The planet’s climate is changing so fast that humanity is running out of chance to fix it, warned primatologist Jane Goodall .
With decades of environmental activism behind her, Goodall said time is running out to stop the worst effects of human-caused global warming.
” Look at what is happening in the world with climate change. It is terrifying . We are part of the natural world and we depend on healthy ecosystems,” he reflected.
Goodall, 88, is best known for her six decades of pioneering work in Tanzania where she studied chimpanzees and found “human-like” behaviors among them, a propensity for warfare and the ability to display emotion.
The British is a prolific writer and has been the subject of several films. She was also immortalized as a Barbie doll and a Lego figure.
Goodall said her environmental awakening occurred in the 1980s while working in Mongolia, where she noticed hillsides had lost forest cover.
“The reason people are cutting down trees is to create more land, to grow food while their family grew, and also to make money from products like charcoal and wood,” he said.
“If we don’t help these people find ways to support themselves without destroying their environment, we won’t be able to save the chimpanzees, the forests or the rest.”
Goodall says she has seen some changes for the better in recent decades, but urged quicker action.
“We know what we should be doing. We have the tools. But we find ourselves with this short-term versus long-term logic of protecting the environment for the future,” he said.
“I don’t claim to be able to solve the problems that this creates because there are big problems,” Goodall said. “But if we look at the alternative, which is to continue destroying the environment, we are doomed.”
The doctor spoke within the framework of the ceremony in which she received the Templeton Prize in Los Angeles.
This award, endowed with 1.3 million dollars, is awarded annually to people who take advantage of scientific knowledge to explore the questions that confront humanity.
The money was given to the Jane Goodall Institute, an organization dedicated to global wildlife and environmental conservation with youth programs in 66 countries.
“The main message of the program is that each one of us makes an impact on the planet every day, and we decide what kind of impact we will make,” Goodall said.
“It’s my biggest reason to hope,” he said.
