Jane Goodall, the legendary researcher, is known for her ability to communicate with chimpanzees. She develops an emotional and verbal closeness which allows her to gain their trust and acceptance. She then uses that closeness to observe their most intimate actions and compares their behavior to that of her own species to determine similarities.

Goodall, is most concerned about the future of our planet and humanity's part in its destruction. She doesn't pull punches: “How is it possible that the most intellectual creature that has ever walked on planet earth is destroying its only home?”

Donny Moss, writing at Alternet reported on Jane Goodall's NYC lecture:



Goodall, who is 81, spends 300 days year traveling the world in an effort to save it. The biggest problem, she says, is climate change. And the biggest culprit? Animal agriculture. In a lecture to hundreds of fans in NYC on April 15th, Dr. Goodall explained that agribusinesses are clearing rainforests in the Amazon to graze cattle and grow crops to feed them. Without rainforests – the “lungs of the earth” – the planet’s ability to convert carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, into oxygen is compromised. Even more harmful than CO2, Goodall said, is the methane gas emitted in cow farts. As developing countries adopt Western diets heavy in animal protein, more methane and CO2 are released into the atmosphere, further warming the planet and jeopardizing our ability to inhabit it. During her talk, Dr. Goodall described some of the other destructive effects of animal agriculture, including land and water pollution, antibiotic resistance, depletion of fresh water resources and animal cruelty[...]

Go vegetarian.

Consume less. The more we buy, she argues, the more natural resources we extract from the planet. How much stuff do we really need?

Improve the environment in our own communities. Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program, which has chapters in 130 countries, is helping people plant trees, clean rivers and perform other community services in their own backyards.

Jane Goodall has this simple advice that each of us can follow to avert the worst effects of climate change: