The Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School, the first such center at a medical school in the United States, was founded in 1996 to help promote a wider understanding of the human health consequences of global environmental change. By focusing on environmental change through the lens of human health, the Center is able to reach people in concrete, personal terms they can relate to and understand. The Center is an official Collaborating Center of the U.N. Environment Programme and works alongside many other organizations throughout the world. The mission of the Center is to help people understand that our health, and that of our children, depends on the health of the environment, and that we must do everything we can to protect it.

On April 4, 2003, Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver hosted a benefit 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 held at Blue Hill, the acclaimed New York restaurant – provided support for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. Meryl has also hosted the Global Environmental Citizen Awards three times, presenting awards to Bill Moyers in 2004, to Al Gore in 2005 and to Prince Charles in 2007. And in 2008, Meryl narrated the “Healthy Ocean, Healthy Humans”, which can be watched below.