With her signature scarf draped over her shoulders and her gray hair tied back in a ponytail, Jane Goodall radiates serenity – even through our slightly blurry video call.
In a Viennese hotel room, a team of journalists and a small group of filmmakers, documenting her latest lecture tour, crowd around her.
Famous primatologist and conservationist She settles into a high-backed armchair in which her slender constitution almost disappears.
On the screen I see that behind her, on the shelf, is her toy monkey Mr. H.
She received this toy almost 30 years ago from a friend and has been traveling the world with it ever since.
Dr. Goodall is now 90 years old, and she and her Mr. H are still traveling.
"I'm a little tired," she admits.
"I came here from Paris. And after that I'm going to Berlin, then Geneva. On this tour I'm talking about environmental dangers and some of the possible solutions," she says.
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'The sixth great extinction is underway'
One of the solutions she wants to talk about today is the tree planting and habitat restoration that her eponymous foundation and the non-profit technology company Ecozija want to implement in Uganda.
In the past five years, with the help of local communities and small farmers, these organizations have planted almost two million trees.
"We are in the midst of the sixth great extinction," Dr. Goodall tells me during our interview for BBC Radio 4.
"The more we can do to restore nature and protect existing forests, the better."
The primary goal of this project is to restore endangered habitat for 5.000 chimpanzees in Uganda.
Dr. Goodall has studied and campaigned for primate protection for decades.
But this activist also wants to highlight the threat that deforestation poses to our climate.
"Trees have to grow to a certain height before they can start doing their job," she says.
"But all this tree planting is helping absorb carbon dioxide."
There is less and less time.
Dr. Goodall says that today, more than ever before, urgent action is needed to slow the warming of our planet.
We still have time to start slowing climate change and biodiversity loss, says Dr. Goodall.
But that time is getting shorter, he adds.
The destruction of forests and other places with wildlife, she points out, is intrinsically linked to the climate crisis.
"So much has changed in my lifetime," she says, recalling how in the forests of Tanzania, where she began studying chimpanzees more than 60 years ago, "you could set the calendar by the beginning of two rainy seasons."
"Today, sometimes it rains in the dry season, and sometimes it rains in the rainy season. This means that the trees bear fruit at the wrong time, which disturbs the chimpanzees, but also insects and birds."
During the decades she has studied and advocated for the protection of wild chimpanzee habitats, she says she has seen the destruction of forests across Africa: "And I have seen the decline of chimpanzee numbers."
"If we don't come together and impose strict regulations on what people can do to the environment - if we don't quickly move away from fossil fuels, if we don't stop industrial farming, which destroys the environment and kills the soil, with devastating effects on biodiversity - our future will ultimately be doomed."
'He looked me in the eyes and squeezed my fingers'
When I hear her talk like this, it gives me a glimpse of the severity that mars her articulate, gentle demeanor.
When Jane Goodall began tracking and studying chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, she was a pioneer.
Her research, which is now considered groundbreaking, was controversial.
She was the first person to witness and document instances of chimpanzees making and using tools.
Namely, primates were preparing rods for fishing for termites.
Before her observations, it was a trait considered uniquely human.
She revealed that animals build strong family bonds – and even engage in warring activities over territory.
But her approach – so closely connected to the animals she studied, naming them and calling them "friends" – was frowned upon by some (mostly male) scientists.
Her supervisor and mentor, Professor Louis Leakey, however, saw the benefit in her technique.
"He wanted someone whose mind wasn't bogged down by science's reductionist attitude toward animals," explains Dr. Goodall.
"You don't have a dog, a cat, a rabbit, a horse without giving them a name. It was the same when I studied the squirrels in my own garden as a little girl – they all had names."
Her methods – and her sense of closeness to the primates to which she has dedicated her entire life – have given her a unique perspective.
She tells me about a "beautiful moment" with a chimpanzee she named David Graybeard, a male chimpanzee she first saw making termite-catching tools.
"He was the first to lose his fear of me," she recalls.
"I sat down next to him, and on the ground next to him lay a ripe red oil palm fruit. I held it out to him and he turned his head away from me. Then I put my hand closer and he turned, looked me in the eyes, held out his hand to me, and gently squeezed my fingers."
"That's how chimpanzees calm each other down. We understood each other perfectly – with a sign language that clearly predates human speech."
'We need to be stricter'
Dr. Goodall's career was often full of challenges.
She wrote about the early years of her work for Professor Leakey, who was a respected scientist, and who had a huge influence on her career.
He repeatedly declared his love for her, exerting pressure on her that today could be seen as sexual abuse.
But she rejected all his advances and maintained a strict focus on her work and her beloved chimpanzees.
Today, at 90 years old, she seems to be slowing down at all.
So what is it that keeps Dr. Goodall pushing forward?
On this occasion, she is perfectly unambiguous – charmingly offended by the question:
"I guess people want a future for their children. And if they want one, we need to be stricter on environmental legislation."
"We don't have much time left to help the environment. We've done a lot to destroy it."
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