She’s been a tower of strength stretching back decades.  Now in her 87th year, Jane Goodall is not giving up hope that we can come to our senses and give nature the opportunity she needs to regenerative and bounce back – if not to her former glory then at lease some semblance of it.

How does she keep focused and stay positive in spite of all the issues that the human species has wrought on nature?

In this story: How a tree, a dog and a chimpanzee taught Jane Goodall to hold on to hope, Karen Tong and Meredith Lake for Soul Search (ABC Radio National, 11 October 2021),  write  … ‘Throughout her life, acclaimed ethologist Jane Goodall has witnessed an array of environmental destruction, from deforestation to the loss of biodiversity to the catastrophic effects of climate change. But despite this, Dr Goodall still has hope. Lots of it.

“I saw places that we had utterly destroyed, covered with concrete, but give nature a chance and she’ll reclaim it,” she tells RN’s Soul Search.

Jane Goodall firmly believes animals have “personality, mind and emotions.”   This outlook has not come easily, and Dr Goodall credits it to a collection of  five important “teachers” …

1 .. A Beech tree
2 .. Rusty the dog
3 .. David Greybeard, the chimpanzee
4 .. The waterfall dance
5 .. The cathedral

One of the things she frequently draws on is her grandmother’s favourite verse from the Bible, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”

“That to me is a very important text. Whatever problem comes along, today I can solve it.”

And even the COVID-19 pandemic won’t break her resolve.

“I truly think that more people, as a result of this pandemic, understand we must develop a new relationship with the natural world,” she says.

“We have to stop this crazy notion that there can be unlimited economic development on a planet with finite natural resources.

“I think people are desperate for hope, especially now.”

Hear the full interview with Jane Goodall on ABC Radio National’s Soul Search.