Our Woman of the Forest: Jane Goodall Speaks at TED

This video of Dr.Jane Goodall is a few years old but it is extremely important to anyone who has an interest in field biology, animal and habitat conservation, primatology, humanism, or the history of science.

I should actually write the living history of science since Dr. Goodall, who at 79-years-old, is still with us and is as active as ever.

Through her presentations and her foundation, The Jane Goodall Institute, she and others are helping to save wild chimpanzees from extinction as well as save what is left of their habitat from deforestation.

Here is her powerful TED Talk (c. 2002):

I am amazed and pleased by her rather jolly attitude. But the light flutter of her speech pattern should not be discounted as she is a very deep thinker. After a lifetime of living amongst and studying human and non-human primates, she is an activist with a profound message to bring forward.

In this less than half-hour video, she shares her many passions and as a very serious woman who has some very serious stuff to say, explains concisely what it means to be both human and humane. Here is just one poignant section:

"We see deforestation; we see the desert spreading; we see massive hunger; we see disease and we see population growth in areas where there are more people living on a certain piece of land than the land can possibly support, and they're too poor to buy food from elsewhere. Were the people that we heard about yesterday, on the Easter Island, who cut down their last tree -- were they stupid? Didn't they know what was happening? Of course, but if you've seen the crippling poverty in some of these parts of the world it isn't a question of "Let's leave the tree for tomorrow." "How am I going to feed my family today? Maybe I can get just a few dollars from this last tree which will keep us going a little bit longer, and then we'll pray that something will happen to save us from the inevitable end." So, this is a pretty grim picture."

Grim yes. But overall this is a very positive presentation.

Enjoy!

ORIGINAL: Paleolibrarian
January 8, 2014