Dr. Jane Goodall on the 3 Biggest Problems Affecting the Planet

Dr. Jane Goodall knows the moment when she changed from scientist to activist. The year was 1986, and Dr. Goodall had published a book called Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior. The head of the Chicago Academy of Sciences told Dr. Goodall that her book warranted a conference, so they held one.

At the conference, scientists talked about different aspects of chimp behavior in different areas and their various habitats and cultures. There was one session on conservation, however, that opened Dr. Goodall’s eyes. What she learned in the conservation lectures was appalling. Scientists showed slides and movies of the destruction of forest habitats. They had data that showed declining chimpanzee numbers. They discussed another problem, the bushmeat trade, which is the commercial hunting of wild animals for food. Chimp mothers were shot so that their babies could be stolen to sell for entertainment, to circuses and zoos for medical research.

At the same conference, there was also a session about the living conditions of captive chimps. Dr. Goodall learned about the very cruel training of chimps used in entertainment. She watched secretly filmed footage of chimpanzees in medical research laboratories. The bare cages surrounded by bars where the chimps were kept were only five feet by five feet. After seeing these images, Dr. Goodall couldn’t sleep for nights. She didn’t know it yet, but she would leave that conference an activist.

Jane Goodall sees three major environmental problems with the world today—all of them a result of human activities:

1. 1. Extreme poverty. The first problem Dr. Goodall sees with the world’s sustainability is extreme poverty. “If you’re really poor and living in a rural area, you’re going to cut down the last trees because you need to grow food. … If you’re living in an urban area and you’re really poor, you’re going to buy the cheapest food. … You’re not going to be able to say, ‘How was it made? Was it ethically made?’” Dr. Goodall explains. “You’re going to do that because you have to.” In her opinion, people living in extreme poverty don’t have the luxury of making choices based on environmental issues like air pollution, overexploitation (like overfishing), or the effects of climate change or global warming. “That’s one big problem,” she says—a problem we need to face if we want to treat the Earth better.
2. 2. Unsustainable lifestyles. There’s a different problem for people who aren’t living in extreme poverty—a waste-centric lifestyle. “We have way more than we need—we very often have more than we even want,” Dr. Goodall says. “But it’s the thing to do—to store up material goods.” Many people live lifestyles that produce a tremendous amount of waste, from food to packaging to clothes to household objects. These lifestyles contribute to things like greenhouse gas emissions, bad air quality (from air pollutants like smog and extreme carbon emissions), water pollution, global climate change, animal habitat loss, and loss of biodiversity. Jane says she feels very fortunate to have grown up during wartime in England, when food was rationed, and all of her clothing was secondhand. “I think it was one egg a week per person,” she says. “We valued every mouthful we took.”
3. 3. Population growth. “The third [problem],” says Dr. Goodall, “is human population growth.” As more and more children are born, and the population continues to grow, more people contribute to the numbers living in extreme poverty or living unsustainable lifestyles. This overpopulation further compounds the environmental impact of the human race, destroying natural resources, and endangering our planet.

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