The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times(33)

“What happened to the refugees?” I asked.

“Soon after that, they were forcibly repatriated to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many were frightened to return home because they had no families left there—they had all been killed in the horrible fighting. I was told that the Roots & Shoots groups took their chickens and the seeds they had saved from their vegetable gardens with them when they returned.”

She told me that for the first few months, UNHCR housed the returning refugees in a reception camp while they tried to sort out their futures.

“About two months later,” Jane continued, “I received a letter from a visitor to this camp. It was depressing, he said—bare earth, people with vacant expressions, children sitting listlessly outside their huts. He continued walking through the camp, and then suddenly he came to a section of the camp where the atmosphere changed. Children were running around and laughing. Hens foraged in a patch of land where grass had been allowed to grow. A few teenagers were working in a small vegetable garden. The visitor asked his host why it was different there. ‘Well, I don’t really know. But it’s something called Roots & Shoots.’”


Children of Chinese migrants from country to city. Chinese university students helped them understand that they mattered and could make a difference. (JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE ROOTS & SHOOTS, BEIJING, CHINA)





“I Don’t Want Your Hope”



Of course, Roots & Shoots is but one of a number of organizations working to empower, educate, and activate young people. All around the world young people are increasingly taking to the streets to demand change. “Fridays for Future” was initiated by Greta Thunberg, the environmental activist who at the age of fifteen started protesting outside the Swedish Parliament with a sign that read SCHOOL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE. Greta has spoken with world leaders and at major conferences, and millions of people have participated in these youth-led climate protests.

I asked Jane if she had met Greta Thunberg.

“I have. She’s done an amazing job of raising awareness of the climate crisis in many parts of the world and not only among the youth.”

I wondered what Jane thought of Thunberg’s provocative speech at the World Economic Forum when she declared, “Adults keep saying: ‘We owe it to young people to give them hope.’ But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day, and then I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.” I asked Jane what she thought about Greta’s critique of hope and her belief that fear is a more appropriate response.

“We do need to respond with fear and anger about what is happening,” Jane replied. “Our house is on fire. But if we don’t have hope that we can put the fire out, we will give up. It’s not hope or fear—or anger. We need them all.”

“We have so many huge problems. Isn’t it a cop-out for adults to say that the children will solve these problems?”

Jane sat up in her chair, clearly provoked by my question.

“It actually makes me angry when people say it will be up to young people to solve them,” she said. “Of course, we can’t and shouldn’t expect them to solve all our problems. We’ve got to support them, encourage them, empower them, listen to them, and educate them. And I truly believe the young people of today are rising to the challenge in a most remarkable way. Once they understand the problems and are empowered to take action—well, they are changing the world as we speak.

“And it’s not only what they do,” Jane added. “It’s particularly exciting to see how children are influencing their parents and grandparents. So many parents tell me that they never thought about their purchases until their child started explaining what they were learning about the environment.”

“How did that work?” I asked, thinking back to my own experiences as a parent and how my children became advocates for buying green and were the driving force behind many of the changes my family made in the way we shop and consume.

Jane elaborated. “One of the best examples I know comes from China. In 2008, a ten-year-old girl named Joy attended one of my talks, and afterward begged her parents to help her start the first Roots & Shoots group in Chengdu. Their motto was a quotation of mine: ‘Only if we can understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved.’ At first the children simply followed suggestions made by their teachers, but it was not long before they could design and conduct projects on their own. They became one of the most active groups. A few years later I received a letter from Joy’s mother translated from the Chinese by her daughter—who had learned English in order to communicate with me! I have to read it to you.” Jane sprang up and fetched her laptop.

“This is what she said: ‘After our children formed a Roots & Shoots group at school, they changed how we thought. It is no exaggeration to say that most of us would never have thought to care for the environment without our kids. And we might still have the numb lifestyle, caring nothing about this planet but ourselves. Our kids used a bright way to let us have a different view of our life. I started my own change from accepting passively to actively participating after my child brought back all the information from Roots & Shoots. I went from a consumer who was quite selfish to one who learned to cut down unnecessary buying.’”