People must do their best to protect the environment, English primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall said in an interview.
“Every individual matters, and if every individual makes ethical choices every day in what they buy, eat ... it will make a huge difference,” said Goodall, who last year won the Tang Prize in sustainable development.
Speaking ahead of a virtual award ceremony for the prize scheduled for Saturday next week, Goodall said people must make changes to reverse the harm they have done to nature.
Photo courtesy of Roots & Shoots via CNA.
She said the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by human interference with animals and their habitats.
“That gives a virus like this COVID-19 an opportunity to jump from an animal to a person,” the 87-year-old scientist said, adding that people have to recognize that animals feel fear, terror and pain.
“They are individuals,” said Goodall, who is also an advocate for the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
Faced with climate change and declining biodiversity, people must reconsider the unrealistic notion that they can have unlimited economic development in a world with finite natural resources, she said.
This failure to respect nature has also put the most vulnerable people at risk, because many of them rely on the environment for their livelihood, she said.
Goodall said people should follow the universal rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” with the provision that “others” here includes animals and the environment.
The Tang Prize Foundation recognized Goodall for her “ground-breaking discovery in primatology that redefines human-animal relationships, and for her lifelong, unparalleled dedication to the conservation of Earth’s environment,” its award citation said.
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