Earth Day 2018: Google Gets the Ball Rolling with Jane Goodall Doodle

It’s never too soon to celebrate Earth Day. Ahead of Sunday’s holiday, Google honored legendary primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall with a Doodle and exclusive interview.

Earth Day first began on April 22, 1970, when 20 million people protested the negative effects of industrialization. Goodall, 84, first garnered fame for her study of chimpanzee behaviors in the Sixties, and has since become a vocal advocate for conservation and animal welfare. This year, Goodall partnered with Google to express the continued need for conservation efforts and discusses them in the Doodle’s partially illustrated video.

“Out in the rainforest, you learn how everything is infinite, and how each different species, even though it may seem insignificant, has a role to play in the tapestry of life,” Goodall says in the video. “What better day than Earth Day than to really make a determined effort to live in better harmony with nature.”

In the Doodle illustrated by Matthew Cruickshank, Goodall shared a memory from her time working at the Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Her discovery that chimpanzees make and use tools disrupted the science world in 1960 and redefined the relationship between humans and the animal kingdom. “The rain stopped and I could smell the wet hair on the chimpanzees and I could hear the insects singing loudly,” Goodall recalls. “I felt absolutely at one and it was a sense of awe and wonder.”

Earth Day 2018 will kick off on Sunday and include worldwide demonstrations and events. Earth Day also marks the two year anniversary of the landmark Paris Agreement, which will serve as a benchmark in Sunday’s discussions of progress and future steps.

As a lifelong environmentalist, Goodall sees how conservation efforts are most effective when more people contribute even in seemingly small ways. “With all of us working together,” she tells Google, “I am hopeful that it is not too late to turn things around if we all do our part for this beautiful planet.”