The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

by Jane Goodall

An Invitation to Hope

“Jane is almost ninety years old,” you may be thinking. “If she is aware of what is going on in the world, how can she still be writing about hope? She is probably giving in to wishful thinking. She is not facing up to the facts.”

But while it is true that we have not just compromised but stolen their future as we have relentlessly plundered the finite resources of our planet with no concern for future generations, I do not believe it is too late to do something to put things right.

Talking about young peoople

I believe we still have a window of time during which we can start healing the harm we have inflicted on the planet—but that window is closing.

Hope is contagious. Your actions will inspire others. It is my sincere desire that this book will help you find solace in a time of anguish, direction in a time of uncertainty, courage in a time of fear. We invite you to join us on this journey toward hope.

I What Is Hope?

“Hope,” Jane said, “is what enables us to keep going in the face of adversity. It is what we desire to happen, but we must be prepared to work hard to make it so.”

We certainly hope that it is not too late to turn things around—but we know that this change will not happen unless we take action.” “So by being active, you become more hopeful?” “Well, you have it both ways. You won’t be active unless you hope that your action is going to do some good. So you need hope to get you going, but then by taking action, you generate more hope. It’s a circular thing.”

Jane wasn’t an established scientist. She did not even have an undergraduate degree. Leakey wanted someone whose thinking was not already compromised by too much academic prejudice or preconceived beliefs. Jane’s breakthrough discoveries, especially about animal emotions and personalities, might never have been possible if she had been trained to deny that animals could have these, as was common in universities at the time.

“We don’t really know how it will all turn out, do we? And we can’t just think that we can do nothing and everything will work out for the best.”

I recalled to Jane, “Archbishop Tutu once told me that optimism can quickly turn to pessimism when the circumstances change. Hope, he explained, is a much deeper source of strength, practically unshakable. When a journalist once asked Tutu why he was optimistic, he said he was not optimistic, he was a ‘prisoner of hope,’ quoting the biblical prophet Zechariah. He said hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

our actions create the light.”

“It is important to take action and realize that we can make a difference, and this will encourage others to take action, and then we realize we are not alone and our cumulative actions truly make an even greater difference. That is how we spread the light. And this, of course, makes us all ever more hopeful.”

Hope science has identified four components that are essential for any lasting sense of hope in our lives—and perhaps in our world. We need to have realistic goals to pursue as well as realistic pathways to achieve them. In addition, we need the confidence that we can achieve these goals, and the support to help us overcome adversity along the way. Some researchers call these four components the “hope cycle” because the more of each we have, the more they encourage each other and inspire hope in our life.

So many older people I knew spent a great deal of time focused on their aches and pains, but those who seemed healthiest and happiest were those who focused on something beyond their own troubles.

The global situation today certainly could seem hopeless, and yet Jane was feeling hope even when “logic” might tell us that there was no reason for it. Maybe hope is not an expression of the facts alone. Hope is how we create new facts.

I knew that Jane’s hopefulness in spite of grim global realities was focused around four main reasons for hope: the amazing human intellect, the resilience of nature, the power of youth, and the indomitable human spirit.

II Jane’s Four Reasons for Hope

REASON 1: THE AMAZING HUMAN INTELLECT

“I guess the depth of our grief is a reminder of the depth of our love.”

“We need a new universal moral code.” Jane suddenly laughed. “I’ve just thought—every single major religion gives lip service to the Golden Rule—Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So it’s easy—there’s our universal moral code. We just have to find a way to persuade people to honor it!” And then she sighed. “It does seem impossible, doesn’t it, given all our human failings. Greed. Selfishness. Lust for power and wealth.”

if we don’t act wisely now to slow down the heating of the planet and the loss of plant and animal life, it may be too late. We need to come together and solve these existential threats to life on Earth. And to do so, we must solve four great challenges

“First—we must alleviate poverty.

“Second, we must reduce the unsustainable lifestyles of the affluent.

“Third, we must eliminate corruption,

finally, we must face up to the problems caused by growing populations of humans and their livestock.

there seems to be a disconnect between our clever brain and our compassionate heart. True wisdom requires both thinking with our head and understanding with our heart.”

there’s intelligence in all life,”

“I am feeling wonder and awe about this incredible world we live in. And the truth is, we’re destroying it before we’ve even finished learning about it. We think we are smarter than nature, but we are not. Our human intellect is amazing, but we must be humble and recognize that there is an even greater intelligence in nature.”

REASON 2: THE RESILIENCE OF NATURE

Honestly, the studies and projections about the future of our planet are so grim. Is it really possible for nature to survive this onslaught of human devastation?” “Actually, Doug, this is exactly why writing this book is so important.

“There’s a term for it,” I said. “Eco-grief.”

Each time a species goes extinct it is as though a hole is torn in that wonderful tapestry of life. And as more holes appear, the ecosystem is weakened. In more and more places, the tapestry is so tattered that it is close to ecosystem collapse.

“And so, in 1994, JGI began Tacare. At the time it was a very new approach to conservation.

They wanted to grow more food and have better clinics and schools—so that’s where we started, working closely with Tanzanian government officials. We did not even talk about saving chimpanzees for the first few years.

gradually we built a program that included tree planting and protecting water sources.” “I heard you also set up microcredit banks?” “Yes, I think this has been one of the really successful things we did.

“I know you see voluntarily curbing population growth,” I said, “and increasing access to education—especially for girls—as one of the keys to solving our environmental crisis.”

not only are we part of the natural world, not only do we depend on it—we actually need it. In protecting these ecosystems, in rewilding more and more parts of the world, we are protecting our own well-being.

REASON 3: THE POWER OF YOUNG PEOPLE

REASON 4: THE INDOMITABLE HUMAN SPIRIT

we’re in the unique position of being able to understand exactly what may result from a conscious decision to tackle what we are told is an utterly impossible course of action.”

It’s an ability to deliberately tackle what may seem to be an impossible task. And not give up even though we know there is a chance we may not succeed. Even when we know it may lead to our death.”

all life’s challenges are like our own individual curriculums that we must work hard to follow and master.”

Archbishop Tutu once explained to me that suffering can either embitter us or ennoble us, and it tends to ennoble us if we are able to make meaning out of our suffering and use it for the benefit of others.”

‘Though we are limited physically, our spirit is limitless. So let the generation after us, and everyone else, see what two handicapped individuals have accomplished. Even after we’re gone, they will see that a blind man and an armless man have left them a forest.’

A story from rural China: together, Jia Haixia and Jia Wenqi have planted more than ten thousand trees to help heal the degraded and polluted land surrounding their village—a blind man and an armless man. Talk about indomitable spirits.

III Becoming a Messenger of Hope

There were so many reasons to worry that our best days as a species were behind us. Political turmoil and the rise of demagogues threatened democracy around the world. Inequality, injustice, and oppression still plagued us. Even our planetary home was in peril. But despite it all, Jane had shown me some profound reasons for hope. In our amazing intellect, in the resilience of nature, in the energy and commitment of today’s youth. And, of course, there is the indomitable human spirit.

“It’s been a long, hard fight with many individuals and groups helping, but finally chimpanzee medical research, so far as I know, has ended. And though my fight was on ethical consideration, the final decision that affected the approximately four hundred chimpanzees owned by NIH in America was made when a team of scientists found that none of the work being done was truly beneficial to human health.”

“The harmony of natural law … reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”

Einstein