ILLUSTRATION BY Mark SummersThis year marks the
60th anniversary of
Goodall’s study of
chimps in the wild.You’re still working in
your eighties. What drives
you now?
In short, what drives me are
my own grandchildren and
youth all around the world.
There is an old saying that
goes, “We don’t inherit the
Earth from our ancestors, we
borrow it from our children.”
But I don’t believe we’re
“borrowing” the planet fromand Education] approach, or
“Take Care.” It was started, in
part, after I flew over Gombe
forest in the early Nineties
and witnessed the sheer de-
struction and re moval of the
majority of the forest that
I had grown to love. It was
then that I realized that we
would never be able to save
the chimpanzees’ habitat if
we were not able to first help
the local communities sur-
rounding the forest.
Are you hopeful we can
reverse the climate crisis?
Obviously, I am far more con-
cerned with our current state
of affairs than I was 60 years
ago, but I am also hopeful
that more and more nations
are taking the threat of cli-
mate change more seri ously
than ever before. I am also
hopeful that the younger gen-
erations realize the threat
facing them. I find inspira-
tion in the youth that I meet
around the globe that feel the
need to take issues into their
own hands. In fact, it seems
to me that the younger gener-
ations are the ones taking cli-
mate change the most seri-
ously out of everyone.
We lost an estimated bil-
lion animals in the Austra-
lian brush fires. How do you
stay optimistic about the
animal kingdom?
You must stay optimistic for
the future, because if we lose
hope and let apathy guide us,
then we are a lost cause al-
ready. Wherever I travel, I try
to spread a sense of hope. We
still have a very limited time
to turn this all around, but
we must convince the entire
globe and, as Dylan Thomas
said so eloquently, not allow
ourselves to go gentle into
that good night. SEAN WOODSfinding any chimps, she
would remind me that I was
learning much more than I
realized: their eating habits,
sleeping patterns, daily forag-
ing paths. One’s work won’t
always feel fulfilling or mean-
ingful, so I believe that find-
ing meaning in the little de-
tails or the small victories is
key to a sustained career.
You had to deal with a lot
of sexism, especially early
in your career. How did you
overcome it and press on?
I believed in my work and
knew that if I could just get a
seat at the table then I would
be able to quiet any detractor
with the data I had collected.
Yes, I had to work 10 times
harder than the average man
just to get the same level of
recognition, but once I had
made a name for myself, I let
the data speak for me. I also
realized early on, once I had
started to gain some notori-
ety, that the future careers of
many women rested on my
shoulders, and that if I could
show them the way and open
those doors for them, then it
would be that much easier
for the next generation of
women scientists to break
into their chosen field in a
substantial way.
What can your research
on chimpanzees tell us
about the climate crisis?
One of the most important
lessons learned from study-
ing the chimpanzees is how
every single living creature
is connected in the great tap-
estry of life. Even the re-
moval of the smallest organ-
ism from an ecosystem can
have disastrous effects. This
is, in part, why I started our
TACARE [Lake Tanganyika
Catchment Reforestationour children — we’re stealing
it from them. And if we don’t
stop our reckless behavior,
then there won’t be a future
for our children to inherit.
If you could share one
fact about your research,
what would it be?
That we humans have been
terribly arrogant. We are part
of and not separated from
the rest of the animal king-
dom — we are not the only
sentient, sapient beings on
the planet.
After more than six
dec ades of research,
what’s your best advice for
sustaining a long career?
Even before I ever stepped
foot in Africa, my mother
would always tell me that if
I truly wanted something,
then I would have to work
hard for it and never give up.
When I was eventually al-
lowed to begin my study in
Gombe [in Tanzania], she
even came with me and en-
couraged me to keep going.
Whenever I came back to
the base camp in the early
months discouraged by notThe primatologist on overcoming
sexism and maintaining hopeJane Goodall
98 | Rolling Stone | April 2020