Jane Goodall felt a strong bond to the animal world and Africa long before she traveled there as a young woman. Working hard as a secretary in England, Jane saved enough money to fund her first trip to Kenya. There she met the husband-and-wife team of Mary and Louis Leaky who were studying apes in the wild. In 1960, the Leaky’s gave Jane the opportunity of a lifetime: to go into the Gombe National Park, a remote jungle in Tanzania for a long term project to study chimpanzees. She was perfect for the job because she had no training as a scientist and would not make assumptions about the animals she would observe. Jane’s years spent in the jungle led to many ground breaking discoveries about chimps, and our relationship to nature. She was the first to observe chimpanzees using branches to dig termites out of their nest. This shattered the basic assumption that only humans made tools and used them for specific purposes, which was thought to be the great divide between us and animal world. She also discovered that chimps make plans that showed that they were aware of their actions and consequences. Like humans, chimps go to war, can experience awe, use certain plants for medicine, adopt orphaned infants, and are not vegetarian. She even discovered that chimpanzees use different sounds to speak a certain type of language. Before Jane’s discoveries, scientists did not believe animals had emotions or personalities. Jane’s research showed how closely related we are to the other animals on Earth and to the planet we share.
From the very beginning of her work in Africa, Jane realized that chimpanzees and other species were in danger. When she began her work in Tanzania in 1960, there were an estimated 2 million chimpanzees across Africa. By 2005, that number plummeted to 125,000, making them an endangered species. Very early in her work, Jane began campaign of speeches and writings to raise awareness of the threat we humans are to the animals of our planet. She has traveled all over the world raising awareness for the plight of the chimpanzees and has written more than thirty books. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute, which emphasizes the power of individuals to make a difference for all living things, and the Chimpanzee Guardian Project in Tanzania, which protects chimpanzees and their habitats. In 1991, Jane founded a grassroots organization for youth called Roots and Shoots that has grown to more than eight thousand groups in one hundred countries. The organization was founded on the belief that knowledge leads to compassion and that compassion leads to action. Jane also believes that people acting together are stronger than individuals working alone. Click here to learn more about Roots and Shoots and to see if their is a group in your community.
Know somebody who deserves recognition for their efforts to take green to the mainstream? The Daily Green’s Heart of Green Awards honors celebrities and stalwarts of the environmental movement. Like in years past, they are looking to the public for nominations for a Local Hero. Nominating your friend, teacher or child is a great way to show your appreciation for all of their efforts in making their communities green. Best of luck!
When Aitan Grossman, a 7th grader from California, first read the kid’s version of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, he felt compelled to do his part to help solve global warming. His love of music inspired him to compose the song “100 Generations” with the hope that it would be sung by children all over the world. And so far children in Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America have joined in the chorus.
Aitan’s goal of promoting his song is twofold. First, to spread the word about global warming. “I hope the message of the song makes people pay attention and will speak for itself.” Says Aitan. And secondly, to generate money from sales on iTunes to donate to his favorite environmental organizations the World Wildlife Fund and the Alliance for Climate protection.
You can download the song, ”100 Generations”, on iTunes, then visit Aitan’s website, www.kidearth.us, to get the lyrics, as well as choruses in 4 different languages!
“If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life.” -Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson, (1907-1964) was a writer, a scientist, an ecologist and a brave advocate for the environment. As a young girl, Rachel’s mother nurtured her daughter’s love of nature. She studied the sea, plants and wildlife, and taught others about the living world around them through her books and articles. As a young woman, she became the Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where she wrote pamphlets on natural resources and conservation. Carson strongly believed that people are integrally linked with nature, and must learn to care for it, rather than overpower it. One article she wrote, “Help Your Child to Wonder,” (1956) aimed to teach people about the wonder and beauty of the living world.
In 1962, Carson published the book SILENT SPRING, and with it the environmental movement was born. The book was written to raise awareness of the great harm that synthetic chemical pesticides had on the environment. It took great courage for Carson to speak out against the agriculture and chemical industries. But she firmly believed that we as human beings are just as vulnerable to the toxic pesticides we spray on our fields, homes and trees as the insects themselves are. In defending her book, Rachel Carson stated: “We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven’t become mature enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe. Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature.”
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” –John Muir
John Muir (1838-1914), known as “the father of our national parks”, was America’s most famed naturalist and conservationist. As an explorer, he embarked on exciting wilderness adventures from Indiana all the way to Florida, among Alaska’s glaciers and throughout California’s Sierra Nevada. During his journeys he kept nature journals in which he wrote about the beauty he saw in nature. He drew detailed sketches of plants, animals, mountains and landscapes. He used these journals to compose letters, essays, articles and books that taught people, then and now, the importance of experiencing and protecting nature. His writing and activism inspired President Theodore Roosevelt’s bold conservation programs and lead to the creation of Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon National Parks. In 1892, John Muir formed the Sierra Club and was the club’s very first president. The Sierra Club continues John Muir’s work today, teaching people about conserving our natural heritage and establishing new National Parks and a National Wilderness Preservation System.
The Little Green Books team joined forces with Eco-Libris this fall to sponsor a sweepstakes in which children across the country shared ways they were helping to save the earth. Here are the winning entries—congrats to all! But, just because the sweepstakes is over, doesn’t mean your family can’t talk about ways you are working to save the earth, too…
