I am about to ask a serious question, which is rooted in genuine curiosity, and motivated ONLY by a desire to know the truth.
Context: I have heard that Jane Goodall made certain statements that have led others to believe that she was in favor of human depopulation, which is a goal embraced by some people who have acquired much monetary wealth, and the political influence and power that usually accompanies such wealth. I do not believe that is an admirable goal, and I see a great deal of harm to humanity if such a political goal is pursued.
I am not well-informed about her life—certainly not enough to know whether she actually believed in or supported such a goal. But it does not seem to be consistent with everything else that Ms. Goodall is said to have stood for. And that’s why I’m asking…
The Question: To anyone who knows, what did she actually say (if anything) on the subject of depopulation?
I’m NOT accusing her of anything. I don’t know that she actually said anything at all about it. There are hateful people who despise others who mean no harm to anyone, and they make up lies to discredit them. Ms. Goodall was most likely not perfect, and even the most well-intentioned people can be misled or mistaken. But it’s difficult for me to reconcile all the good things people are saying about her with the allegation that she supported depopulation.
For that reason, I just want to know the truth. Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide real information on this subject.
Jane Goodall did warn of unsustainable human population growth and pointed out that human population growth is damaging the planet's future. In a message to the 2019 Population Matters conference, she said: “I would encourage every single conservation organization, every single government organization to consider the absurdity of unlimited economic development on a planet of finite natural resources." From what I understand, Goodall did not call for any kind of active reduction in the world's population. Some people wrongly accused her of this after taking certain statements of hers out of context.
It all depends on what you mean by depopulation. Certainly no one means to say that we should pick out certain people in our populations and put them out of their misery by killing them. Although in some dictatorial countries that might be a choice, they choose it would be wrong, but you can depopulate the world by encouraging people to have only one child instead of 10 or they have no children that being OK and it might help if we didn’t live in such a large cities, but we have to deal with a wide range of Homo sapiens but all of this ball down to one thing we need governments that take care of people all the people instead of just the rich people. Our earth currently supports about 8 billion people and it can support many billions more because we have enough space and land to do it, but we could only do it if we change the way we think about each other.
It seemed to me she was more pantheistic - “God” as the universe… or “God” is everything and everything is “God”. She never referred to herself as pantheist or panentheist but perhaps she seems to evidence both, depending on how you see it.
I enjoyed these comments about Jane Goodall. In many ways, she was ahead of her time, but she did a great service to humankind by showing us that all living things have some evidence of humanity if not as strong as what we see in Homo sapiens. We are lucky to be currently at the top of the ladder of evolution. I would like to mention two events in my life that make me understand that all things living are connected. One afternoon many years ago I was sending myself on my deck at my lake house and a yellow butterfly was fitting around and bothering me as I was trying to read a book. I’m sure all of you have been there when a flower or a bug a butterfly or a bumblebee or something as buzz you and you swing out trying to hit it and get it to go away or to kill it. Well, this went on for about 15 minutes and finally I decided a new tactic was needed so I put my book down and just stuck out my index finger and held it that quietly inviting mentally for the yellow butterfly to light on my finger which eventually did and I very slowly turned my hand around until the butterfly was facing me sitting on my finger and we were looking at each other and I very softly audibly said one of my SWAT that you is going to hit you sometime soon and you will probably be killed or severely injured. I’m trying to read this book and I want to be left alone so please fly away and leave me alone. Then I move my finger slightly and turned him away from my face gave a little tremble to my finger, which caused him to fly away, and I never saw him again. I’ve remembered that all my life as the day I communicated with a yellow butterfly.
The other event was a bit of elephant ear leaves that I planted just outside of my garage at the home on Jefferson Street where I lived for the first 60 years of my life. It was just outside the entrance to my garage and as the elephant air bulbs were blooming, and the leaves were appearing every morning as I left the garage I would stop reach out to my window and grab the nearest leaf and rub it between my fingers and express my opinion to it loud. Telling it how I felt and that I hope that leaf would have a good day as I plan to have in my life. On returning home in the afternoon before, pulling in the garage as the door was going up, I would reach out and touch that same leaf and tell it that I hope today has been a good as mine and that it sure did look pretty and I appreciated it and hope that it will have a good night sleep as I plan to do as well. That was a practice that went on for the whole summer and during that summer that leaf grew to be twice the size of any other elephant ear in the whole bed and it stayed alive the whole summer and prove to me that I could communicate communicate with a plant.
These two events are very similar to what Jane Goodall found by living with the chimpanzees.
Thank you,Jim. I appreciate all the work you are doing in the world. This helped me take a moment to consider Jane Goodall’s life and legacy.
Beautiful inspiring post! Thank you 🙏
Thank you for this. Jane really embodied her spirituality and Im going to miss her.
