientists have theorized that improved water quality or global warming could have something to do with the resurgence.

Six years after Hurricane Katrina forced a small Lakeview church to rebuild from scratch, its members have done so in a way few other congregations have matched, creating an ambitious, environmentally green building that embodies the congregation’s very theology.

At Boise’s Gowen Field, a group of environmental enthusiasts and experts don’t just wear green; they live it.