The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times(58)

Also, the pandemic has produced many heroes, like the doctors, nurses, and health care workers who risk—and too often lose—their lives as they battle tirelessly to save others. A community spirit developed in many places—people helped each other. In one city in Italy people sang operatic arias back and forth between their balconies to boost their spirits. Brilliant television was produced. I especially loved it when a famous orchestra performed to an audience of plants—each one in its pot brought from the nearby botanical gardens and placed on one of the seats. And the crowning moment when the players rose and with great dignity and respect bowed to their horticultural audience. And the penguins from a zoo who were allowed to wander freely through an art gallery.

The human intellect was at work, too, developing new ways of connecting people virtually with each other. JGI held its first virtual global meeting—I did not think it could work, but although we missed the face-to-face, the fun, and hugging and just being together, things went smoothly—and we saved a lot of money. Today it is normal to hold conferences and business meetings by Zoom or one of the other incredible technologies. All of this is a great example of our adaptability and creativity.

Of course, it is desperately worrying for airlines and hotels; and in some countries, poaching of wild animals has increased because of the lack of tourists to support the hospitality industry, and the lack of funding for the salaries of the rangers who normally patrol the wildlife parks. It all points to the importance of using our creativity, our clever brains, and understanding and compassion, to create a more sustainable and ethical world in which everyone can make a decent living while existing in harmony with nature.

There are, in fact, many more people who have now realized this need for a new and more respectful relationship with animals and the natural world, and a new and more sustainable green economy. And there are signs that this is beginning to happen. Corporations are starting to think about the most ethical ways to source their materials, and consumers are thinking more carefully about their own ecological footprints. China has banned the eating of wild animals, and there is hope that the use of wild animal parts for medicine will also come to an end. Already the government has removed pangolin scales from the list of approved ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. And there is a huge international effort to end the illegal trafficking of wild animals and plants. But, of course, we still have a long way to go.

What’s more, there are many campaigns in several countries urging governments to phase out factory farms. Less and less meat is being consumed and more and more people are turning to a plant-based diet.

I have now been grounded since March last year, spending my days here in Bournemouth with my sister, Judy; her daughter Pip; and grandsons, Alex and Nickolai, twenty-two and twenty years old. And most of the time I am up in my little bedroom cum office cum studio under the eaves. From where I had that last Zoom conversation with Doug.

At first, I was frustrated and angry. I felt terrible, having to cancel lectures and disappoint people. But I soon realized that I must face the inevitable and decided, with a small team of JGI staff, to create Virtual Jane. So many people have written to me, hoping that the enforced stay at home would be restful and give me time to meditate and generate new energy. In fact, as I told Doug, I have never, ever been busier or more exhausted in my life. Sending video messages around the world, taking part in conferences via Zoom or Skype or webinar or some other technology, being interviewed, joining podcasts—and, in fact, developing my own Hopecast!


Pip, Judy, and me with Beech in the spring garden of the Birches. (TOM GOZNEY)



Planning and giving virtual lectures is the hardest—somehow you have to get the right energy into your presentation to inspire an unseen audience when you have no feedback from an auditorium of enthusiastic people. Instead, you are speaking to the tiny green light of the laptop camera. And it’s really hard, when you are talking to people who are there on the screen and forcing yourself to look not at them but at that little green light—so that from their viewpoint you are looking at them!

Of course, I also terribly miss being with my friends, for when I was on the road, in between the lectures and press conferences and high-level meetings, there were the fun evenings getting together over Indian takeaway and red wine—and whisky of course! And having the opportunity to visit some amazing places and meet inspiring people. Instead, there are no breaks in the relentless schedule of Virtual Jane—just day after day gazing at a computer screen and talking into cyberspace.

But there is a bright side to all of this. I have been able to reach literally millions more people in many more parts of the world than I could possibly have done during my normal touring.

During my last Zoom conversation with Doug, I took him on a tour around my room and showed him many photos and other mementos from my travels. But there is so much more in almost every room of the house. I am surrounded by reminders of the various stages of my life. Here, in this much-loved house built in 1872, I am constantly reminded of my journey, the people, and the things that shaped me. Here are my roots that nurtured a shy, nature-loving child who has grown into a messenger of hope.

As I write to you on this cold, wet day in 2021, many countries have been hit by new, more contagious strains of the virus, all of which are hitching rides on unsuspecting human hosts and traveling around the globe, fueling yet more despair. Not surprisingly, therefore, a great deal of our attention is focused on bringing this pandemic under control.