![]() One way forward is urban tree planting, because when you plant trees you bring Nature into cities. JG: We have to revise and redesign our cities. How can people connect with Nature when they are so urbanised? People living in cities have little connection with Nature, and whatever Nature they have is all human-made. SK: But we live in the age of the Anthropocene, in a human-made world. That is what I call our spiritual connection with Nature. Being out in Nature gives you this amazing feeling of being one with the universe. So, if we human beings have souls, then all those other beings also have souls. I thought to myself, well, this is the great spiritual power of Nature that I feel all around me, I think there’s a spark of that spiritual power in each one of us, and because we’re human we like to name everything, so we call it a soul or a spirit, and I thought to myself, a little spark of that spiritual power is in every single plant and every single insect and every single animal. There were no chimps around, but there were birds and insects and beautiful foliage. I remember being out in the forest one day. JG: When I am out in Nature, particularly in the rainforest, and when I am on my own in Nature, I feel that I am an integral part of it. Could you expand on this idea of spiritual connection with Nature? But what do you mean when you say a spiritual connection with Nature? Generally, we talk about looking after the planet, looking after people, improving environmental conservation and social harmony. SK: We need to learn from Nature, learn in Nature and learn about Nature. Schools need to tell young people about climate change and about all the things that humankind is doing that are harmful to Nature. ![]() Young people as well as people at large need to establish a spiritual connection with the natural world. Young people are changing the world, they’re changing their parents and they’re changing their grandparents! In our Roots & Shoots programme, they choose projects that they feel deeply about, to help people, to help animals, to help the environment, because it’s all interrelated. One of my greatest reasons for hope is the young people, because once they understand the problems, they take action – they just go with it. Supposing we all followed that rule, wouldn’t it be a fabulous world? That gives me hope! If the whole world would respect the rights of Nature, what a different world it would be! Every major culture has the same golden rule: do to others as you would have them do to you. The court told the government that they had to remove all of their mining concessions from places that were protected. Recently, an absolute landmark decision was made in Ecuador, where the Constitutional Court, the highest court of law, upheld the rights of Nature. If we lose hope, why bother? Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die! When you have hope, you take action, and you see that you are making a difference and that makes you feel good, and if you feel good, you want to feel better, so you want to do more, and then other people get inspired, so it’s a, sort of, outward spiral gathering in more people as it goes.Īlthough we’re surrounded by doom and gloom, there are also so many amazing things happening. If we lose hope, that’s the big disaster. We have to roll up our sleeves and crawl under and climb over all the obstacles between us and that star of light. Well, we don’t just sit at our end of the tunnel and hope that light will come to us. I see us now as in a very dark tunnel, and at the end of this dark tunnel is a little star of light, and that’s hope. Jane Goodall: Well, first of all, let me explain what I mean by hope. You still maintain this deep hope in your heart. How do you maintain hope? We are surrounded by all these big problems like the pandemic, climate change and poverty. Satish Kumar: You have written this wonderful book, The Book of Hope. ![]() This article first appeared in the Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. She is a UN Messenger of Peace and a protector of wild chimpanzees. The Omega Institute in New York State gave me the opportunity to have this conversation with Jane Goodall, who is an outstanding champion of ecological sustainability and social harmony.
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