We can save planet, says conservation legend Jane
ACCLAIMED conservationist and activist Dame Jane Goodall yesterday marked a special anniversary by declaring: “We can save the planet… but time is running out.”
Dr Goodall, 86, was celebrating the 60th anniversary of her first arrival in Gombe National Park in Tanzania to live among and study wild chimpanzees – work for which she became famous the world over.
In a series of stunning breakthroughs over many years, she discovered them making tools and revealed they had personalities, emotions and their own culture.
For the past 24 years she has been touring the world, trying to galvanise mankind into saving itself from environmental destruction.
In 1991 she launched Roots and Shoots, an environmental and humanitarian youth programme which now operates in more than 130 countries. Before coronavirus she was travelling 300 days a year in order to spread her message.
She has also teamed up with Prince Harry, also a keen conservationist.
Harmony
Yesterday, from her home in Bournemouth, she said mankind can find a solution to crises such as climate change and the destruction of species habitats around the world.
Dr Goodall, born in London, said: “Our intellect has always come up with new ways to do things better.
“If we unite heart and mind we can achieve miracles – but time is running out.That’s why I have been travelling for 300 days a year for so long and why I’m working even harder now as aVirtual Jane with Zoom meetings.
“I just hope that the impact of this pandemic will make more people realise that we have to have a better relationship with the natural world.”
The coronavirus is believed to have leapt from bats to humans, possibly via pangolins, at a crowded wildlife market in Wuhan, China.
Other killer diseases to jump from wildlife to humans include HIV, Ebola and Sars.
Dr
Goodall said: “We have brought this pandemic on ourselves because of our disrespect for nature.
“We have cut down the forests and we take animals to wildlife markets where conditions are horrendous.” Dr Goodall, who got her PhD at Cambridge University and whose claims to fame range from being a UN Messenger of Peace to appearing in The Simpsons, has a blueprint to save the planet.
It is to alleviate poverty – because that drives so much destruction of habitats – plus birth control, tackling corruption and for the wealthier world to change its unsustainable lifestyle. She said: “It is our same disrespect for nature that has led to the climate crisis. “When we come out of the pandemic, as we will, we will find a worse crisis. “I hope the pandemic wakes us up.
“But nature is resilient. Give her a chance and she will come back. “If head and heart work in harmony we can attain our true potential.”