Fifty years after Jane Goodall began her celebrated scientific research on the behaviour of chimpanzees in Tanzania, the famous educator and environmentalist remains hard at work, with a focus now on inspiring people to make a positive impact on the world.

Goodall, 76, made a one-day stop in Vancouver yesterday (October 20) to attend a screening of the IMAX movie Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees, meet with youth, and speak to media before continuing on to Calgary where she is set to deliver a public lecture this weekend.

“Basically, what I say to people who say, ”˜Well, how can I help? What can I do?'—it’s just spend a little bit of time thinking about the consequences of the choices we make each day as to what we eat, what we wear, how we interact with people, animals, and the environment,” Goodall told the Straight yesterday in a phone interview.

“Once people begin thinking and learning a bit about it, usually people make changes, and even though those changes may seem small, if you multiply one person’s small changes by a million and then a billion, that’s leading to the kind of change we need for a better world,” she said.

Looking back on the developments in the study of chimpanzees, Goodall said it is amazing what has been discovered since her research began five decades ago.

“The most significant thing is how like us they are,” she said. “There’s no sharp line dividing us from them.”

Besides genetic and anatomical similarities, she said, we have learned that chimpanzees form life-long family bonds, use many of the same gestures as humans to communicate, and are capable of both compassion and brutality.

“It makes us a bit less arrogant,” she said, explaining the significance of those revelations. “It helps us to understand that we’re part of and not separated from the rest of the animal kingdom.”

“And this, hopefully, leads to a new respect, not only for chimps, but other animals and helps us realize that we’re not the only beings with personalities, minds, and, above all, emotions and feelings, and helps us to treat the others better and try a bit harder to share the planet with them.”

Goodall also highlighted the grave threats facing wild chimpanzees. According to the Jane Goodall Institute, only four African nations now have significant chimpanzee populations, with the issues of habitat loss and the bushmeat trade stoking fears about survival.

“Unless we work harder than we are the numbers will continue to plummet,” Goodall said. “The work for me changed from doing the observations in the forest and all those wonderful things to travelling the world and trying to raise awareness and trying to raise funds.”

Asked what motives her work at present, Goodall described feeling a sense of urgency and concern about “the harm that we’re inflicting on the planet”.

“I have grandchildren, so does my sister,” she said. “Most people I know, they either have children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, something like that. And I look at them and see how we’ve harmed the planet since I was their age and, you know, just feel, gosh, I’ve really got to do my best to inspire yet more people to make a difference.”

Goodall said her main message is “to remember that every single day we live, we make an impact, we make a difference and we have a choice as to what kind of difference we want to make in the world”.