Dr. Jane Goodall,
welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Well, thank you so much for inviting me to join you.
I feel like it's not even my invitation to give.
You are somebody who has been
in the hearts and minds
of so many people across the globe.
You've been studying our primate cousins
for six decades now.
I mean, arguably, we know more
about the world of primates because of you
than we ever would have had you not gotten involved.
Have we learned everything there is to know
about our primate cousins?
I don't think so.
I mean, you know, after 60 years,
we're still learning new things
about the same chimpanzee community,
and especially we're now entering the fourth generation.
You know, they can live to-to be about 60 years old.
-Mm-hmm. -But we've studied them all this time.
You know, you can see the effect of different kinds of mothering.
You can look at-- Uh, now we can detect the fathers
by doing DNA analysis from their fecal samples.
So we can say, "Well, does the paternity
have any influence on the personality of the child?"
All questions like this are absolutely fascinating.
I've always wanted to know, how did Jane Goodall,
at 26 years old, decide, "You know what,
"I'm gonna go and study chimpanzees
and what makes them tick and who they are"?
Well, it actually all began when I was ten years old,
growing up in England,
um, growing up in the days before TV
and computers and cell phones,
spending time outside.
Then, when I was ten, I read Tarzan of the Apes,
and I decided, "I'm going to grow up and go to Africa
and live with wild animals and write books about them."
(chuckles) Everybody laughed.
"How will you do that? You don't have money.
"World War II is raging.
Uh, and you're just a girl."
But my mother, my amazing mother--
she's right here behind me--
uh, she just said, "If you really want something,
"you're going to have to work really hard,
"take advantage of every opportunity,
and if you don't give up, maybe you'll find a way."
And that's the message
that I take to young people around the world,
particularly in disadvantaged communities.
We seem to be the only species that,
at an alarming rate, destroys our environment.
You know? We-we don't see any other animals doing this.
We see a natural balance in nature.
We see an understanding of one thing affecting the other.
But it feels like, more and more--
and you-you discuss this from the perspective
of an animal, you know, researcher--
habitats are being destroyed.
The world is changing.
Do you see those effects
within the chimpanzee communities
that-that you so often frequent?
Well, no. But you know something?
I think if they developed an intellect
along the lines of ours,
they would probably do exactly the same,
and I feel that what we're doing to destroy the planet
is because we can do it.
Oh, wow.
We got ourselves into this situation
where we can cut down a forest just like that.
And what's the result of it?
Well, we basically brought a pandemic on ourselves,
and we basically brought about the climate crisis.
That-That's-- We've done that,
and it's high time that we step back and say,
"Gosh, we-we-- Do we care about the future of our children?
Do we care about the health of the planet?"
Because we're part of this natural world,
not separated from it.
You have become...
even more famous over the-- over the past few years,
not just for your research and your work
but also as being an outspoken climate change activist.
Um, over the past few months, in fact,
we've seen your social media explode
with people just engaging with you and connecting with you.
And you really have become one of the loudest voices
calling for change
when it comes to our fight
to stop the climate from getting warmer.
What do you think people don't understand in the conversation?
I think people are burying their heads in the sand.
I think, you know,
even climate change deniers have begun to say,
"Well, yes, the climate is changing."
I mean, you can't deny, can you--
I mean, you cannot deny the fact that temperatures are hotter.
You can't deny the fact of these terrible fires
that are raging in so many parts of the world.
You can't deny that the ice is melting.
And you see the ice on the tops of the mountains disappearing,
-the snow. -Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
And you can't deny the drought.
So, yes.
But there are still some people who say,
"Yes, yes, but that's just natural.
It's nothing to do with us."
Well, those are people who refuse to listen to science,
because the scientists have proven
that the levels of carbon dioxide,
the main greenhouse gas,
have risen exponentially
and in a way never seen
throughout the whole course of evolution.
So, what do we-- what do we say to them?
I-I don't know, if they refuse to believe it.
But young people,
-they're beginning to understand. -Right.
They're beginning to understand that it's our fault.
But, you know, there's-there's a tendency now
for people to lose hope.
Because some scientists are saying,
"We've reached the tipping point.
There's nothing we can do."
That I refuse to believe in.
We've got a window of time.
If we get together,
then we can at least start to heal
some of the harm we've inflicted.
What would you say to a young person who has lost hope,
a young person who wants to change the world
but feels like they cannot?
Yeah, well, that's why I started this Roots & Shoots,
because I was meeting young people like that,
who said, "You've compromised our future
and there's nothing we can do about it."
That's when I said, "No, no, you're wrong."
And the main message of this program is that,
every single day we live,
we make some impact on the planet.
We get to choose what sort of impact we make.
What do we buy? Where did it come from?
Did it harm the environment?
Was it cruel to animals?
We can choose.
However, those living in deep poverty--
and there are so many of them--
they can't choose.
They're going to destroy the last trees
to try and grow food to feed their families
or feed the last fish.
They're going to buy the cheapest junk food
-because they have to survive. -Mm-hmm.
So, changing the gap between the haves and the have-not,
alleviating poverty,
thinking, each one of us, about our environmental footprint,
these are the things that really matter now.
Everybody can get involved in it.
If you roll up your sleeves and you say,
"Well, I can't change the world,
but I can clean this stream."
And then that stream water will run clean into the river
and there are many other people cleaning streams
and the river's getting cleaner and cleaner
and eventually water into the ocean,
then you know that, all around the world,
there are people tackling the same things that you care about.
Then the cumulative effect of individual action
starts to hit you,
and then you feel helpful.
It's when you take action
that you leave this feeling of despair and helplessness.
Well, I-I hope as many people take action as possible.
I, uh, thank you for changing not just my life
but, I think, um,
the lives of many, many millions of people around the world.
Dr. Jane, thank you so much for joining me on the show.
Well, thank you.
And you're doing exactly the same, Trevor.
-So, shake on it. -(laughs)
Thank you so much.