Earth & Sky

Everything is interconnected

Renowned scientist Jane Goodall talks about global sustainability.

Jane Goodall traveled to East Africa in 1960, with the goal of studying chimps in the wild. Today, in addition to being a world authority on chimpanzees, she works tirelessly on global conservation issues. Earth & Sky’s Eleanor Imster spoke to Dr. Goodall about how to share the Earth.

Imster: Thank you so much for talking to me. I don’t want to spend all my allotted time telling you how much I admire you and the work you’ve done and how lucky I feel to be talking to you. But, suffice it to say, I could.

Goodall: Thank you.

Imster: But, instead, I just have a few questions for you, each not really connected to the next. Firstly, I think our listeners would be very interested hearing what perhaps could be called your conservation message. I know each situation is unique, but can you tell me some guiding principals for thinking about ways to share the Earth with other species?

Goodall: Well, that’s a very big question. And really it’s going to vary an enormous amount as to which country you’re talking about and which species, and which kind of habitat.

But I think the overall message is that many, many people around the world, the elite communities, have unsustainable lifestyles. And so the natural resources of our planet are being plundered and robbed with very little regard for the wildlife that’s living there, or indeed the indigenous people and their cultures. And we need to rethink the way we live, and we all need to try to leave lighter ecological footprints as we go from day to day.

Imster: Kind of be a cheaper date for planet Earth?

Goodall: We need to be a cheaper date for planet Earth, if we care about our grandchildren and theirs. You know, in the old days, the indigenous people used to make every major decision based on an understanding of how that might impact their own people seven generations ahead. If we did that even for just two generations ahead, we’d drastically change the way things work today.

Imster: My second question is a very different kind of question. You’ve spent a lot of time with two of the most closely related primates, chimpanzees and people. Can you tell me some ways in which we’re similar to our closest relatives?

Goodall: We have extraordinary biological similarities in the structure of our DNA, which differs from chimps by only one percent, in the composition of the blood, the immune system and the anatomy of the brain and the nervous system. This leads, as one might actually expect, to many similarities in intellectual performance, emotional expression.

And then you find these long–lasting supportive bonds between family members that can last through a life of 60 years. You find a long period of childhood, and the importance of learning in chimpanzees. And, just as in humans, the nonverbal communication: kissing, embracing, holding hands, patting on the back.

And you also find that they, like we, have a dark side to their nature. And they’re capable of brutality and war, as well as compassion and altruism.

Imster: Why should we bother to save this species?

Goodall: It’s a question that everybody asks, why should we bother to save chimpanzees or whales, or why should we bother to save redwoods? But the thing is that we are increasingly finding, as the old people in the old days knew, that everything is interconnected. And when you remove one piece of the puzzle, that little hole starts to spread until the entire puzzle may collapse.

And the chimpanzees in their own forest play a very important role. You could almost call them gardeners. They trim trees and they carry their fruits long distances so that they help with the germination and the spacing of plants.

The value of a species shouldn’t only be determined according to its ecological impact and its commercial value. The value of a species is part of our spiritual heritage. It’s part of our past, which if we lose it now, our children in future generations may be very sad.

Imster: You spent a large part of your life as a researcher and a scientist who was not so much in the public eye. And in more recent years, as you travel and you speak to people, do you miss the days of scientific research?

Goodall: I look back on my days in the forest with the chimpanzees with very little pressure from the outside world. I look back with great nostalgia. I try to keep the peace of the forest within, but as you say, I’m now traveling 300 days a year and trying to raise awareness. Also funds, of course, although a lot of my travel is in parts of the world where you certainly can’t fundraise. And why do I do it? Why am I doing it more, rather than less as I get older?

Because, you know, what is the point of me, or anyone else, struggling to save chimpanzees or forests or any other creature or any other habitat if at the same time we’re not raising new generations to be better stewards than we’ve been. And so a huge emphasis today for me is on our youth program, known as Roots and Shoots, which is now in more than 80 countries, with more that 6,500 active groups and projects from preschool right through university.

Imster: In my experience, having children, they’re much more aware of that than I was as a child.

Goodall: Well, they are. When I was growing up, I don’t think the word “environment” had even been coined. It seemed that the world and the wild places went on forever, and that the oceans were uncontaminated and places like the Amazon and the Congo Basin would never be touched. But, low and behold, due to the big logging companies and the oil companies, these vast places are now being gradually penetrated, opened up to destruction. It’s just really tragic.

I have three little grandchildren. And when I look at them and think how much we’ve damaged this beautiful planet since I was their age, I just feel deep shame. Roots and Shoots is my way of trying to give youth hope. The name is symbolic, that roots make a firm foundation and shoots seem very small, but to reach the sun together they can break open a brick wall. So, if we see the brick wall as everything we have done to the planet, the environmental destruction, the pollution, the desertification, the global climate change, and the social harm that’s raging today &mdash then the message is hope. Hundreds and thousands of young people around the world can break through and make the world a better place. So, every group tackles three different kinds of hands–on projects: one for the environment, the second for animals, including domestic animals, and the third for people and a strong peace initiative today.

We need a tipping point. We need a great wave of awareness in these young people. We need people coming out into the work force who are prepared to make decisions not just for immediate gratification.

Imster: Dr. Goodall, it was a great honor to speak with you today. Thank you.

Eleanor Imster spoke to Dr. Goodall in 2004.