We are part of the natural world, and we need to understand our place in it and learn to live in harmony with nature.
Jane Goodall
Part of the Natural World
Theme: Natural World
We are part of the natural world, and we need to understand our place in it and learn to live in harmony with nature. Science can help us to do this, but it is also important to have a spiritual connection to the natural world. When we feel love and respect for nature, we are less likely to harm it.
Jane Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, in London, England. As a young girl, she was fascinated by animals and nature, which led her to dream of traveling to Africa to observe them in their natural habitats. With limited financial resources but an unwavering determination, she eventually saved enough to make her first journey to Kenya in 1957. There, she met famed anthropologist Louis Leakey, who recognized her potential and offered her the opportunity to study chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Though she lacked a formal scientific education at the time, her keen observational skills and genuine respect for the natural world laid the groundwork for a revolutionary understanding of animal behavior.
Goodall's work in Gombe radically changed the scientific community's understanding of chimpanzees and, by extension, human beings. Over the years, she discovered that chimpanzees used tools, had complex social structures, and exhibited behaviors previously thought to be uniquely human, such as empathy and even warfare. Her findings were initially met with skepticism, but as the evidence grew, so did her reputation. Goodall earned her Ph.D. in ethology from Cambridge University in 1965, becoming one of the few people to earn a doctorate without first obtaining a bachelor's degree.
Over the ensuing decades, Jane Goodall has become a global advocate for conservation and animal welfare, founding the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977. The organization focuses on conservation, education, and research and has initiated various community-centered conservation programs across Africa. She has authored numerous books, delivered lectures worldwide, and received many awards and honors for her work, including being named a UN Messenger of Peace. Through her ongoing efforts, she seeks to inspire a new generation of individuals to treat the natural world with the same profound respect and deep sense of interconnectedness that has guided her own remarkable life.
Goodall, Jane. "The Importance of Loving and Understanding the Natural World." Templeton Prize Foundation, 31 May 2021. Web. 16 Sept. 2023.
Jane Goodall
Theme: Natural World
About Jane Goodall’s quote [Commentary]
Jane Goodall’s words touch on the essential idea that love isn’t merely an emotion we reserve for other humans but a vital, almost sacramental stance towards the natural world. This love fosters not only appreciation but also protection. When we connect deeply with the environment, seeing it not as a resource to exploit but as a living network of which we are a part, our behavior naturally shifts. Instead of being consumers, we become guardians. The spiritual linkage with nature complements the empirical understanding offered by science, acting as two lenses that allow us to see the full spectrum of our responsibility and relationship with the Earth.
However, love requires more than passive admiration; it demands action. The sciences give us the tools to understand the “how” of things—how ecosystems function, how climate change advances—but love gives us the “why.” Love motivates us to use scientific knowledge not just for advancement, but for healing. When you care for something deeply, your first instinct is to protect it. Therefore, our affection for nature becomes a moral compass, guiding us away from harm and towards symbiotic coexistence.
Finally, love itself becomes a sort of renewable resource. When we care for nature, it rewards us with beauty, sustenance, and the raw materials that sustain our civilization. The more we invest emotionally and spiritually in the world around us, the more we find that the world gives back. This is the alchemy of love: it transmutes the ordinary into the sacred. Nature is no longer just scenery or setting; it becomes a partner, a teacher, and a sanctuary. This mutual relationship is the truest form of harmony, where love not only changes us but also transforms the world around us.
Jane Goodall, It will take hope, inspiration and action to save the earth [Excerpt]
“The good news is that there are groups of people tackling every single one of the problems we face today. Every single one.
The sad thing is that so often, people work in silos. They are concentrating only on solving their problem. For instance, imagine that we are a group fighting the closure of a coal mine because of all the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. We’ve closed it but haven’t been thinking holistically; we haven’t been thinking of all the people who will lose jobs and how we are plunging them into deep poverty. But if we start thinking holistically from the beginning, we can find ways of helping all these people who lose their jobs to make a living so that we get a win-win-win situation.
We need to collaborate and take action now.”
—Goodall, Jane. [https://www.dailygood.org/story/3210/it-will-take-hope-inspiration-and-action-to-save-the-earth-jane-goodall/]. See article link in Resources.
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