by Nick Visser: Against all odds, the famed primatologist, the subject of a new documentary, still holds hope that we’ll pull ourselves together…
Jane Goodall gets depressed, too.
The primatologist, the subject of a new documentary, gets angry that humanity has killed off thousands of orangutans. She’s frustrated that we, in our quest to grow and conquer, have changed the planet forever.
“Goodness, if we could spend the same money learning about the world that we spend on wars…. We’re so stupid aren’t we?” she told HuffPost in a recent interview. “We seem to have lost the connection between our clever brains and our hearts.”
But Goodall, just a few weeks shy of her 84th birthday, still has faith.
“People desperately want hope. When you lose hope, what’s left in life?” she said. “We truly have harmed the world, but I still think there’s a window of time for us to try and turn things around. It can never get back to the way it was … but we have to try.”
Goodall is one of the most recognized scientists of our time. She was one of several pioneering women in the 1960s who forged a pathway through lecture halls filled with men. Her seminal research on chimpanzees changed how we viewed animal intelligence.
Goodness, if we could spend the same money learning about the world that we spend on wars.Jane Goodall
Those early days of Goodall’s research make up the bulk of a new documentary, “Jane,” that will air on National Geographic next week. Filmmakers sifted through more than 100 hours of never-before-seen footage of her research 50 years ago in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park.
Today, Goodall travels about 300 days a year to share her unending passion for the natural world. Through speeches, appearances and interviews, she tries to combat feelings of frustration. She also launched an initiative called the Roots and Shoots program to empower young people to become environmentalists. She urges them to find a cause, join with friends to create a stir, no matter how big or small.
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.