“We are literally approaching a “path of no return”, said the British woman in an interview with AFP.
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“Look at what is happening in the world with climate change. It's terrifying. We are part of nature and depend on healthy ecosystems,” she added.
The activist is a writer and has been portrayed in several films. She was also immortalized with a Barbie doll and a Lego character.
Goodall said his environmental awakening came in the 1980s while working in Mongolia, where he noticed that hillsides had lost their forest cover.
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“The reasons people are cutting down trees is to free up more land, to grow food as their families grow and also to profit from products like coal and wood,” he said.
“If we don’t help these people sustain themselves without destroying the environment, we won’t be able to save the chimpanzees, the forests and everything else.”
Goodall acknowledges improvements in recent decades, but called for faster action.
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“We know what we should be doing. We have the tools, but we come up against this logic of profit to curto term to the detriment of protecting the environment for the future”, he said.
“I don’t pretend to be able to solve the problems arising from this because there are so many,” Goodall commented. “But if we look at the alternative, which is to continue destroying the environment, we are doomed.”
The researcher spoke on the sidelines of the ceremony that awarded her the Templeton Prize, in Los Angeles.
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This recognition, worth $1,3 million, is given annually to people who use scientific knowledge to explore the uncertainties confronting humanity.
The money went to the Jane Goodall Institute, an organization dedicated to global wildlife and environmental conservation with youth programs in 66 countries.
“The main message of the program is that each of us makes an impact on the planet every day, and we decide what that impact will be,” said Goodall.
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“That’s my biggest hope.”
(with AFP)
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