Jane Goodall is getting older, and so are her roles and identities.
Jane Goodall | in 2018 Wikipedia, Muhammad Mahdi Karim
/ Own work
In the past, she walked lonely through the primeval forest as a chimpanzee researcher and animal behaviorist; now, she is a natural resource protector and environmental scholar who travels the world excitedly.
What remains unchanged is a heart that cherishes life and cares for nature.
At the age of 11, Goodall read a book, Tarzan the Ape Living in the Jungle, and became fascinated with chimpanzees and had a dream that he would be able to go to the forest to be with chimpanzees in the future, learn about their lives and behaviors, and write books about them. But when she told others about this dream, everyone made fun of her, thinking that it was not practical and not what a girl should do; moreover, Africa at that time was an out of reach, a dark place full of thorns, full of ferocious beasts.
Among Goodall's relatives and friends, only her mother has always encouraged and supported her in pursuing her dreams. Mother said that if you have your own dream, you should start to work hard to achieve it from now on, and never give up. She learned from her mother that she liked to crawl next to objects that could fly or move, as soon as she was able to act consciously. When she was 1 and a half years old, she picked up a handful of earthworms from her garden and took them to sleep with her on a small bed. When she was a little older, she once quarreled with the elder in order to convince her aunt that the whale was a mammal and not a fish, but the aunt just didn't believe it, and finally she was so discouraged that she cried.
Heeding the call of his heart and seizing various opportunities, Goodall, who had no university degree and no professional training, realized his dream of studying animals from an early age. She has been "rooted" in the African jungle for decades to engage in chimpanzee observation and research, and has made great achievements. She discovered the various interactions and ecological habits between individuals in chimpanzee groups, reversing many misconceptions about chimpanzees; she also found that chimpanzees have many behaviors and intelligence similar to those of humans, and can use tools and make tools, thus subverting the original definition of the difference between animals and humans in the scientific community, becoming a classic example of zoology.
Chimpanzees in the jungle | Pixabay
Since the 1970s, watching chimpanzee habitats continue to be destroyed by humans, Goodall has been confused, angry, and desperate, and asked: "Why do humans have so much destructiveness?" Why so selfish and greedy? Why is it still so evil sometimes? Whenever I think about this, I feel that the appearance of life on Earth is of no significance. If there is no point, isn't it, as a cynical skinhead in New York put it, that humanity is just an 'evolutionary thing'" ”
Through experience and reflection, Goodall realized that each of us is not only responsible for our own lives, but should also respect and love the lives around us, and in particular, should respect and love each other. Together, we should reconnect with the natural world and the spiritual forces around us. In this way we can triumphantly and happily enter the final stage of human evolution– spiritual evolution.
This is the improvement of the realm brought about by the change of concept!
In confusion and anger, Goodall saw hope again, based on four reasons: the human brain; the resilience of nature; the energy and enthusiasm that young people around the world possess or can arouse; and the invincible human spirit.
What matters is action!
Goodall decided to turn his main focus to publicity and education on wildlife conservation. Soon, initiated by her, the Jane Goodall Research Association and its subordinate roots and shoots group were established in more than 100 countries and regions around the world to organize young people to participate in the publicity and education of wildlife conservation. Today, Goodall himself spends almost 300 days a year traveling around the world, calling on people to protect wild animals, protect the earth's environment, and actively promote wildlife and environmental protection in various countries around the world. "A lot of people ask me, do you want to save the planet through this campaign? No, I don't think so. We don't have the ability to change the whole world, but we can try to change a person or a place, and I think that's enough. ”
In His Book, "The Story of Hope to Save Endangered Plants and Animals One by One," Goodall documents his years of experience and what he has seen and heard as he has personally participated in the protection and rescue of endangered animals and plants. On the first page of the book, she wrote a heartfelt confession:
The book commemorates Martha, the world's last passenger pigeon, the last Miss Watton red colobus monkey, and the last white-tipped dolphin. Their lonely and helpless endings inspire us to work harder to prevent other rare animals facing the same fate from repeating the same mistakes. ”
And after the catalog, there was a long "acknowledgment" that she thanked in particular to her fellow scientists who told her stories.
In fact, Goodall, who has a lot of experience and is diligent in thinking, also has many stories and is also very good at telling stories. She often mentions one thing like this:
One morning, she took a taxi to London Heathrow Airport to give a lecture in the United States. The driver, knowing that she studied chimpanzees, criticized people who "wasted" a lot of money on animals, including his sister, who works for an animal protection group. He said that he really "hates" the fact that so many people are suffering and so many children are being treated with so much care and protection for animals.
Goodall listened, realizing that the driver was the kind of person who didn't understand the situation, was angry, but needed to be justified, "Obviously this taxi should be taken by me." So Goodall started with chimpanzees, telling him that chimpanzees can learn sign language, that some chimpanzees like to draw, how they feel emotions, how they care for each other, and even rescue each other; and how dogs and other animals save the lives of their owners. “
I say that we are responsible for animals in captivity because we deprive them of the ability to protect themselves. There are already many people who have expressed concern for human problems, so it is natural for some people to care about animals. ”
However, Goodall's words are like playing the piano to a cow, and the driver still stubbornly believes that caring for animals is a waste of time. When he got out of the car, Goodall tip him two pounds to keep a little for himself, and the rest of the money was given to his sister for animal protection work, though Goodall thought he wouldn't do that.
To Goodall's surprise, when she returned from her lectures, she saw a letter from the taxi driver's sister that said, "My brother gave me your donation." You are so nice. The strangest thing is that my brother has changed. How exactly did you enlighten him? He suddenly became very nice to me and asked me a lot of questions about animals. He was really interested in my job. He sentenced two men. What kind of work did you give him? ”
That's what Goodall's hour of fatigue telling paid off. But not everyone can understand this "Tao." Hope also mentions that many people were surprised, shocked and confused when the Salt Creek Tiger Beetle was included in the U.S. Federal List of Endangered Animals and the U.S. federal government allocated funds to save these special bugs and their habitats. Someone even said, "When millions of people are still displaced and starving, we should be ashamed to spend $500,000 to save a beetle!" ”
Jane Goodall and Lou Perrotti (2009), who contributed to hope, | Wikimedia commons, David Shankbone / CC BY-SA(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
For this "worthless" question, Gudall's "fan", the chief translator of "Hope", and a researcher at the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huang Chengming, is not the first time to break the question, and he gave a good answer: "It is important to have a little understanding, animals and humans live together on the earth, and they have the right to receive such treatment." Every species in the ecosystem is very important, whether it's us humans, or precious giant pandas, or humble bugs. The extinction of a species can have serious follow-up effects. ”
It should be said that people do not only save them.
Carl Sagan, a well-known American astronomer and popular science writer, believes that understanding the world is a pleasure, and people who are not encouraged to think positively are unfortunate.
This collection of book reviews that explores the rationality of classic scientific works, shows the beauty of scientific reading, and has a broad scientific vision, covering nearly 100 famous books in different fields. In the vertical and horizontal intersection, there is not only the restoration and manifestation of the scientific jianghu in the background of time and space, but also the passionate collision of ideas and views and spiritual emotions. Understanding and appreciating science, falling in love with scientific reading, will start from here.
Author: Yin Chuanhong, Deputy Secretary-General of China Science Writers Association, former Editor-in-Chief of Science Popularization Times
Edit: Ju Qiang
Typography: Lei Ying
Source: wikimedia commons
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