Jane Goodall: If We Don’t Make Peace With Nature, Expect More Deadly Pandemics

The famed primatologist spent the quarantine broadcasting to the world about the threat of climate change, zoonotic disease and biodiversity loss.

When most people picture Jane Goodall, a khaki-clad primatologist plopped down in the dirt beside a wild chimpanzee comes to mind. But for much of the last 18 months, the 87-year-old has spent almost every day in the same habitat: on a chair in front of a wall of books and framed photos, staring at a computer camera.  “Every single day,” she says on a recent afternoon with a sigh. “Zooms and interviews, virtual lectures and virtual conferences, and there is no letup, no weekend, no nothing. Just sitting where you see me now, the same background, reaching out to the world.”  The time she spent among apes yielded fascinating discoveries of how our wild cousins live, and her time in captivity has vastly expanded her social media fanbase. It also helped her win the 2021 Templeton Prize, a $1.5 million award for achievements in “harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest questions of the universe and humankind’s place and purpose within it.”