The largest animals on Earth, blue whales can grow up to 90 feet long, still a fraction of the size of cargo ships that can stretch 1, 200 feet.

MSN: Feds to reroute SF Bay ships to protect whales

Dr. JONATHAN OVERPECK (Geosciences, University of Arizona): It's going to come a rate much faster than plants and animals on Earth have ever seen in the time they've been on Earth.

NPR: Warming Will Create Micro-Climates, Scientists Say

The Galapagos -- 19 islands that lie 600 miles west of Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean -- are home to species of animals found nowhere else on Earth.

CNN: Close encounters in the Galapagos

The discovery fills a gap in the fossil record and raises intriguing questions about the evolution of animals on both Madagascar and India, which separated at about the time this newly identified creature walked the Earth.

BBC: Dinosaur 'fills fossil record gap'

Melting glaciers, hotter summers and migrations of plants, animals and even deadly microbes have convinced virtually every climate scientist on earth that human activity has indeed started to warm the planet.

CNN: Hot Air In Kyoto

Gaia, Greek Goddess of Earth, was worshipped on the island of Crete as the ancient mistress of all the animals, and the many cults that grew up in her name gave rise to modern geography, the now accepted biochemical Gaia Hypothesis, and what the ancient Greeks considered the most sacred of all oaths: our indebtedness to Earth.

FORBES: Pro-Planet Is Pro-Choice

Men are closely related to animals, especially mammals, in the Torah: Both are created on the sixth day, and both are created from the earth (unlike other living creatures like birds and fish which are created without reference to preexisting material).

FORBES: Dear President Obama: I'm Only My Brother's Keeper If My Brother Is My Sheep