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Jane Goodall: There’s hope amid crisis

Katie Scott | Catholic Herald

Jane Goodall, known for her groundbreaking work on chimpanzee behavior, has spent the past several decades involved in humanitarian and environmental efforts. Goodall spoke at a fundraising event April 17 at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington.

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Goodall takes notes in Gombe National Park, Tanzania.

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DAR Constitution Hall in Washington momentarily sounded like
an African forest last Friday night. Jane Goodall – the famed
English primatologist, anthropologist, conservationist and
humanitarian – preceded her April 17 lecture with a loud
chimpanzee call, a greeting she’d mastered during her years
observing wild chimps. The audience responded in delight with
a round of applause.

In the talk, entitled “Sowing the Seeds of Hope” and
organized by Marymount University in Arlington, Goodall
described her work with chimpanzees, what she sees as the
world’s most pressing problems and why she has hope for the
future.

Proceeds from the event will establish a new Marymount fund
to promote volunteerism and community engagement through
grants for local student- and faculty-initiated programs.

Marymount President Matthew D. Shank said during his
introduction that Goodall embodies the three pillars of the
university: intellectual curiosity, a global perspective and
service to others.

Goodall began her talk describing her childhood love of
animals and the enduring influence of her mother.

When as a 1-year-old Goodall brought earthworms to bed or as
a 4-year-old disappeared for hours crouching in a henhouse to
“see where the eggs come from,” her mother was patient and
encouraging.

“If I’d had a different mother, the little
scientist-in-the-making would have been crushed,” said
Goodall, now 81.

In 1960, Goodall traveled from England to what is now
Tanzania to study the little-known world of wild chimpanzees.
While observing the animals Gombe National Park, she made her
famous breakthrough discovery that chimps use tools.

Today that would be nothing extraordinary, “but back then it
was thought that only humans used tools,” said Goodall.

After years observing chimpanzees, writing and teaching,
Goodall said she was catapulted into activism in 1986 after
attending a conference in Chicago on the global plight of
chimpanzees. She learned their habitat was being destroyed in
Africa, that they were being hunted commercially for food and
that they often were treated brutally in captivity.

While flying over Gombe National Park in the early ’90s,
Goodall saw the devastating effects of deforestation and
over-farming. She said it was clear not only that the
chimpanzees’ habitat was being destroyed but also “that the
people were struggling.”

“And that’s when I realized that we can’t even try to save
these chimpanzees while people are living like this.”

Through the Jane Goodall Institute, founded in 1977, she
started a holistic program to improve the lives of animals
and humans. It included reforestation, clean-water efforts
and a micro-credit program for women to develop
environmentally sustainable projects.

The program is now in 52 Tanzanian villages and five other
African countries.

Goodall said that as she traveled to other parts of the world
talking about the suffering in Africa, she unexpectedly
learned about the severity of environmental problems and the
global warming crisis.

Of particular concern to her was the effect of meat
consumption on the planet.

In addition to the inhumane treatment of animals on factory
farms, a “huge amount of forests (are) cut down to grow grain
to feed all these animals, … and it takes so much
extra water to turn plant protein into animal protein,” she
said. Methane gas from livestock also is a major contributor
to global warming.

She asked herself: “How can it be that the most intelligent
creature that’s ever walked the face of the earth is
destroying its only home?”

The problems we face, however, are not issues of intelligence
but of wisdom, she said. “Decisions used to be made by
asking, ‘How will my behavior today affect my children, my
great-grandchildren?’ … Now it’s, ‘How will it affect
me now or how will it affect the next shareholders meeting?’

“It seems there’s been a disconnect between the human brain
and the human heart. I truly believe that we can only reach
our true human potential when head and heart work in
harmony.”

In spite of this disconnect, Goodall thinks there’s a window
of opportunity to change the trajectory and that change
depends on young people.

It was that belief that helped launch an international
initiative called Roots and Shoots in 1991. The chapters,
with members in preschool through college, select projects
that benefit the environment and improve the quality of life
for people and animals. Projects range from trash pickup to
serving at soup kitchens to helping refugees.

More than 150,000 members participate in 138 counties.

The philosophy is that “every individual makes a difference
every single day,” said Goodall.

“We have a choice about what kind of difference we will make
(through) the little choices we make. Did they involve animal
cruelty? Did they involve child labor? When we start thinking
like that we make different choices.”

In addition to young people, Goodall said she has four
additional reasons to hope: the capacity of the human brain
to solve problems; the resilience of nature; the power of
social media – “if used in the right way” – to rally people
for a common cause; and the “indomitable human spirit.”

“Everywhere I go I find extraordinary people … people
who perform incredible tasks and won’t give up,” she said.

“Every one of us is that indomitable human spirit. We just
have to let it out; we have to trust in our dreams; we have
to never give up and take advantage of opportunity – and we
can change the world.”

After the talk, Lorine Margeson, president of Marymount’s new
Roots and Shoots chapter, said Goodall’s message was
inspiring and, like the Catholic faith, challenges us to be
“responsible to one another.”

“By helping each other and taking care of our natural
resources,” said Margeson, “we make this world a better place
to live.”

Find out more

To learn more about Roots and Shoots, Jane Goodall’s
international youth-led community program to help humans,
animals and the environment, click here.

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