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Video length: 3 min
VIDEO. Jane Goodall talks about the day she became an activist
“When I came to this conference, I was a scientist. When I came out, I was an activist”. Respected primatologist and environmental advocate Jane Goodall reflects on the day that changed her life forever. – (Raw.)
“When I came to this conference, I was a scientist. When I came out, I was an activist”. Respected primatologist and environmental advocate Jane Goodall reflects on the day that changed her life forever.
In 1986, Jane Goodall brought together those responsible for the six chimpanzee study sites to “to learn more about how chimpanzee behavior might differ in different environments. During these four days, we had a session on conservation, and it was shocking”. She discovers that certain chimpanzees “remained alone for 30 years in cages measuring 1.5 m by 1.5 m in medical research laboratories”. And at the same time, “forests were disappearing and the number of chimpanzees was decreasing”.
“We must change now or it will be too late”
Jane Goodall says she entered this conference in “scientist” and came out in “activist determined to do whatever she could to help chimpanzees”. She then went to different sites in Africa and threw herself headlong into this fight for the protection of chimpanzees, which was the fight of her life. She recalls that if these monkeys are the subject of medical research, it is “because their biology is very similar to ours, we share 98.6% of our DNA.” Concerning the environmental fight, she remains determined at the age of 89. “We must change now or it will be too late. Everyone must act. (…) We still have a window of time but it is closing” alert the activist.
