Jane Goodall’s Book of Hope: A Testimony to Optimism in the Face of Environmental Degradation

Michael Neugebauer/the Jane Goodall Institute

By: Joseph McCarty, Intern at The Collider in Asheville, NC - March 2022

Hope can be a tricky thing. It can lead us to greater disappointment, or be the fire within that motivates and pushes us to be better. With a full-blown climate crisis, a newfound major European land war, socioeconomic inequality, and a global pandemic, it is evident that the manure has already hit the fan. Hope is in short supply, especially for our younger generations. But, as 87-year old author and life-long conservation activist Jane Goodall points out in her new book, hope is one of the few resources we have for our difficult future.

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Jane Goodall and co-author Douglass Abrams outlines the powerful resilience of nature and the resilience of the human spirit. Organized with a skillful arrangement of transcribed conversations between Goodall and Abrams, Goodall takes great care to validate and counter Abram’s often skeptical vision of the future. With so many young people grappling with the magnitude of our continual climate crisis, skepticism of hope in the face of a major, imminent global disaster is only natural, Goodall says.

“People are so overwhelmed by the magnitude of our folly that they feel helpless. They need to hear stories of the people who succeed because they won’t give up.” -Jane Goodall, Book of Hope.

Jane expertly points out that she, an 87 year old, is quite aware of the irony of her situation, an elder encouraging younger generations to act. Her generation and her children’s generation are feeling blamed for the environmental degradation and global temperature rise. Our current younger generations will be feeling the effects of climate change such as increased temperatures, more natural disasters, and wild seasonal variations, far more than the older generations will have felt these effects. Older generations’ inaction on climate change has essentially dumped this on our heads. I feel this every day as a young university student studying environmental sciences. It can often be a dreary field of study, considering the threat of climate change is already present. But, hope is out there, ready to be utilized, and it is up to us to right the wrongs of the older generations. It is up to us to find solutions for the progression of climate change. But as of now, where is the path forward? Younger generations must find inspiration and a way out of cynical inaction by listening to stories like Jane Goodall’s.

Goodall wasn’t always as optimistic about the future as she is now. As a young, twenty-six year old, Jane was invited to join a chimpanzee research team in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Little was known about the world of chimpanzees, so Jane took it upon herself to learn the culture and capabilities of chimpanzees. Luck felt like it ran out; the chimps avoided Jane and her research team for nearly two years. When hope felt utterly lost, Jane found an overwhelming connection with a chimp named David Greybeard, who, in turn, helped Jane become accepted by the chimpanzee community in Gombe. Holding onto hope and persistence, Jane eventually made extraordinary observations concerning primates, forcing the scientific community and beyond to reconsider the relationships and similarities between humans and chimpanzees. Goodall held onto hope because she knew that nothing would be accomplished in Gombe without it. Seeing the climate crisis happen in real-time, she became a conservationist and turned her attention towards the public, storytelling of what nature has to offer. Being a harbinger of hope for the last five decades, Jane continues to hold her hope high even in the face of environmental catastrophe.

One reason Jane persists in her pursuit is because she believes and trusts in the resilience of nature. In Book of Hope, Jane points out that “nature is there, waiting to move in and help to heal herself.” Further, she discusses an example of natural resilience at Haller Park in Mombasa, Kenya. For decades, a cement factory contributed to the deforestation of hundreds of acres and the chemical contamination of nearby water sources. By using reforestation and rehabilitation methods and by rewilding the area with local flora and fauna, Haller Park healed and is now one of Africa’s most visited biodiverse parks.

Though nature can heal itself over time, we cannot excuse our inaction in the fight against climate change. According to Goodall, “Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.” Because of the need for action and engagement, Goodall started Roots & Shoots, a global youth program that empowers young people to make compassionate decisions for their community. Projects that the youth take on range from planting pollinator gardens or assisting in eliminating invasive species to developing sustainability technology. Goodall continually puts her faith in the younger generations to create positive action by empowering the youth to tackle the monstrous challenge of climate change one small step at a time. Environmental education and youth empowerment are crucial in the fight against climate change because we are the future.

Goodall does a great job of recognizing that not all people have the same opportunity to contribute to our global society. Mentioning the ongoing racism, sexism, and socioeconomic inequality, Goodall validates those whose inaction on climate stems from fighting their own battles. This is why Goodall highlights the necessity and importance of individual purpose. Whether this purpose stems from religion or spirituality, empathic citizenship, or devotion to family, one must understand their own purpose in order to contribute to global society. Goodall, harnessing a deep, individual spirituality, attests that the realization that an individual can make change in their world can form their purpose.

“When I lay out my reasons for hope, as I have in this book, they get the message and realize that there really could be something better if we get together in time. Once they realize that their life can make a difference, they have acquired a purpose. And . . . having a purpose makes all the difference.” -Jane Goodall, Book of Hope.

Goodall’s main point in Book of Hope is to highlight our need to shift the focus to the concerns of young people. She remarks that it is crucial for young people to see how positive action and optimistic hope can turn things around completely. As a twenty-one year old student, I can attest to the fact that young people need to hold onto optimistic hope. Like many of my peers, I have seen the disastrous environmental journey we’re on with, arguably, a clearer perspective on the danger we’re facing than some people of older generations. We are disheartened because of the lack of legislative action on climate. We are disheartened by the denial of the climate crisis. We will reap the dangers that the older generations have sowed. But, hope does not despair. Hope gives us the courage to act and to create change. The climatic danger is disheartening for my young peers, so we must listen to stories of optimistic hope and positive action like Jane Goodall’s or Greta Thunberg’s or whoever will stand up with us today.