Although she has long considered her flower-child days to be a thing of the past, she does confess that one of the things that played part in her decision to work on Pixar’s WALL-E was the environmental message contained in the script.

In the animated tale, Earth is taken over by the garbage that fills it. Considering that the highest point on the eastern seaboard of North America is a landfill so huge that it can be seen from space, that premise doesn’t seem too far-fetched.

The 58 year-old star adds “I feel a little bit like an ambassador for a movie I just admire so much. It’s a film I want all earthlings to see; it brings us together.”

What better way to bring a family together than over the love of a mother? Especially when that mother is Earth.

“I love nature, in spite of what it did to me” said a weeping with joy Rachel Carson Award winner, Bette Midler. Midler, who helped found the New York Restoration Project in 1995 which has raised over $40 million dollars for open spaces and has created 57 community gardens around the city also quipped, “New York has no personal pride. It’s the Courtney Love of cities. But it’s changing and needs more gardens and urban green spaces.”

The Audubon’s Women in Conservation luncheon was held this Tuesday, May 20th at the old-style glamor Plaza Hotel on 5th Avenue, now operated by eco-minded Fairmont Hotels. The annual Rachel Carson Awards have been around 5 years and past recipients have included women like Majora Carter (Founder of Sustainable South Bronx), Dierdre Imus (Don Imus’ wife) and Laurie David.

Another 2008 award recipient was Theresea Heinz.  Heinz is more than just the name behind the Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Foundation, which do great environmental and women’s health advocacy work, not to mention put the Heinz Ketchup profits to good use.  In a smart navy blue pantsuit paired with a sleek scoop-neck white tee and a glittery brooch on her lapel, Therese was eloquent and gracious upon being selected to represent the ideals of Rachel Carson.  Carson to this day, Heinz said, receives delusional criticism, but is in actuality, the Mother of the modern day environmental movement, “Courageous people know how to awaken the world to truth, but when they don’t know, they ask the right questions.”  Theresea and husband senator John Kerry recently wrote, “This Moment on Earth: Today’s New Environmentalists And Their Vision For The Future.”

The Master of Ceremony for the afternoon’s event was noted environmental advocate, Sigourney Weaver.  When asked exclusively by this Ecorazzi interviewer what animal she would be and why, MC Sigourney said, “What a lovely question.  I think would be a mountain gorilla because they have such a primeval life: eat, sleep, and play, occasionally copulate.  They are so non-aggressive, the opposite of humans.  In fact, that reminds me of the London zoo where there are signs reading, ‘This way to the world’s most dangerous animal,’ and when you get to that exhibition it is just a mirror.”

The event was co-sponsored by Brooks Brothers, Subaru, and Jurlique.  In fact, this Ecorazzi reporter had the pleasure of sitting at a table with Jurlique’s Eli Halliwell, CEO of the high-end organic beauty company.  Attendees enjoyed delicious fare from a local farm and inspirational thoughts from Heinz, Midler, and the Central Park Women’s Committee who received the third Rachel Carson Award as a collective unit.

Probably one of the more everlasting conversations on the ‘raz is who the better narrator for the groundbreaking television series Planet Earth: Sigourney Weaver or David Attenborough. Some were shocked that Attenborough’s rich voice was removed from the U.S. version of the series in place of Sigourney; while others added that Sigourney was less distracting, allowing one to focus on the incredible imagery.

Whatever your preference, there’s no denying that Attenborough has been a familiar presence for hundreds of millions of people over his 30-year career covering nature on television. Now, he’s looking to move on to other projects and relax a bit more — but he leaves the genre less optimistic about its future. From the BBC,

“‘Whatever we do now the world is going to change. The question is can we slow down those changes or reduce them? One clutches at straws to try and find something in this bleak picture which is not deeply depressing. People recognize that the only conceivable way in which you’ll save the life in the sea and the climate in the air is by international agreement,’ he explained. ‘It’s damned difficult.’”

Event with all the amazing technology available today to capture nature in all its glorious wild, Attenborough believes that the beauty of the world today does not compare to that of 50 years ago. Referring to his first work in 1979, Life On Earth, he said, “There are some things in that series that would be very difficult to film again, they are much more difficult to find.”

So what’s next? A film on evolution. Marking the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, Attenborough is preparing to release a documentary on the subject sometime next year. We wish him luck — and hope this time, his voice is the one we hear for the American release.

BBC via Green Daily