How anyone would not see the world this way puzzles me
https://open.substack.com/pub/perihelion/p/i-was-one-of-jane-goodalls-chimps?r=6laiqo&utm_medium=ios
I am about to ask a serious question, which is rooted in genuine curiosity, and motivated ONLY by a desire to know the truth.
Context: I have heard that Jane Goodall made certain statements that have led others to believe that she was in favor of human depopulation, which is a goal embraced by some people who have acquired much monetary wealth, and the political influence and power that usually accompanies such wealth. I do not believe that is an admirable goal, and I see a great deal of harm to humanity if such a political goal is pursued.
I am not well-informed about her life—certainly not enough to know whether she actually believed in or supported such a goal. But it does not seem to be consistent with everything else that Ms. Goodall is said to have stood for. And that’s why I’m asking…
The Question: To anyone who knows, what did she actually say (if anything) on the subject of depopulation?
I’m NOT accusing her of anything. I don’t know that she actually said anything at all about it. There are hateful people who despise others who mean no harm to anyone, and they make up lies to discredit them. Ms. Goodall was most likely not perfect, and even the most well-intentioned people can be misled or mistaken. But it’s difficult for me to reconcile all the good things people are saying about her with the allegation that she supported depopulation.
For that reason, I just want to know the truth. Thanks in advance to anyone who can provide real information on this subject.
Jane Goodall did warn of unsustainable human population growth and pointed out that human population growth is damaging the planet's future. In a message to the 2019 Population Matters conference, she said: “I would encourage every single conservation organization, every single government organization to consider the absurdity of unlimited economic development on a planet of finite natural resources." From what I understand, Goodall did not call for any kind of active reduction in the world's population. Some people wrongly accused her of this after taking certain statements of hers out of context.
It all depends on what you mean by depopulation. Certainly no one means to say that we should pick out certain people in our populations and put them out of their misery by killing them. Although in some dictatorial countries that might be a choice, they choose it would be wrong, but you can depopulate the world by encouraging people to have only one child instead of 10 or they have no children that being OK and it might help if we didn’t live in such a large cities, but we have to deal with a wide range of Homo sapiens but all of this ball down to one thing we need governments that take care of people all the people instead of just the rich people. Our earth currently supports about 8 billion people and it can support many billions more because we have enough space and land to do it, but we could only do it if we change the way we think about each other.
I believe you mean “panenthesism”—God expressed and dwelling in all creation—rather than “panthesism”.
It seemed to me she was more pantheistic - “God” as the universe… or “God” is everything and everything is “God”. She never referred to herself as pantheist or panentheist but perhaps she seems to evidence both, depending on how you see it.
I enjoyed these comments about Jane Goodall. In many ways, she was ahead of her time, but she did a great service to humankind by showing us that all living things have some evidence of humanity if not as strong as what we see in Homo sapiens. We are lucky to be currently at the top of the ladder of evolution. I would like to mention two events in my life that make me understand that all things living are connected. One afternoon many years ago I was sending myself on my deck at my lake house and a yellow butterfly was fitting around and bothering me as I was trying to read a book. I’m sure all of you have been there when a flower or a bug a butterfly or a bumblebee or something as buzz you and you swing out trying to hit it and get it to go away or to kill it. Well, this went on for about 15 minutes and finally I decided a new tactic was needed so I put my book down and just stuck out my index finger and held it that quietly inviting mentally for the yellow butterfly to light on my finger which eventually did and I very slowly turned my hand around until the butterfly was facing me sitting on my finger and we were looking at each other and I very softly audibly said one of my SWAT that you is going to hit you sometime soon and you will probably be killed or severely injured. I’m trying to read this book and I want to be left alone so please fly away and leave me alone. Then I move my finger slightly and turned him away from my face gave a little tremble to my finger, which caused him to fly away, and I never saw him again. I’ve remembered that all my life as the day I communicated with a yellow butterfly.
The other event was a bit of elephant ear leaves that I planted just outside of my garage at the home on Jefferson Street where I lived for the first 60 years of my life. It was just outside the entrance to my garage and as the elephant air bulbs were blooming, and the leaves were appearing every morning as I left the garage I would stop reach out to my window and grab the nearest leaf and rub it between my fingers and express my opinion to it loud. Telling it how I felt and that I hope that leaf would have a good day as I plan to have in my life. On returning home in the afternoon before, pulling in the garage as the door was going up, I would reach out and touch that same leaf and tell it that I hope today has been a good as mine and that it sure did look pretty and I appreciated it and hope that it will have a good night sleep as I plan to do as well. That was a practice that went on for the whole summer and during that summer that leaf grew to be twice the size of any other elephant ear in the whole bed and it stayed alive the whole summer and prove to me that I could communicate communicate with a plant.
These two events are very similar to what Jane Goodall found by living with the chimpanzees.