50 Time September 23, 2019
I’ve stood with Inuit elders by a great ice cliff in Green-
land as water cascaded down and icebergs calved. It never
used to melt, the elders told me. I’ve witnessed the shrink-
ing of a Mount Kilimanjaro glacier. I’ve watched wildfires
rage in Africa and in California. And I’ve seen the carcasses
of animals who have died in droughts.
As I travel around the globe, people tell me how the
weather patterns have been disrupted and the worst kind
of hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones are getting more de-
structive and more frequent. It is because we are polluting
and destroying the environment by using natural resources
in an unsustainable way.
When I started my research
in Gombe, Tanzania, in 1960, it
was part of the forest belt that
stretched across Africa. In 1990,
I looked down from a small plane
on an island of forest surrounded
by completely bare hills. More
people were living there than
the land could support, so trees
had been cleared to grow food or
make charcoal.
In order to slow down cli-
mate change, we must solve four
seemingly unsolvable problems.
We must eliminate poverty. We
must change the unsustainable
lifestyles of so many of us. We
must abolish corruption. And we
must think about our growing human population. There are
7.7 billion of us today, and by 2050, the UN predicts there
will be 9.7 billion. It is no wonder people have despaired.
But I believe we have a window of time to have an impact.
Here’s why I’m still optimistic.
the resIlIence of nature
Habitats and species on the brink of extinction can recover if
given a chance. When I realized the plight of the people living
around Gombe, the Jane Goodall Institute started a program
called Tacare to help them find ways to make a livelihood
that did not involve devastating the environment. As they
realized that protecting forests is good not only for wildlife
but also for their own future, they became our partners in
conservation. Today we have Tacare in six other African
countries, and the hills in Gombe aren’t bare anymore.
the human braIn
How is it possible that the most
intellectual creature ever to walk the
earth is destroying its only home?
There has been a disconnect between
our clever brains and our hearts. We
do not ask how our decisions will help
future generations, but how they will
help us now, how they will help our
shareholders, etc. Yet every day we are
also inventing technology that enables
us to live in greater harmony with
the natural world (clean energy, for
example). Those same communities
around Gombe are using smartphones
and satellite imagery to monitor their
forests and set aside village land for
regeneration.socIal medIa
These networks have enabled us to
connect on issues in a way never before
possible. It was the People’s Climate
March in New York in 2014 that showed
me this in real time. People posted and
told others to join them, and what was
supposed to be a march of 100,000
turned into one of 400,000.the power of young people
I started Roots & Shoots—a program in
which kindergartners and university
students alike choose projects to make
the world a better place for animals,
people and the environment—in 1991
when I realized how many had lost hope.
It exists now in more than 50 countries,
and many participants are working on
climate-change-related issues.
If we all get together, we can truly
make a difference, but we must act now.
The window of time is closing.Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall
Institute and a U.N. Messenger of Peace,
is an ethologist and conservationistThe devastation of climate
change is real. But there
are reasons to be hopeful