Environmentalists and conservationists celebrated Planet Earth at Conservation International’s (CI’s) Seventh Annual New York Dinner: “A Walk on the Wild Side,” at the American Museum of Natural History. NBC Nightly News’s Tom Brokaw was the evening’s emcee. Bethany Millard chaired the event; co-chairs included: Roger Altman, Meredith Brokaw, Betsy and Davis Weinstock, and Ann Ziff.

The mission of CI is to conserve Earth’s living natural heritage and its global biodiversity, and to demonstrate that humans can live harmoniously with nature. Peter Seligmann, CI’s chairman and CEO, noted in his opening remarks that immense efforts are being taken outside of the U.S. to protect the Earth’s environment, and that this country has a five-year window to support those efforts. “Conservation will not succeed at all if any sector is excluded,” he stated.

The humorous travel/science writer Bill Bryson (A Short History of Nearly Everything, Broadway Books, 2003) spoke about the sanctity of Earth and how humans must do everything in their power to preserve and protect its resources and inhabitants. “Earth may have the most interesting life in the entire universe,” he said. “It may have the only life in the entire universe. It’s certainly all that we’re ever going to get. Why can’t we appreciate … a climate we can live with; a planet that is sublimely beautiful and deeply accommodating. … There is nowhere else to go.”

The Sheet salutes this pioneering organization’s inspired efforts to make the world a better place!