![]() "I've seen her give quite a few talks and sometimes sat next to her when she signs books," says Anne Pusey, a professor and chair of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University and director of the Jane Goodall Institute Research Center there. Goodall's celebrity hasn't slowed down after decades in the spotlight. It may sound like Hallmark prose from the worst-offending card, but attend any of Goodall's lectures and you'll be reaching for the pitcher of Kool-Aid. Whenever she speaks to crowds, Goodall is enchanting, hypnotic in her storytelling when she says that every single person sitting out there can make a difference every day-that they can "take a place we've destroyed, give it time, perhaps some help, and once more it will become beautiful"-she is not only convincing but makes the work seem doable. ![]() Fans track her lecture schedule as if they're waiting for Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela to return to life and to a stage near them, and they show up at events lugging backpacks filled with books for her to autograph. Most of all, she wants to inspire younger generations to care-about the planet, each other and their future-and then to act. Goodall travels 300 days a year, drawing thousands to lectures about her life's work and her myriad causes: conservation, saving endangered species, opposing genetically modified foods and fighting illegal hunting trades. Her National Geographic heyday is long over, and young people, from millennials down to kids in diapers, have a glut of fresher, albeit less admirable, celebrities to crush on. They have come to see Jane Goodall, the primatologist-turned-activist whose revolutionary discoveries about chimpanzees forever changed our understanding of our closest genetic relatives.ĭespite the many children in the crowd, not to mention the 150,000 young people across 138 countries involved in Goodall's youth-led activism program, Roots & Shoots, there are still others who have never heard of "Dr. Some have come from across town, but many traveled far greater distances. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where Bucknell is located, is two to three hours from pretty much anywhere, with no major airports nearby, and yet by 6:45 p.m., when the doors open to enthusiastic yelps, more than 1,200 people will race into the building, jockeying for seats. Young parents and baby boomers chat in small groups, some reclining in beach chairs and snacking on picnic dinners as their children and grandchildren play on their smartphones, zoning out. College students sit on the ground, their heads lowered into textbooks. ![]() A line already snakes around the Weis Center for the Performing Arts, and for a moment I think Katy Perry must be in town. I arrive at Bucknell University around 5 p.m. Environmentalism Science Animals Jane Goodall ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |