Fresh as the moment

The Empire State Building and Chrysler Building from Long Island City. 3:30 PM. Photo: JH.

May 20, 2009. Yesterday was another one of those cool sunny Spring days in New York. Because of the slight chill in the air all of the new green is thick and lush and seems fresh as the moment. Some people are already complaining – not Sun bathing weather on a rock or a bench or the grass in the Park.

Family Service. Mothers. Yesterday at high noon at the Plaza, the National Audubon Society’s Women In Conservation Rachael Carson Award luncheon convened to honor three women – Dr. Sylvia Earle, Sally Jewel, Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and NBC Universal’s “Green Is Universal” initiative which is under the direction of three women: Elizabeth Colleton, Jane Evans, and Susan Haspel.

The Rachel Carson Award is perhaps the most prestigious award given especially to women in the fields of environmentalism and the natural sciences.

I first learned about it from Allison Rockefeller. Allison is the wife of Peter Rockefeller, son of a son of Nelson, great-grandson of John D. Jr., and great-great-grandson of John D. the first. I mention this because his background is important and articulates where Allison and many of her relatives are coming from in the public arena: they are practicing philanthropists with an objective of serving the Public Good. This sounds like an ideal. And it is, personified.

Peter and Allison Rockefeller.

Joe Ann Whipple and her daughter Allison.

Allison is a New England girl, a Whipple by birth, with a long and distinguished genealogy that extends farther back generationally than that of her husband. Her great-grandfather by a factor of three or four was Daniel Webster, American statesman, a US Senator who lived in the first half of the 19th century and served in the Administrations of several presidents (he turned down Vice-Presidency twice – from William Henry Harrison and from Zachary Taylor – and both times as fate had it, he would have succeeded to the Presidency).

There’s a statue of the man in Central Park which you may or may not have noticed, prominently located closer to the west side of the Park in the low 70s.

Allison’s brother George Whipple (who has the same prominent remarkable eyebrows as Senator Daniel) is a media fixture in New York, appearing and interviewing on television for decades and now currently from New York One.

Notice a family characteristic in both George Whipple and his forebear, Daniel Webster. This portrait known as "Black Dan" was one of a group of attorneys who defended Dartmouth College in the Dartmouth College Case. Webster was a Congressman and Senator from Massachusetts, Congressman from New Hampshire, 14th and 19th Secretary of State, and a lawyer. A leading American politician in the Antebellum period, he was one of the most famous orators and Whig leaders. Webster made three bids for the Presidency and failed each time. Ironically had he accepted the invitation to be Vice-President by both William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, he would have been President as both died in office (Harrison after only one month).

The Whipples are very down home New England sort of people (yesterday I met their mother Joe Ann – same thing). The Rockefellers as a family are big community activists, as we know. It runs in the genes, and it seems to be enhanced with each succeeding generation -- and often with energy of the Rockefeller wife. Unique anywhere.

Allison, one on one, has a light, friendly side. She laughs a lot. She’s one of those people whom you can point out a foible to, and where others might cringe, or cry or fall into a funk, she laughs. You can’t not like that in a person. Then, her community activities are very serious. Conservation and the environment is her main interest. Fresh air and green space. If responsibility were synonymous with passion.

Allison at the podium on the vid screen.

I got to the Plaza late, almost an hour after the event had started. People were into their dessert. I got there just on time for the Main Event. There were several hundred present.

Allison was introduced by Anne Thompson, the emcee. She came up on stage, took the podium and an audience largely of women, said: “Just before I came up here, my mother said to me – ‘you’re wearing the same dress you wore last year ...”

Allison bowed her head. Everybody laughed. Then she stepped out from behind the podium and did a turn to show. Then she told us why the Rachel Carson Award was so important because it recognized the very important work that women are doing in conservation and how they were raising the consciousness of women and therefore everybody.

John Flicker, Dr. Sylvia Earle, and Allison Rockefeller.

John Flicker, Sally Jewell, and Allison Rockefeller.

This year’s award winners were introduced by a video. Dr. Sylvia Earle was the first. Dr. Earle is the oceanographer who has been exploring the seas since she was a teenager. She reminded us that Rachel Carson’s first book, before The Silent Spring, was The Sea Around Us.

Carson, Earle said, would be shocked to know that in less than a half century after her death, half the world’s coral reefs have disappeared. The oceans, Dr. Earle pointed out, and its inhabitants, are just like the earth and the birds and the bees. We have fished and consumed 90% of the fish and extinction is looming everywhere. “No blue, no green,” she said. “The next ten years in the environment, are more important than the next 10,000 years.” At least for the human race.

Are we hearing this? I don’t think so. And listening to Dr. Earle, I couldn’t imagine what it would take for us to hear.

Award recipient Sally Jewell, President and CEO, Recreational Equipment Inc.

John Flicker, Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam, Founding President, Student conservation Association, and Allison.

Dr. Earle was followed by Sally Jewel, Elizabeth C. Titus Putnam and the three from NBC-Universal’s Green program. These women are all recognized for their vision, their dedication, talent and energy.

When you listen to what these people have to say about our future you realize that we are already in the danger zone. There are so many who do not believe that. They think extinction is for dodos. Or polar bears. Or frogs or butterflies. Others see us humans as part of that category.

It’s all too much to consider. It’s beyond our imagination. Except when you see people like the women being honored yesterday at the luncheon, you realize that it’s only too much for you to think about because others have been dealing with it for decades. They will be the leaders. If.

John Flicker, NBC Universal’s “Green is Universal” Initiative's Susan Haspel, Jane Evans, Elizabeth Colleton, and Allison Rockefeller.

Meanwhile, downtown New York, French designer Catherine Malandrino hosted a beautiful soiree at her boutique on the edge of the Meatmarket District to celebrate the esteemed Chef of the hugely popular Waverly Inn, John DeLucie and his new book, The Hunger. The boutique was featuring her exquisite warm weather collection in a pastel palette and feather-weight fabrics. The party filled the space to overflow with many of the girls honoring Catherine by wearing her creations.

Reporting and photos by Jill Lynne