The hope of Jane Goodall
Let’s celebrate the life of the peripatetic primatologist, who died Wednesday in Los Angeles while on a speaking tour, at the age of 91.
Born in London in 1934, Goodall began researching free-living chimpanzees in Tanzania in 1960.
“On the scientific merits alone, her discoveries about how wild chimpanzees raised their young, established leadership, socialized and communicated broke new ground and attracted immense attention and respect among researchers,” says her New York Times obituary. Stephen Jay Gould, the evolutionary biologist and science historian, said Goodall’s work with chimpanzees “represents one of the Western world’s great scientific achievements.”
On learning of Goodall’s documented evidence that humans weren’t the only creatures capable of making and using tools, Louis Leakey, the paleoanthropologist and Goodall’s mentor, said, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.”
What set Goodall apart was her “deep empathy” for both animals and humans and her ability to connect with people around the world, said Joe Walston, executive vice president for global conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Goodall traveled an average of 300 days a year to meet with local officials in countries around the globe and to speak with community and school groups, says Reuters.
In her talks, Goodall urged audiences to act and told children that every day brings a choice of what impact they will make, says Rhett Ayers Butler of Mongabay.
In the last of her 32 books, “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times,” published in 2021, she expresses her optimism about the future of humankind.
Here is Goodall’s video message for the UN International Day of Peace 2025, on Sept. 21, in which she says: “Think beyond conflict. Think to the world we all would love to live in. Because if we look at the whole picture, we’re bound to feel hopeless and helpless. But once we realize that even small actions cumulatively can make a big difference, we can start taking action to make the world a better place.”
“On this Peace Day,” she says, “think about the actions you can take towards making this a kinder, more compassionate, and more peaceful world.”
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