The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Jane and Doug walk toward a tree Jane wants to say hello to. It reminds her of a tree named “Beech” that she climbed as a child in Bournemouth. She knows the fauna she loves wouldn’t exist without flora, and humans are only beginning to understand the interrelations between natural entities. To answer Doug’s question about her opinion on the resilience of nature, she tells a story about September 11th, 2001. She was in New York when the Twin Towers collapsed. Ten years later, she learned about “The Survivor Tree,” a pear tree that a clean-up worker found and nursed back to health, before the tree was replanted at the 9/11 Memorial.

She recalls another story about visiting Nagasaki, Japan in 1990 and meeting survivor trees that survived the atomic bombs in the 40s. Jane meditates on how plants and animals can survive devastation and regenerate. Doug shares his fears about “pushing nature to the breaking point” (72) as global temperatures rise and biodiversity declines due to habitat destruction. He wonders if it is possible for nature to rebound this time. Jane acknowledges that many people feel this fear, which is called eco-grief.

Eco-Grief

Doug recounts an American Psychological Association report he read about the new usage of the word “eco-grief” to describe the hopelessness people feel in the face of the climate crisis. Jane says she feels eco-grief acutely and often.

Doug recounts a story about Ashlee Cunsolo, who worked with Inuit communities in Nunatsiavut, Canada. After interviewing communities about environmental change and subsequent cultural change, she experienced acute nerve pain. No western doctors could help her, but an Inuit healer told her it was a consequence of holding onto her grief. Cunsolo “apologized to the land” (74) for the harm she and others caused, and two weeks later, the pain was gone.

Jane recalls how her friend Terrance Brown, of the Karuk tribe, used traditional medicine to help her fatigue. Jane and Doug comment on the healing power of “interconnection.” Cunsolo turned her grief into a documentary to raise awareness; Doug asks Jane how more people can turn grief into action.

Jane thinks it’s integral that people aren’t overwhelmed by despair, and they let their anger carry them into action, which must begin now. When she travels to speaking events, she has “heartening” interactions with people. She also feels a great power and determination within herself that she is compelled to share with other people.

The Will to Live

Jane talks about one kind of natural resilience, the will to live. Life has an “innate ability” to keep surviving (80). Humans usually only think about what can happen in their lifetime, but nature plays a “long game” on a much longer time scale. Jane recalls 2,000-year-old date palm seeds recovered from King Herod’s desert fortress near the Dead Sea. Scientists were able to germinate the seeds and Jane tasted one of its date fruits. 

Adapt or Perish

Another important aspect of resilience is adaptability. In the early 21st century, species are struggling to adapt to climate change. Jane thinks some species have life cycles not attuned to quick adaptation, while others are more flexible. Chimps observe their surroundings and adapt their behaviors on the fly. Gombe chimps sleep at night, while Senegalian chimps, where the temperatures are rising, use night to hunt. In Uganda, where farmlands and villages are spreading rapidly, chimps raid farmlands at night for food.

Doug wonders if humans can use their own adaptability to live in ways that can sustain the earth. Jane thinks we can apply our “amazing intellect” to this problem.

Nurturing Mother Nature

Jane tells the story about how a horticulturist hired by a mining company took cues from nature to guide him in restoring the quarry’s destroyed ecosystem. Over 10 years, a 30-meter ecosystem was rebuilt, and animals began returning to the area. She takes this as evidence that nature can return with “time” and “help.” Jane lists many animals whose species are also making a comeback. People call these efforts “rewilding.”

Rescued From the Brink

Jane tells the story of Dr. Don Merton, a wildlife biologist who wanted to save Australia’s black robins. Originally the black robin had no predators, but humans imported animals that preyed on them. Don wanted to capture the remaining black robins and release them on an uninhabited island. There were seven remaining with two females, only one of whom—Blue—was producing viable eggs. Don carefully removed Blue’s eggs, encouraging her to lay more as they incubated elsewhere, then returning the hatched chicks to her until she had six chicks. By doing this for years, he managed to get their numbers to 250.

Many species have been saved by similar breeding programs. Doug asks Jane about her response to those who argue that they cost too much money and extinction is a natural process.

The Tapestry of Life

Jane says human activity is making extinction happen at a greater rate than ever before. Jane stresses that humans need animals to keep ecosystems functioning. She gives an example in Yellowstone National Park, where declining wolf numbers threw the ecosystem into chaos, and their reintroduction immediately re-corrected it.

Doug asks if Jane thinks the money she devotes to animal conservation would be better spent on people; she says her efforts help both at once. After touring chimp habitats in the 1980s and learning how impoverished and undersupplied the surrounding human populations were, Jane launched the Jane Goodall Institute in the 1990s to provide better education and healthcare in Gombe. Only after helping the human communities did they then move to reforesting and helping the chimps. This initiative now spreads across hundreds of villages in the region, and local people keep it running. Jane provided people with the resources to take care of their own surrounding environments.

Our Need for Nature

Jane says that humans need nature to survive and thrive. Planting trees even in dense cities can effectively reduce temperatures and provide shade.

Doug tells Jane about an experience he had in nature that gives him hope. At a whale nursery in Baja, Mexico, he looked into the eyes of a “grandmother whale” who forgave and interacted with humans even though they’d almost hunted her kind to extinction. He felt intensely connected to the whale and he asks Jane where she feels that connection. She says she feels it watching the sun set in Gombe, or looking up at the stars and imagining the vastness of the universe.

She talks about going with her youth education group, Roots and Shoots, to visit the pear tree that survived 9/11. As she stood with the young people, she saw that the Survivor Tree held a bird’s nest.