janegoodall_official

I was born with good genes. That is really important when you think about health. For the rest of it, I don't really think about my health. I live each day, and I've been really lucky to be extremely healthy.

Well, I first decided I wanted to go to Africa and live with animals and write books about them when I was ten years old. And everybody laughed at me, how could I do that, Africa is so far away. In World War II we had very little money. I was simply a girl. They told me girl students cannot do that. But I had a wonderful mother who had supported my love of animals ever since I was born, and she said to me if you really want to do this, then you're going to have to work very hard and take advantage of opportunity. That's the message I take to young people all around the world today, especially to those in under served communities. The studies of chimpanzees I discovered from the paleontologist Louis Leakey who wanted somebody to go with him and study chimpanzees -- he believed we shared a common ancestor 6 million years ago.

Well, one highlight that really enabled my career to take off was discovering the chimpanzees used twigs and the brush to find termites in the underground nest because that is what went into "National Geographic," which ended up providing funds for me to continue my research. So in a way, that was the pivotal observation that actually enabled everything else.

As we look at what is happening in the world today, it is very, very grim. And because of that, a lot of people feel helpless, feel hopeless, and so they do nothing. And they fall into apathy and despair. So I have reasons for hope. I will share them quickly. One is the energy, commitment, and determination of young people and they are empowered to take action in programs like Roots & Shoots. Secondly, the human brain. We have this extraordinary weapon. We are finally beginning to use it to create clean green energy and find a new way of interacting with the environment and live in harmony with the other creatures. It's very strange, in fact the most intellectual creature to ever walk the planet is destroying it's only home. And I believe there's a disconnect between a clever brain and the human heart and compassion. Only when the head and heart work in harmony can we reach our true human potential. And this, I believe, is to come. From the resilience of nature, we can help to once again support life. Animals are on the very brink of extinction and we have to give them another chance. Next there is social media, which as we all know can spew out a lot of rubbish and misinformation. But, used in the right way, it means that for the first time in human history, we can bring people to together around the world who all care about a particular issue like climate change so that there can be hundreds, thousands, millions, eventually billions of people all raising their voices and demanding change so that we can make a big difference and politicians will have two listen and will have to make change. And finally, the human spirit. People who tackle what seems impossible and never give up. It's so important to realize that every single one of us has that same indomitable spirit. We just have to nurture it and let it grow to make a bigger impact for good.

I'm not sure about the most surprising, but the most shocking was the fact they are capable of war. This was very horrifying and actually made them more like humans than I thought they were before.