Saturday Night Live‘s Seth Meyers used stand-up to stand up for the planet as he MCed last night’s gala event for artists, collectors, philanthropists and fashion designers who care about the environment. At Christie’s second annual Bid To Save The Earth auction in New York, Meyers joked that he hoped he would not be known as “the last host” and entreated everyone to “raise enough money to buy earth another year.”
Meyers also dispelled what he called “Mayan optimism for 2012” and “the long-held prophesy that Justin Bieber would save the earth,” although, kidding aside, we must give Bieber props for donating to the green auction a backstage meeting and VIP tickets to one of his performances.
The resounding message of the evening was that the task of safeguarding the earth’s future falls to all of us.
An extraordinary online sale of over 200 products and packages powered by CharityBuzz (bidding continues through April 7) was jump-started by last night’s 10 live auction lots, which quickly grossed $1.3 million. Among the evening’s choice acquisitions were generous invitations to spend a day with former President Bill Clinton, fly the skies with Harrison Ford or experience once-in-a-lifetime travel, including a luxury week of Chanel couture in Paris, a Hollywood Oscars weekend and an Alain Ducasse culinary tour.
Also at the event, the Runway to Green fashion show debuted sustainable styles by Prada, Gucci, Burberry, Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs, and a dozen other designers, all while Vogue editor Anna Wintour looked on.
While Oscar de la Renta’s one-of-kind, hand-embroidered bridal gown was an exquisite example of green couture, it was equally stunning to see designers like Rag & Bone greening the casual styles we shop and wear everyday. The Runway to Green collection is now available in limited quantities on Net-a-Porter.com.
All funds from the live and silent auctions and proceeds from green fashions will be donated to four noteworthy environmental non-profits: Oceana, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Central Park Conservancy and Conservation International. Text “gogreen” to 20222 to make your own $10 donation.
Taking it all in were celebrities including the actors Sam Waterston and Ted Danson, both longtime supporters of Oceana; runway 
models Karolina Kurkova and Jana Knauerova; actress Diane Kruger and singer Nicki Minaj, who was there to close the evening with a live musical performance (while wearing a green beehive wig).
Susan Rockefeller, an event co-chair and documentary filmmaker, noted the suitability of the Big Apple to host Bid To Save The Earth: “New York City is the perfect hostess because she’s green by nature. For one thing, the majority of residents don’t own cars and rely instead on mass transit, bicycles or their own feet to get around. Also, the fashion industry is the second largest industry in NYC so this provides a rare opportunity to implement NRDC’s Clean By Design initiative, which is focused on making the manufacturing of clothing more efficient.”
Making sure that the event itself was green, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation offset the greenhouse gas emissions of all those beautiful people.
Photos by Clemens Kois.