Media
Press Releases
Letters to the Editor
OpEds

Address:

Harvard Medical School
401 Park Drive, 2nd Floor East
Boston, MA 02215
Tel: 617.384.8530
Fax: 617.384.8585
General Email Address

Directions

Media

For Immediate Release:

MERYL STREEP, SIGOURNEY WEAVER HOST DINNER TO BENEFIT CENTER

New York, NY--Actresses Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver will host a benefit on April 4th in New York City aimed at bringing attention to the ways in which today’s globally changing environment affects human health.

The fundraiser—a gourmet dinner to be held at Blue Hill, the acclaimed New York restaurant—will provide support for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. The meal will be prepared by a cadre of top chefs including Kerry Heffernan of Madision Park, Masahara Morimoto (TV’s "Iron Chef"), Susan Lifrieri of the French Culinary Institute, Michel Nishan of the New American Farmer Initiative, and Dan Barber and Michael Anthony of Blue Hill. The meal will feature organically-grown vegetables, seafood from sustainable sources, responsibly-raised livestock, organic wine, and organic, free-trade coffee.

"I am delighted to bring attention to the work of the Center," says Streep. "Our health depends on a healthy environment, and I believe that people will preserve the health of the natural world once they realize how directly it affects them."

Weaver added, "We are part of the environment, not separate from it. We need to think beyond conserving the environment for the sake of the environment, we need to conserve the environment for our own sake and for the sake of our children."
Other celebrities expected to attend the event include Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Melissa Newman, "Law & Order" actor Jesse Martin, and Aida’s Adam Pascal.

The Center for Health and the Global Environment was created to educate policy makers, future medical practitioners, and the general public on the connection between human health and the health of the natural environment. It is the first center of its kind at a medical school. The Center’s many programs include an annual, two day intensive course on the environment and human health for the U.S. Congress, regular congressional briefings, a major research study on how (and to what extent) global climate change will lead to human injury, illness, and death in coming years, the creation of an exhibit, intended for aquariums, illustrating the link between human health and the marine environment, a major study on biodiversity’s importance to human health (under the auspices of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme), and a Harvard Medical School course called "Human Health and Global Environmental Change", which is also available, free of charge, on the internet.

"It’s wonderful to involve such celebrated actors as Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver in our mission," says Dr. Eric Chivian, Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 for his work with Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. "Not only do they bring a great deal of attention to our cause, but they are both dedicated environmentalists and informed messengers of today’s environmental threats and solutions."