On Tuesday 24 May, the European Parliament's intergroup for animal welfare welcomed the famous British primatologist and researcher on animal behaviour Dr Jane Goodall to give a speech about environment, animals and humanity (sounds like a quite big theme to tackle in 2 hours...). She is most known for her studies with chimpanzees in Tanzania but she has also worked extensively on animal welfare issues and conservation.
Her talk was at the same time fascinating, starting with a story of a small girl wanting to go to Africa and thinking she would make a better 'Jane' for Tarzan, emotional, going on about similarities between human beings and chimpanzees, as well as informative, giving examples of the success stories of development aid. When she first went to Tanzania, she didn't have any university degree and her mother actually came with her for the first three months. She was surpised to see chimpanzees to kiss, hug and shake hands just like we do. During the following decades she studied chimpanzees that are so similar to human beings that it seems almost unbearable that we are destroying the living habitat of these animals. Through continous projects she has, however, gained the trust of the local communities that are getting increasingly interested in saving the rainforests.
Of course, I completely fell in love with this wonderful woman and coming back from the lecture (having finally found my way out of the labyrinths of the Parliament) I was dreaming about voluntary work in Africa. After so many years in front of the computer talking about saving the world, this seemed something that I should do before I grow too cynical about any progress in ecological or developmental affairs.
Dr Goodall has an amazing spirituality in her and despite the environmental catastrophes facing us today, she could still give us some hope for the future. Her own project Roots & Shoots with children has already shown how important it is to empower people and how small streams can eventually make up a river. One of the most important points of her speech was exactly this: it is counterproductive to preach about gloomy ecological problems that then only seem as unavoidable. Instead, what is effective, is to make people understand that their actions and choices can make a difference: "Every single one of us makes an impact." I guess I wasn't the only one in the audience thinking that maybe all that recycling, switching off the lights or vegetarianism weren't useless urban eco-hippie acts after all.
She is an inspiring person and a dedicated environmetalist, I found my heroine (and bought two of her books immediately). Let's continue with our eco-conscious behaviour because it does make a difference and we still have hope!
With this line of thinking I should also promote the petition for better animal welfare. 8 hours campaign is trying to lobby an EU directive on setting a maximum lenght of animal transportation to 8 hours. Sign it!
