Versión Completa. Lecciones de vida de un espíritu indomable. Jane Goodall, primatóloga

only you, it wouldn't matter. But it's not just you. There will be hundreds, then thousands, then millions, hopefully even billions of people around the world who understand that the cumulative effect of small decisions can make the world a better place. And some people, CEOs of large companies or senior government officials, whose decisions can affect hundreds of thousands of people with a single signature. Luckily, powerful people in governments and businesses often have children. And children are changing the attitude of their parents around the world. I know this because some parents tell me: “Of course I recycle. I have to do it, my children make me.” “It is clear that I check that the product I am going to buy does not contain palm oil.” This kind of things.

And more and more people are becoming vegetarians because of the impact they have on the planet. So... Little by little, the world begins to change. We have time? I don't know if we have much time, but I live in the hope that we do. It's the reason I travel 300 days a year around the world. I feel like I came into the world with a mission. And, well, it seems like I'm showing it off, but when I give a talk, I know that people change, because they come to tell me. I wish there was another person sitting here to tell you about the impact of Dr.

Jane's talks. But there is me and I have to say it, because it is my reason for being. Why am I hopeful? To start, the young people. You have already heard from a young man here how he helps the cats. He is just one of hundreds of thousands of young people. And it's not that they can change the world, it's that they are changing it. They do projects to help the environment, they do projects to help people, migrants, they go to nursing homes, they volunteer in hospitals to bring joy to children with cancer, for example. Another reason to give hope is our fabulous intellect.

We are beginning to use it to find ways to live in harmony with nature through our technological inventions. The other day I met a young Dutch man who works in a company that has built a machine. They have done it in Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world. It not only affects the environment, but also human health, tremendously, as everywhere. This machine absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converts it into black carbon sludge. What can be done about this? And it occurred to them that diamonds come from compressed carbon. So they created a machine to compress the carbon sludge and are dedicated to making jewelry with it.

These are the things we are capable of. And we can also use our brain to make decisions in our lives. One more reason for hope: the resistance of nature. I once flew over the small Gombe National Park. The year was 1990. When I started studying chimpanzees there, in 1960, Gombe was part of the so-called equatorial forest belt, which extends from East Africa to the West African coast, passing through Central Africa. When I flew over it in 1990, I was shocked to look down and see an isolated patch of forest, surrounded by completely barren hills. There were more people living than the land could support, but they were too poor to buy food anywhere else.

I realized that if we did not help those people to live better, to live without destroying the environment, we could not consider saving the forest and the chimpanzees. This was the beginning of the Jane Goodall Institute's TACARE program to improve life in towns. It was so successful that it now encompasses the 72 chimpanzee villages in Tanzania. And if you fly over it today, you don't see empty hills. Because now the villages collaborate with us and understand that we protect the environment not only for the chimpanzees and other wild animals, but also for the future of people. We cannot continue destroying the environment and not realize that this destroys us too.

I have known many places that we have destroyed where, if given the opportunity, nature can recover. Animals on the verge of extinction may have another chance. And finally, the indomitable human spirit. That's why I brought Mr. Hac. I was given Mr. Hac 28 years ago for my birthday. It was given to me by a man who lost his sight at age 21, when he was in the United States Marines. This man, for some strange reason, decided that he wanted to be a magician. They told him: “You can't be a magician if you don't see.” But, if he were here, they wouldn't realize that he is blind.

He places his things beforehand. He works with children, and he tells them: “There are things that can go wrong in life, you never know. But, if he passes him, he does not give up, there is always a way.” He practices diving, cross-country skiing... In fact, we created a program in Tanzania for young people with disabilities. They do wheelchair racing and crutch racing. This changed the way disabled people were perceived in Tanzania. This man's name is Gary Horne. That's why he's called Mr. Hac. He thought he was giving me a stuffed chimpanzee, and I made him hold its tail.

He told me: “Don't worry, take it wherever you go, and my spirit will always be with you.” And he has accompanied me in 64 countries. The most incredible thing Gary Horne has done, in my opinion, is that he taught himself to paint. And he has never seen Mr. Hac, he has only touched him. He has published a small book, you can find it on Amazon. It's called Blind Artist, by Gary Horne. A portrait of Mr. Hac appears. He would be amazed. So the indomitable human spirit. I believe that you possess one of those indomitable spirits. The thing is, each of us has an indomitable spirit, but some don't realize it.

They don't understand that they have influence, that they matter as individuals, that the world opens up ahead of them. So, well, it is tremendously important to realize that every day of our lives we are influencing in some way. Even if it's smiling at someone who is sad. Or stop to pet a puppy. Or rescue cats, feed them and take care of them. Or water a wilting plant and give it a chance to live. It is very important to know that every day of our lives we contribute, in some way. And I believe that all of us here want to contribute to the world and create a better future for animals and our own species.

Hello Jane, thank you for giving us this special moment and thank you for sharing your passion and commitment to nature. I would like to know how you would like to be remembered. Well, I think I'd like to be remembered for two things. The first, to help science abandon its reductionist thinking in which animals are things, that there is a barrier that separates us from them and that we hold supremacy over the planet. But thanks to chimpanzees and my dog ​​Rusty, science now accepts that we are part of the animal kingdom, that we are not separate. And secondly, I would like to be remembered for creating the “Roots and Shoots” program and for giving hope not only to young people, but to everyone.

I think giving people hope is very important. All my books are full of hope. If there is no hope, we give up. And if we give up, especially if the children give up, then it's the end. When I look back at my life, I realize how lucky I was to have a supportive mother when she was little. And I think that sometimes we underestimate the importance of the first years of life and the urgent need of children to have a family that supports them. She doesn't have to be the biological mother. Some women are simply not prepared to raise children.

But there may be one, two or three people in this child's life who support him and are always there for him, and who encourage him to learn by asking and answering questions, going out and exploring. I believe that current education has a big problem. They take children along very defined paths and spend their entire lives taking exams. They lose the freedom to use their imagination, to follow their passion. You know that it is very important for parents and teachers to nurture individual differences, because they can do one thing very well and another very poorly. I was doing very poorly in some subjects at school, but I was lucky to have my mother.

Although this didn't matter to the teachers, it didn't matter to my mother, and it fostered my love of writing. This has been very good for me. And the most fascinating thing is that when I went to Gombe, I'm going back many years, I realized that there were good mothers and not so good mothers. And good mothers are protective, but not too protective. And, above all, they support their offspring. A lower-ranking female, whose calf is fighting with the calf of a higher-ranking female, if her calf starts calling for her, she will intervene to protect her, even though she knows that the dominant female is surely going to beat her up.

And, if we look back, we realize that, in general, as the years go by, the offspring of mothers who have supported them do better. Females that have been raised by good mothers also become good mothers. And males tend to reach a higher position in the male hierarchy. Therefore, they are more likely to have more offspring. So I think a very important part of education is learning at an early age, exploring and having the freedom to develop your personality and your passion. I think people are realizing, I see it all over the world, that it is a shame that nowadays children spend so much time with their electronic devices instead of talking to each other.

This is killing the ability to tell stories. We hope that parents, teachers and children can work together. I know that in some countries and in some schools they have already realized this and are giving children the freedom to develop their passion. Like my mother, who brought me books about animals because she knew I would learn to read faster if I read something I was passionate about. I am convinced that he was right. In the same way that we must change the attitude towards animals, towards the destruction of the environment, we must change our attitude towards children, and give them the best possible start in life so that they can become a multitude of young people who understand that the future of the world is in their hands and that they have the freedom to make a difference every day in the way that makes them feel best.

This is our hope for the future. Thank you.