The world’s most famous anthropologist and biologist has been inspiring millions of people for decades.
The world’s most famous anthropologist and biologist Jane Goodall has been inspiring millions of people for decades. Her latest project is the film Jane Goodall: Reasons for Hope, about people who make a difference. Elegance spoke to the 89-year-old. “People seem to forget that we are part of the natural world. We depend on it.”
Natural world
Valerie Jane Morris Goodall has dedicated her life to studying the Earth and its creatures, and at age 89 she continues to be inspired by the possibilities that our vast planet and human ingenuity can create. Today she performs around the world including lectures, discusses environmental crises and challenges new generations to find solutions to face the disaster they inherited.
According to the biologist, the ecosystem is collapsing, something we humans seem to forget. “Locked up in cities and towns, often under the spell of a virtual reality, people seem to forget that we are part of the natural world. And not only that, we depend on it. If we continue like this, we are doomed,” she says.
Make a difference
Because of that passionate drive, Dr. Goodall advised her younger self in 1956, when her work began, nothing. “If I could talk to that Jane, I wouldn’t give her advice, because everything I did at the time led – for better or worse – to the right conclusion. I think it would have been a great mistake to give young Jane any advice.” What she does hope is that the positive stories from the film Jane Goodall: Reasons for Hope will inspire people of all ages to make a difference in the world around them.
Confront
The alarming circumstances, such as the loss of biodiversity, are emphasized again and again by Goodall. In her almost 90 years on planet Earth, this is the most confrontational for her. “When I was young, I couldn’t leave a window open at night with the lights on because your room would almost immediately become infested with moths and other nocturnal insects. Now I am excited when one moth flies in,” she says. “And as we now know, insects are an important part of the diet of countless animals.”
Dependent
According to her, it emphasizes how dependent we are on healthy ecosystems and that is why, after decades, it remains Goodall’s mission to create a world in which we can live in harmony with respect for nature, animals and each other. “We have to lose a certain arrogance. Just because we have a brain that can design a rocket that goes to Mars doesn’t mean we have any more right to be on this planet than an octopus,” she says. “We must realize that we are part of this natural world and that our lives depend on it.”
You can read the entire interview in the new Elegance that is now in stores.
Text: Jorrit Niels | Image: NL Image
