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Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams call for action in “Book of Hope”: NPR
In Mombasa off the coast of Kenya is a place called Haller Park. People gather there to see 180 indigenous species of plants and trees, and a variety of animals including hippopotamuses and giraffes.
Librat Celadon
IN Book of Hope: A Survival Guide to the Time Trial, Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams (Gail Hudson is an additional author), discuss the park as an example of how our damaged Earth can be restored and healed. At one point the park was “a monstrous scar of five hundred acres where almost nothing grew” because a cement company set up a quarry that destroyed the land. The General Manager of the company decided to repair the damage and slowly, year after year, with horticultural care and the introduction of wildlife, the area was transformed.
I begin with this story in honor of Goodall’s strong argument that hope for our ailing planet is galvanized through the story: crucial is crucial, she says, that people especially young people know how positive action can still reverse the frightening trajectories of the crisis climate change, biodiversity loss, and the ongoing global pandemic. “It’s mostly because people are so overwhelmed by the magnitude of our stupidity that they feel powerless,” Goodall says. They need to hear stories of “people who succeed because they will not give up”.
Jane Goodall is one of those people herself. She is the world’s leading chimpanzee expert; UN Messenger of Peace; winner i Templeton Award 2021; activist through Jane Goodall Institute and his numerous projects that help local communities and the environment; and author of numerous books, the first of which, In the Shadow of Man, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
until The Book of Hope marketed as written by Goodall and Abrams, this is a bit misleading. The text is a skillful arrangement of transcribed conversations between the two, with Abrams speaking in the first person and Goodall contributing directly only to the introduction and conclusion. This observation is not a complaint. On the contrary: This format makes perfect sense, and not because at the age of 87 Goodall should take it lightly. She remains committed to an exhausting program of public speaking and interaction with others about our planetary crisis.
Abrams is also the co-author of Book of Joy who brought together the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu in conversation. To talk to Goodall, Abrams first traveled to her home in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and later to a cabin in which she was staying in the Netherlands; the final meeting, scheduled for the Goodall family home in Bournemouth, England, took place over Zoom due to the pandemic. In this third set of conversations, Goodall spoke with Abrams surrounded by familiar and beloved objects that she described to him. I particularly found the movement of objects from around the world given to Goodall, including a bell created from the material of landmines left on the ground after the Mozambican civil war and a piece of limestone from the quarry where Nelson Mandela worked while he was imprisoned on Robben Island, South Africa.
From these conversations emerges an informative map of ideas for ways in which each person can help bring about positive change in the world. This instruction is firmly rooted in an awareness of how bad things have really been taken. Goodall is good to see Goodall citing nationalism, racism and sexism in this context, as well as global inequalities in wealth, though her focus remains on the environment. “Any discussion of hope would be incomplete without acknowledging the terrible damage we have done to the natural world and addressing the real pain and suffering that people are experiencing while witnessing the great losses that are occurring,” Goodall says. “We only have one small window of opportunity, a window that closes all the time.”
The first of Goodall’s four reasons to hope is the amazing human intellect. While an intelligent animal “will not destroy its single home” as our species is doing, we have the intellectual power to come up with new innovations all the time, including “renewable energy, regenerative agriculture and permaculture, moving towards a plant-based diet “”
Next on the list is the sustainability of nature, evidenced by the Haller Park example I have already discussed. Goodall tells the story of animals returned from the brink of extinction, including a species of black robin whose population has so far grown from seven to 250.
The reason for hope number three is the power of young people, from primary school age to college. In 1991, a dozen students from Tanzania approached Goodall with their concerns ranging from live animal markets to hunting in national parks; this interaction led to the founding of the Jane Goodall Institute Roots and Seedlings, a youth organization now active in 68 countries.
Goodall’s last reason to hope is what she calls the relentless human soul, the ability we have individually and collectively to gain a victory from what appears to be an inevitable loss.
In a way, this section goes a little bad. Recalling the partial paralysis of her husband Derek Bryceson’s leg as a result of a World War II injury, Goodall tells of an aunt, a physiotherapist, who noted at the time that he was walking “with great force” will “. Other anecdotes follow individuals with serious impairments or disabilities who live happily with them or overcome them in “inspirational” ways. I have no doubt that each person mentioned was, or is, a brave person. However, not everyone with physical disabilities will be able to overcome them, nor should they be celebrated only if they can; disabled and able-bodied people can show a resilient spirit in a variety of ways.
One of the most welcome aspects of the book is that Abrams plays the role of a skeptic, repeatedly expressing questions that may arise as we read. Regarding the power of youth, for example, he asks what is really different now than before, so different as to give us hope for change? Goodall replies that today, young people are not only more aware of the pressing issues they have inherited from previous generations, they are also more politically motivated to do something about it.
Goodall speaks clearly and efficiently throughout the book. At one point, she conveys her belief that a “spiritual power …. seems to have sent me on this mission.” She adds a welcome comment, that “there are many people who lead ethical lives, working to help others who are neither religious nor spiritual.”
Most of Goodall’s statements make or, I believe, should speak for all of us. “I personally believe that animals have as much right to inhabit this planet as we do,” she says.
And, as troubling as the current pandemic may be, “we must not allow this to distract us from the much greater threat to our future, the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity.”
Most wonderful of all, Goodall calls each of us into action: “Let us use the gift of our lives to make this a better world.”
Barbara J. King is a biological born anthropologist at William & Mary. Her seventh book, Animal Best Friends: Putting Compassion to Work for Captive and Outdoor Animals, was published in March. Find it on Twitter @bjkingape
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