Jane Goodall: A Retrospective

Science: The Poetry of Reality and Why It Deserves to be Heard

A young Charles Darwin.

            In a previous meeting in our comparative anatomy class, we were asked to watch this BBC film entitled “Creation.” The film showed a huge part of the story behind the conception of Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” and the ideas on evolution it contained, placing a focus on Darwin’s personal struggles in his attempt to revolutionize ideas on the origin and diversity of life. His hesitation and repeated delay of the completion and publication of his work primarily resulted from a recognition that communicating his ideas on evolution was going to be highly controversial, challenging prevailing beliefs at the time about creation based on a literal interpretation of the account of Genesis and the immutable essence or eidos of species (an idea traced back to Plato’s philosophy of Essentialism). True enough, Darwin’s theory and the vast body of evidence he gathered to substantiate it were initially greeted not with celebration or high regard, but with contempt and ridicule, especially from people of religion who felt evolution was incompatible with a Creator.

Natural Selection at work.

Nevertheless, Darwin’s simple, yet elegant theory of evolution and its driving mechanism (natural selection), with its grand explanatory—and predictive—power, has allowed us to understand a great deal about the natural world and the massive scale of life’s diversity on the planet. Unfortunately though, to this day, proponents of creationism (especially in the United States) refuse to acknowledge the fact of evolution, arguing that students be taught the “controversy” about evolution and the “alternatives” to it, when in reality no such controversy exists, evolution having been firmly established as a scientific fact, as true a fact as gravity or heliocentrism. It is critical to recognize that this resistance is mainly rooted on the discomfort people associate with the idea that evolution is incompatible with a Creator (and in fact that is an idea advocated by some, but not all, evolutionary biologists like Richard Dawkins) because its truth makes it no longer necessary for us to postulate the existence of some Divine Being to explain the origin and diversity of life. Anyway, whether or not evolution fails to fit with the idea of a Creator, it is a matter which has little to do with evolution’s actual truth: the discomfort elicited by something doesn’t make it any less true.

Jane doing field work in Gombe, Tanzania.

Meanwhile, an example of a contemporary scientist who also faces similar resistance to her findings and work is a personal hero of mine: Jane Goodall. Her first studies of chimpanzees and their nature in 1960 were initially written off as those of an uneducated girl, untrained in the reductionist thinking that consumed science then. Some of her methods were unconventional for science at the time: this included her practice of naming the chimpanzees she studied rather than assigning them numbers. Similar practices that bravely admitted emotional attachment to the animal subjects under study was, and sometimes still is, not considered very “scientific.” More importantly however, her revolutionary findings on chimpanzee behavior and the insights they led to, provoked considerable controversy. These included the observation of tool use and modification in chimpanzees, which compelled us to redefine what it is to be human. Even more controversial were her observations of violence among her beloved chimps. She describes this as her first experience of the politics of science: some of her colleagues persuaded her not to publish her data, for fear that irresponsible scientists and writers would use it to justify violence in humans. Meanwhile, yet another of her important scientific contributions was evidence that we are not alone, that we are not the only animal beings with sentient minds, feelings and emotions. Many theologians, philosophers and even scientists criticize this. And it’s not surprising. Findings that challenge “human uniqueness” often elicit violent reactions from people who wish to keep man on his glorified pedestal, apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Finally, yet another way in which she faces resistance is in relation to an advocacy of hers I deeply, personally believe is important: that of the conservation of biodiversity. People who work to improve the lives of nonhuman living beings we share the planet with invariably come in for criticism from those who believe that such efforts are misplaced in a world of suffering humanity. People may, for instance, feel angry at the thought of allotting funds for the conservation of a seemingly insignificant bug, without realizing the greater implications of the effort to save it from extinction. This is why conservation is just as much about changing people’s attitudes, as it is about saving genes, species and ecosystems. And even here, she is sometimes criticized for being unrealistically optimistic about the current state of the cause.


Despite all the criticism against her however, it is incontrovertible that Jane's work has been of immeasurable value not just to science, but for us humans and the rest of life on the planet as well. Her ethological research has granted us access to insights on our own behavior and evolutionary history. Moreover, her continuing efforts for the cause of conservation has helped out not just nonhuman animal life, but countless people as well--something her projects such as TACARE (take care) and Roots and Shoots testify to. It is no wonder she has been appointed a U.N. Messenger of Peace in 2002 for her environmental and humanitarian efforts. 

Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE, UN Messenger of Peace

In conclusion, science provides us a unique lens through which we better understand the world around us. This deeper understanding in turn offers us profound insights we would realize only if we embrace them with open minds.

The Duck

The Duck

By Jane Goodall

A duck that flew across the sun

Flew on past me,

Winging his solitary way

Towards the sea.

I saw the brightness of his eye

So close he flew;

His feathers in the sunset gleamed

With lustrous hue.

I heard the music of his wings,

The song of flight

Stirring the stillness of a world

Awaiting night.

I sensed the warm life in his breast

So close to me 

And in my heart the pain of joy

That such could be.

The lovely dunes; the setting sun;

The duck--and I;

One spirit, moving timelessly

Beneath the sky.

This is a poem written by one of the people I admire the most: Jane Goodall. She evidently combines in the poem her love for the natural world, and her reflective interest in spiritual topics. I like this poem because it effectively reflects her then growing awareness of the incontrovertible unity of the diversity of life on the planet (as this was written at a time when her beliefs had been frequently evolving). She tries to capture here the feeling of being one with the rest of life, and reflects on whether our species has the right to dominate the rest of nature only because of our capacity to do so. I believe in the message that there is value in all life.

Lover

A magnetic poem I wrote:

The soul's muffled scream

reverberates in the best of dreams.

Yet each passionate thought of you

embraced by a multitude of hues

nourished by the words

deprived of speech

remains within the shadowy recesses

of a troubled and inhibited heart.

Destitute of the warmth

that rests only in your arms,

I flee this unwieldy reality

and hasten to you 

whom I seek dearly.

Greeted by the glow of incandescent eyes,

with your touch,

every drawn breath intensifies,

and soon follows

a sweet surrender

to the ineffable pleasure

that emancipates

the totality of my being 

beyond measure.

Hope and A Childhood Dream

...[C]onservation is a continual series of challenges-the fight for conservation never ends-and so I exhort you: press on to meet new challenges, for they surely await, and will always be waiting for those who strive to keep the earth fit for life in all its many splendored forms -Tom Cade

I've been reading Jane Goodall's "Hope for Animals and Their World." And I love the book! I just love it, I love Jane! Once more, Jane lives up to her image as one of the most inspirational figures in conservation, having inspired generations of conservation biologists.

I have yet to write a full entry on the book, but one message is clearly evident in each and every one of its lovely pages: a message of HOPE.

I can't wait to write about this book! I especially like the book's two concluding chapters on Jane's reasons for remaining hopeful amidst a grim neighborhood of beauty and destruction, and on her reasons for conserving endangered species. The latter of which I find endearingly close to my heart.

Right now, my plans are to pursue a career in conservation, in spite of the vast challenges--personal and environmental--ahead. I recognize few people understand conservation. And I don't have to look far for such people: my parents and even some of my closest friends are some of them. After all, why conserve species, the natural world when millions of people are starving? Isn't my dream selfish? Is conservation a well-meaning, yet misguided cause? And this is one of the things Jane discusses in the final chapters of the book. Individuals who dedicate their lives to improving those of non-human beings invariably come in for criticism from those who believe that such efforts are misplaced in a world of suffering humanity (though this is not to say that conservation does not benefit humans, for we are, after all, just one of the many forms of life that inhabit the earth). Time and time again, Jane proves to be a colossal inspiration in guiding those of us who do understand on how to face such resistance. I love her!

The Warmth of a Shell and the Ephemeral Verisimilitude of Security

These past few weeks have been such a painfully lengthy struggle. Having to face both fronts of academic burden on one hand and personal issues on the other has drained out all sense of purpose and urgency in…well, virtually everything.

Nothing’s new in terms of academics, really. The workload’s insane as usual… But it’s the final destination I constantly try to keep sight of. I’ve always been the kind of student who has to have some degree of emotional investment in any given subject to do well in it. That means some subjects are trouble for me.

Then there are all these personal issues.

I’ve been thinking a great deal lately. And it really is depressing. There’s a lot I’m confused about. There’s a lot I don’t understand.

Just when I thought I was finally firmly embracing this newfound security, everything just slips away and breaks down right in front of me, filtering down this winding path into inevitable despondency.
What ever prompted me to venture out of the safe and reassuring confines of this shell anyway? Who am I kidding... 

Is reality really this ugly?

Ugh.

I’ve had better days.