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From documentaries to artistic projects, NPR has collected some of our favorite ways to celebrate the Earth and think about what we can do to protect its flora and fauna.

Warren Buffett, billionaire investor and founder of Berkshire Hathaway, has announced he is donating much of his fortune to charity. Over time, most of Buffett's $44 billion in stock holdings will be given to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

A family of the big hawks is nesting in the Chesapeake Bay yard of commentator Terrence Smith. He is amused by their antics -- and pleased to see that they've come roaring back after suffering ill effects from DDT in the 1960s.

Sound artist Xan Palay of Columbus, Ohio, sent us a recording that she and sound engineer Tom Harned made in 1997 of a steel-stock provider's enormous warehouse. We hear, in stereo, a large overhead crane move from one end to the other. She has used the sound in a sculpture installation.

Voters across the West will consider initiatives this November to bar state governments from seizing private property through eminent domain. But opponents are most concerned about the initiatives' "regulatory takings" provision, which would allow compensation for the lost value of land affected by environmental regulations.

A summer-solstice festival on the Tiber River in Rome revived the spirit of the city's ancient, pagan past. The dusk-to-dawn celebration included a sound-and-light show created by Italian and American composers and artists.

The Rocky Mountains contain huge reservoirs of gas, but they also have some of the last untouched lands in the country. Colorado's Roan Plateau is one of these largely pristine places, and a debate is raging over whether to open its public lands to drilling.

The oil giant shut down a crucial field in Alaska Monday. But that's not its only problem. BP is defending itself against charges that it manipulated propane prices. Last year, one of its Texas refineries blew up, killing 15 and injuring almost 200. And other plants have been plagued by safety issues.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers came under fire for the failure of the New Orleans levee system. But engineering concerns aside, critics say federally funded flood-control projects are to blame for luring new development into flood-prone areas.

The Nature Conservancy, long known for its habit of buying environmentally sensitive lands and putting them off limits to development, has thrown itself into the ocean. The Conservancy is buying fishing permits owned by California fishermen; it then either retires the permits or leases them out.