Today, we celebrate the 85th birthday of Jane Goodall, the famed and beloved English primatologist, anthropologist, conservation activist, and environmentalist, born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on April 3, 1934 in Hampstead, London.
Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her over 55-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees since she first went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960, at the age of 26, equipped with nothing more than a notebook and a pair of binoculars.
With her unyielding patience and characteristic optimism, she won the trust of these shy creatures and opened a window into their sometimes strange and often familiar-seeming lives and captured the imagination of decision makers and ordinary people worldwide.
Today, Jane’s work revolves around inspiring action on behalf of endangered species, particularly chimpanzees, and encouraging people to do their part to make the world a better place for people, animals, and the environment.
She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute. She has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. Goodall has written books for adults and children, contributed to documentaries, and serves as a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, a United Nations peace messenger, and the president of Advocates for Animals.
Here are a few notable tributes from around the world for Dame Jane Goodall -
Jane Goodall on the Ellen DeGeneres show today -
On the lighter side —
When Gary Larson first published this cartoon, the Jane Goodall Institute thought it was offensive and had their lawyer write a letter. Jane didn't see the cartoon till later and thought it was hilarious. She wrote the foreword for a later Far Side anthology. twitter.com/...
A Few Videos and Articles
Trailer of a documentary from 2017 -
The documentary from 1965 -
Her celebrated TED talk -
60 Minutes with Jane Goodall -
From blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/… —
Goodall first traveled to Africa in 1957, at the age of 23, to visit a friend in Kenya. There, she met famous anthropologist Dr. Louis S. B. Leakey who hired Goodall as his assistant. He later sent her to Tanzania to observe chimpanzees, in 1960.
Goodall entered Cambridge University as a Ph.D. candidate in 1962 — one of the first Ph.D. students accepted by the university without a college degree.
Activism and Quotes
Vegetarianism: Goodall is a vegetarian and advocates the diet for ethical, environmental, and health reasons. In The Inner World of Farm Animals, Goodall writes that farm animals are "far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined and, despite having been bred as domestic slaves, they are individual beings in their own right. As such, they deserve our respect. And our help. Who will plead for them if we are silent?" en.wikipedia.org/...
Ethics of animal treatment: The more we learn of the true nature of non-human animals, especially those with complex brains and corresponding complex social behavior, the more ethical concerns are raised regarding their use in the service of man — whether this be in entertainment, as “pets,” for food, in research laboratories, or any of the other uses to which we subject them.
Humans vs Chimpanzees: We’re destroying our home. That’s not a bit successful. Chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans have been living for hundreds of thousands of years in their forest, living fantastic lives, never overpopulating, never destroying the forest. I would say that they have been in a way more successful than us as far as being in harmony with the environment.
Love: We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.
Agriculture: Someday we shall look back on this dark era of agriculture and shake our heads. How could we have ever believed that it was a good idea to grow our food with poisons?
Inequality: We can’t leave people in abject poverty, so we need to raise the standard of living for 80% of the world’s people, while bringing it down considerably for the 20% who are destroying our natural resources.
God: I don't have any idea of who or what God is. But I do believe in some great spiritual power. I feel it particularly when I'm out in nature. It's just something that's bigger and stronger than what I am or what anybody is. I feel it. And it's enough for me.
Our future: The greatest danger to our future is apathy.
Epilogue
What are your memories of Jane Goodall over the past 60 years? Has her work affected or inspired you? What do you think of her work and her activism? How does her work relate with other efforts in protecting the environment and dealing with climate change?
Further Reading
- www.janegoodall.org/…
- en.wikipedia.org/…
- 10 Jane Goodall Quotes to Celebrate the Environmental Leader’s Birthday — www.globalcitizen.org/…
- Ten Facts You Should Know about Jane Goodall — blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/...