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JANE GOODALL: Well, the thing is that I was actually
born loving animals.
My mother tells me that even when I was 1 and 1/2,
I was intently studying earthworms.
And luckily, I had a very supportive mother.
Back then, when I was growing up,
television hadn't been invented, so I
learned by being out in nature and from books.
Books were very important.
And it was when I was 10 years old I found
this little second-hand book.
We had very little money.
It was World War II.
Anyway, it was called "Tarzan of the Apes."
Of course, I fell passionately in love
with that glorious lord of the jungle
and was very jealous because he married the wrong Jane.
Of course, I knew Tarzan didn't exist,
but that's what started my dream.
I'm going to grow up, go to Africa, live with wild animals,
and write books about them.
No thought of being a scientist.
You know, girls didn't have those aspirations back then.
And everybody laughed at me.
How would you get there?
You don't have money.
You're just a girl--
except mum.
And she said, if you really want to do something like this,
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.
So that was the support I had.
And eventually the opportunity came,
an invitation from a school friend
to have a holiday in Kenya.
That's where I met the late Dr. Louis Leakey.
And amazingly, he gave me this opportunity
to go and study not just any animal, but the one most
like us.
KATE BRANDT: What would you highlight as some
of the biggest learnings?
JANE GOODALL: Well, it was David Greybeard, a very
handsome male, for some reason, was less afraid
than the others.
And gradually, I could get closer and closer to him.
And then, in a way, he helped me to meet the others
in the community.
Because if he was part of a group, the others ready to run,
but David would be sitting there.
And so I suppose they thought, well, she
can't be so dangerous after all.
And the big breakthrough was when I saw him using and making
tools to fish for termites, because
at that time, science thought humans and only humans used
and made tools.
In fact, it was very reductionist
thinking back then, which I didn't
know about when I went to Gombe, and I knew nothing
about science.
And yet, when I was sent to Cambridge,
after two years with the chimps, by Leakey--
because he told me I had to get a degree
and there was no time for a BA so I went for a PhD--
I was told, you can't talk about chimpanzee personality, mind,
or emotion because those are unique to us.
But I learned from my childhood teacher that that was not true.
And that childhood teacher was my dog, Rusty.
KATE BRANDT: But I'd imagine you've also learned
a lot from the chimpanzees.
What would you say that they've taught you?
JANE GOODALL: Well, they've taught many people
that animals are way more intelligent than we
used to think.
But they didn't teach me that because I knew it already,
all my childhood.
But I think the most important thing
I learned from them was that like us, they are, but we're
different.
And so you can stand back from this closest living relative
and say, well, what's the main difference?
And the main difference is the fact
that we have developed this extraordinarily sophisticated
intellect.
And although animals are way more intelligent than people
used to think, they can't compete
with somebody who designs a rocket
to go up to Mars with a robot to take photographs.
And this is what's so strange and bizarre,
that the most intellectual creature ever
to walk this planet is destroying its only home,
fast and faster.
KATE BRANDT: How do you suggest people
begin if they're coming from a place of concern
and desolation?
How do we begin the journey to hope?
What kind of actions can we take?
JANE GOODALL: Well, I think a major problem
is people are told think globally, act locally.
But if you think globally, you do get depressed.
We're bombarded every single day in the press,
in the media of all sorts, about all the things going wrong.
And we need to know that, absolutely.
But as I've been traveling around,
I meet so many amazing people doing amazing things.
And places we destroyed-- once again, nature can come back
if we give it time.
And so what do I say to people?
Don't think globally.
First, think locally.
Think, what can I do here?
Maybe I can get together with a group of friends
and clear the street of litter.
Or we can get together and put recycling bins in the school.
Or we can insist on buying organic food.
Does it cost a bit more?
Yes.
But then you value it more, and you waste less,
because waste is a huge problem.
But anyway, whatever you decide to do--
it could be writing letters to legislators,
it could be anything--
then you find that you do make a difference.
And that gives you hope.
And that encourages you to make a bigger difference.
And hope is contagious.
So by doing that, you're inspiring more people
to take action.
KATE BRANDT: How do you see the future of the institute,
and what projects are you most proud of?
JANE GOODALL: Well, we've now got either 24 or 34--
I keep meaning to find out--
Jane Goodall Institutes in, let's say,
for the moment, 24 countries.
