Earlier this month, Dr. Jane Goodall celebrated her 87th birthday. Born in London in 1934, the famous anthropologist spent much of her life in Tanzania studying chimpanzees. She has also become one of the leading spokespersons advocating care for all the earth.
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| Photo from The Jane Goodall Institute |
Jane Goodall and the Media
Like most of
you, I have heard of Jane Goodall for decades. But maybe unlike many of you, I
was never particularly interested in her or in her work. I guess I thought
there are more important things to do than to spend years and years studying
chimpanzees.
My recent
interest in Goodall, though, was spurred by a perceptive article about her in
the December 30 issue of The Christian Century. After reading that
article, “Why Jane Goodall reminds me of Dorothy Day,” I wanted to learn more about her
and her work.
So, about
six weeks ago, June and I watched Jane, the 2017 documentary, which
followed her life and career from 1960 when she left her home country of
England to live for decades in the Gombe forest of Tanzania.
Jane Goodall: The Hope is the new 2020 National Geographic film about Goodall. We just
subscribed to Disney+, the only place where it seems to be available, in order
to watch it last week at our usual “Friday night at the movies.” It is mostly
about Jane’s work from 1986 to 2019.
Both of
these documentaries helped us understand how Jane Goodall and her work studying
and advocating for chimpanzees is, truly, good for all the earth.
Jane Goodall and Earth Day
As you probably know, April 22 is Earth Day; this
year’s theme is Restore Our Earth. EarthDay.org has helpful
information about various activities, which begin today.
National Geographic is kicking off Earth Day with a free virtual concert special on April 21. (Read more about that here.) Jane Goodall is scheduled to make an appearance at that concert.
Goodall is certainly a worthy spokesperson for
Earth Day. In April 2002, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her a
United Nations Messenger of Peace, honoring her for a remarkable career as an
environmentalist and her “dedication to what is best in mankind.”
She has done so much for the earth over the
last 30 years that a National Geographic photographer who has traveled
extensively with her calls Goodall the “Mother Teresa of the environment.”
And the subtitle of the Christian Century
article about Goodall refers to her as “a secular saint.”
Jane Goodall and Chimpanzees
Eight years ago today (on 4/20/13) I began my
first blog post about Earth Day by citing Psalm 24:1. In the NIV
translation, that familiar verse says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything
in it, the world, and all who live in it.”
We usually think of “all” in this verse as referring
to human beings, but perhaps we should think of all as also including
chimpanzees and other living beings. Jane Goodall certainly did, and does.
And maybe Jane Goodall’s meritorious lifework
is an example of how “Understanding
One Thing is to Understand Everything,” as I wrote about in my February 27 blog
post.
As shown in the 2020 documentary, since 1986
Jane has been working tirelessly to save the environment for her beloved
chimpanzees—and for the people in their shared environment—and, then, to save the
whole earth from environmental destruction.
Indeed, Dr. Jane’s work over the past 60 years
has been good for all the earth. May God help each of us
to follow her example in our own small ways.
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** Here is the link to The Jane Goodall Institute's website, with links to her impressive “Roots and Shoots” organization as well as to her “Good for All News” website.
