It was ironic that on as gorgeous a day as yesterday, a luncheon in honor of the environment was held within the dark, windowless halls of the American Museum of Natural History.

Steps away at Central Park, city folk took to the lawns for sunbathing and strolling as birds chirped, flowers blossomed, and grass grew. Meanwhile, the museum’s 600 guests contemplated threats to water supplies and marine life during a panel discussion moderated by a “20/20” correspondent, Lynn Sherr.

“Imagine what it’s like for a woman in East Africa, who has to wake up early and walk for hours – and I mean hours – just to get fresh water for her family,” Ms. Sherr said.

A biodiversity specialist at the museum, Katherine Holmes, said 20% of the world’s coral reefs have been destroyed. A biologist at World Wildlife Fund, Robin Abell, informed guests that only 40% of water used in agriculture makes it to the plants. And a biologist at the University of Washington, P. Dee Boersma, broke hearts with her story of a group of penguins that died eating toxic algae off the coast of Alaska.

The bleakest news may have been the most personal: Ms. Holmes said that not only is farm-raised salmon a no-no, shrimp is also. The room fell silent until Ms. Sherr induced laughs with the comment, “You’ll be happy to know that fish is not on the menu for lunch.”

From then on, the event had a cheerful atmosphere, as guests found their way to their healthful chicken salads, sitting at salmon-colored tables with tulip centerpieces. The luncheon chairwomen, Suzanne Cochran, Constance Spahn, Mary Solomon, and Jane Hanson, announced that the amount raised, $325,000, was a record for the event, in its 15th year.

One certain mood-lifter was the fashion. Women brought the brilliance of spring indoors, wearing pink, purple, turquoise, and green suits, accented with floral and animal-print scarves and jewelry in the shape of leaves and starfish. Ms. Hanson, the television journalist, wore a necklace of red laurel leaves designed by Michael Michaud. The ultimate warm-weather look, seen on dozens of guests, was the chic pairs of sunglasses worn as a headband.

But about those fish: As it turned out, there was some fish on the menu, for dessert. Each scoop of mango sorbet came with two cookies: one, with yellow icing, in the shape of an angelfish, and another, with green icing, in the shape of a companion fish. Demonstrating safe fishing techniques, an attorney for Riverkeeper, Marc Yaggi, collected a school of fish (seven cookies). Marcia Mishaan said they were the best fish she’d ever eaten.