And even during the pandemic, while I've been here, grounded,
as I call it, we've started a new institute in India which
is fantastic, and another one in Turkey,
and close to founding one in Israel.
We've got new Roots & Shoots groups
popping up all over the place.
And so the future--
I always say, if you aim for the stars,
you might reach the moon.
If you aim for the moon, you might
get to the top of Everest.
So I like aiming for the stars.
I aim to create a critical mass of young people
who understand that we all need some money to live.
It's when we live for money that it starts going wrong,
unless we're living for money to help make the world
a better place, in which case it's wonderful.
KATE BRANDT: Are there just a couple of examples
that you would highlight of projects or people
along the way with your journey, either through the institute
or through Roots & Shoots, that stay with you
as being especially inspiring?
JANE GOODALL: Oh gosh, there's so many.
How do I pick?
I'll tell you a very symbolic story from Roots & Shoots.
And that was the first group to start
in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC,
where there's all that fighting because it's mineral-rich where
we are in Goma.
It's on the east.
And so this first group of children,
they were about 10 to 12, and they had learned, at school,
about a hill.
They could see it, quite far, further than they thought,
which had been a sacred hill covered in trees,
and now the trees had gone.
So they wanted to put the trees back.
Well, their mentor thought, oh, they can't do that,
but he didn't want to squash their enthusiasm.
So he got a forester to donate some saplings.
Then he had to go to the colonel of the militia that
was in the area at the time.
It keeps changing.
There's fighting going on.
And this man said, well, it's a stupid idea,
but I suppose there's no harm in it.
But I'm going to have to send soldiers with you.
So now you imagine there's 15 little children clutching
their little saplings and, I suppose,
a shovel or something, and four great, big Congolese soldiers
with AK-47s over their shoulder.
And they get to the hill, and they're tired.
The ground is hard, but they start
trying to plant their tree.
A little girl starts to cry.
Within 10 minutes, one of the soldiers
leaned his gun on a tree and went to help her.
And within the next 15 minutes, all the soldiers
had laid aside their guns and were helping the children
plant trees.
And this, to me, is so symbolic.
Well, I don't think I know what rest is.
And I'm honestly-- since the pandemic began,
I haven't had one single day without at least one interview,
or Zoom, or video message.
And usually there's three or four.
And when I say "one single day," some people
say "have a nice weekend," and I say well,
but the week doesn't end.
And I think I've always had that attitude because people would
say to me, when I was at Gombe, climbing up into the hills
every single day, but what about weekends?
And I said, well, chimps don't have weekends,
so I can't have weekends either.
So rest, well, OK, every lunchtime,
I sit under my favorite tree that I climbed as a child--
it's out there, beech tree--
and I'm visited by a robin and a blackbird.
And sometimes we sing to each other.
I sing a little bit and they sing,
not always, but sometimes.
And then, in the evening, I go for like 30 minutes
walking around the cliff.
Those are my rest.
I think it depends who we are.
We all have to choose to change in a way that we can cope with.
And some people can make huge changes
because they're very wealthy.
They can write checks.
They can do all these different things.
But everybody can do something.
Everybody can do something.
Everybody can remember to turn out lights,
can walk, cycle, or take public transport,
all these little things that we can think of doing.
And we just have to choose.
You can't dictate to people.
They have to want to make change.
And then think about, what I can do to make change?
I will do it.
And lots of young people are changing their parents
and their grandparents.
Oh, yes.
I talked to a CEO the other day of a big company in Singapore.
And he said, you know, Jane, our company
is now moving very rapidly towards becoming
zero-emissions, and thinking about our supply chain,
and trying to be ethical, for three reasons.
One, we've seen the writing on the wall,
that we can't go on exploiting nature the way we are.
It's the end of our business if we do.
Two, consumer pressure.
We can't go on making things if people won't buy them.
And three, but he said, it was my 12-year-old daughter.
She came home from school one day,
and she said, Daddy, what you're doing,
is it hurting the environment?
Because if you're hurting the environment,
I've got to grow up in that environment.
And he said that got to the heart.
And that's what we have to do.
We have to get to people's hearts
because people have to change from within.
KATE BRANDT: Dr. Jane Goodall, it
has been such a pleasure having you here with us.
Thank you for participating in our second global I Am
Remarkable Week.
And thank you for all of your work, such a life of service.
JANE GOODALL: Well, thank you.
And thank you for inviting me onto your show
and for a lovely conversation.
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