“Healing Earth’s Scars: It’s Never Too Late” by Jane Goodall, Gail Hudson, and Thane Maynard was a much more optimistic writing than Vandana Shiva. Although their topics were similar, their perspectives were much different. Shiva seemed to present humanity as lost and far from the ways of our ancestors which were more diverse in the knowledge of the world around us. Goodall and colleagues seemed to except the ways of man as naturally inevitable due to the need to progress but viewed education and science as an answer to the issues that now endanger the future of our planet. Shiva presented facts and arguments while Goodall presented possibilities. I greatly enjoyed reading about the many different individuals and organizations that rose to the challenge to clean and restore the natural environments that were downtrodden and sickly. I was amazed how resilient nature could be even after the extreme conditions that many environments had to endure. I was very impressed how Goodall assisted in restoring the Loess Plateau in Gombe by educating and restoring hope to the people indigenous to the area. These were the very same people that were causing the damage to the environment but instead of condemning them, Goodall made them part of the solution. It turned out to be a win-win situation for both the humans and the chimpanzees. I believe that if we are to be successful in preserving our future, we all need to be part of the solution by become more aware through education and through the use technology to adapt more environmentally friendly ways to live. We have to change our belief that it’s us against nature and understand that we are and always have been part of nature and now need to take responsibility in taking care of the world. After all, we do consider ourselves as the smartest species on the planet.
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