Woman, Warrior, Legend!

From saving chimpanzees to saving the planet, whether it’s on global panels, through youth-action groups or via a home-grown podcast, Dr Jane Goodall is a relentless and tireless champion for a conscious and better future. She shares her life’s work and learnings and tells us why there’s cause for hope. In this unprecedented and cynical age, she might be the icon we need, finds Shahnaz Siganporia

- Shahnaz Siganporia

Dr Jane Goodall points to a window that I can almost spy in the corner of her Zoom rectangle. “We have a big garden out there. The tree I used to climb as a child, to be closer to the birds, is still there.” Back then, the mighty beech in the back garden of her home, in Bournemouth, England, was her playmate, in whose branches she read and whispered her schoolgirl secrets. Their relationship has evolved over the years and decades. The usually globetrotting, planet-saving 87-year-old has spent most of the last year and few months (ever since the pandemic) at her family home. And every day since, she has enjoyed a quiet lunch under the shade of her old friend. “I have my sandwich and I’m joined by a robin and a blackbird. They come and sing to me,” she says with a smile. But Dr Goodall, the world’s favourite humanitarian, conservationist and primatologist hasn’t only been enjoying the pastoral calm of her childhood home. “First, I was frustrated. Then I thought, let’s do some good. Together with a little team from the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in the USA and the UK, we created Virtual Jane. I thought it was ‘busy’ travelling 300 days a year...but that was a piece of cake. Virtual Jane has been busier than I have ever been—I haven’t had a single day off!” She remotely oversees all the good work being done by the 25 chapters (including the recently launched India chapter) of JGI across the world. Dr Goodall has completed season one of her first podcast, the Hope cast, which received the 2021 Templeton Prize, and has used every digital tool available to continue her environmental advocacy and fight the climate crisis.

AGE OF ACTION