Jane Goodall’s Urgent Plea: Restore Nature for Future Generations

Jane Goodall’s Urgent Plea: Restore Nature for Future Generations

We are living through dark and uncertain times—politically, socially, and especially environmentally. For millennia, early humans, like many other species, coexisted with nature as hunter-gatherers who took only what was necessary to survive. Over time, that balance shifted: as human populations grew, our demands on the Earth’s finite resources increased and became increasingly unsustainable.

In many cases necessity morphed into greed. Far too many people became trapped in a materialistic mindset that judged success by the accumulation of wealth, driven by the erroneous belief that endless economic growth is possible on a planet with limited resources. Meanwhile, billions have become detached from the natural world and instead inhabit virtual realities shaped by technology.

I have devoted most of my life to studying the remarkable animals with whom we should share this planet. From that work I have come to appreciate the intricate complexity of ecosystems: every plant and animal is connected and plays a role in the web of life. The chimpanzees my team and I have observed and protected since 1960 are strikingly like us. They can live beyond sixty years, possess distinct personalities, form tight family bonds, and use and fashion tools. They express emotions close to our own—love, compassion, joy, grief—and live in complex, territorial communities. Like humans, they can be both aggressive and altruistic.

There is one major difference between us and other animals: the explosive development of human intellect. Many creatures—great apes, elephants, whales, and even rats, pigs, birds, and octopuses—are far more cognitively capable than we once believed. Still, human intellect has enabled us to send probes into space, map ocean depths, and create the internet and AI.

Regrettably, intellectual power has not been matched by wisdom. If wisdom were our guide, we would not be destroying the only home we have.

We have lost the long-view perspective found among many Indigenous peoples, who traditionally make choices by asking how they will affect future generations. Those communities have served as stewards of the land for centuries, and we have much to learn from their approach.

There is cause for hope: we are beginning to use our intellect to repair the web of life. As we better understand nature’s complexity, we can collaborate more effectively to heal the damage we have inflicted. The path of unsustainable consumption and environmental destruction has produced a crisis, but it is not beyond repair.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have warmed the planet and altered weather patterns. Species are disappearing at alarming rates; forests and woodlands are being cleared; wetlands drained; coral reefs bleached; and grasslands degraded. While we cannot fully restore everything that has been lost, nature has an enormous capacity to regenerate when given a chance. Forests can regrow, rivers can run clean again, and species on the brink of extinction can recover if their habitats are restored.

Tim Christophersen’s book, Generation Restoration, is a call to action and a practical roadmap for healing the damage we have caused. It presents a vision for what the world might become for future generations and urges people of all ages and nations to unite in the essential work of restoring Earth’s degraded ecosystems at planetary scale. Beyond policies and projects, it invites us to reflect on our relationship with the planet and to rekindle a sense of awe and gratitude for nature’s beauty, diversity, and complexity.

The movement toward planetary restoration is not primarily a gap in science or technology—we already possess many of the tools we need. The core challenge is cultural and political: to develop a new mindset that places protection and restoration of the natural world at the center of government policy, business practice, and daily life. This includes reducing unsustainable consumption, alleviating poverty, reforming industrial agriculture that depends on chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, and confronting pollution and waste.

Vital to lasting success is engaging and empowering local communities so they can support their families without destroying their environment. When people benefit from protecting nature, they become its strongest defenders. I know this from the community-led conservation work of the Jane Goodall Institute in six countries, where protecting chimpanzees and forests goes hand in hand with supporting people’s livelihoods.

We must stop treating perpetual economic expansion as the sole measure of progress. Instead, we should prioritize planetary health while meeting human needs and curbing excess. This transition will be difficult but necessary to create a future in which people and nature can thrive together.

Younger generations are already stepping up with passion and determination. Climate action, conservation, and rewilding movements are gaining momentum worldwide, led by people who recognize that their future is at stake. But they cannot succeed alone. Each of us can contribute—small actions add up. When enough individuals and businesses grasp the urgency and act, elected leaders will be more likely to support the bold decisions required.

Excerpted with permission from the publisher, Wiley, from Generation Restoration: How to Fix Our Relationship Crisis with Mother Nature by Tim Christophersen. Copyright © 2026 by Tim Christophersen. All rights reserved.

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