🔗 Share this article

Earth might be facing challenges, yet a sense of hope remains. A fresh honor originating at the science, music and arts festival Starmus aims to encourage individuals to make a difference.

The Starmus Jane Goodall Earth medal will honor to pay tribute to the celebrated British primatologist who died this year. It will recognise individuals and groups that advocate for the natural world.

Award Details

The inaugural winners will be revealed during the Starmus VIII festival in the Canary Islands, scheduled from October 17th to 22nd the coming year.

According to statements that Jane Goodall, a former Starmus advisory board member, had supported the medal's establishment. “The idea behind this medal, and the festival being tasked to oversee it, was Jane's wish,” a representative said. “She expressed that she wanted for this to occur. And I think due to the very special connection she had with the festival.”

“The Starmus Jane Goodall Earth medal aims to highlight sustainable programmes undertaken to build an environment improved for people, animals and the environment and foster motivation for the continuation that work,” commented a relative.

Structure and Vision

One of the founders of the festival stated that the medal – which was announced at a prestigious venue – would probably encompass various fields.

“It will be inspired by the Stephen Hawking award for science communication established a decade past,” he explained. Jane Goodall was an honoree of that very medal.

Sharing thoughts about the future of the planet, one figure said, “To be truthful, it is difficult to maintain optimism. The current political climate globally represents an assault on knowledge. So this significantly hampers global initiatives.”

“In truth, the situation appears very good which means we need to really start thinking again, with greater urgency about the consequences of our actions. This concern encompasses not only global warming, that’s the entire manner that we treat nature.”

A Call to Action

As a result, it was noted it was a good time to honor Goodall’s example. “It is believed that in bestowing this medal, the focus will be on this core philosophy of Jane’s – which made her priority, to change how we regard the other animals around us.”

Another key issue at present is the proliferation of misinformation. The focus of the upcoming festival will be “the pursuit of factual understanding”.

“We realised that factual reality is becoming a matter of debate when politics is involved. This is a very dangerous thing,” he commented. “The climate science remains a scientific discipline; you cannot allow interference by political agendas in this field.”

Hope and Determination

The aspiration is that the medal will spur concrete steps. “It’s about motivating others to engage and to show concern and to work in that direction, really. Regardless of if we’re optimistic, we have to look at working our utmost,” a statement concluded. “Be prepared for setbacks, but you still have to work towards succeeding.”

A descendant engaged in environmental protection expressed optimism that “given direction and once enabled, humans are capable of being responsible caretakers of our planet”, citing the work of an institute that, in addition to its projects, empowers the next generation get involved locally, animals, and the natural world.

“As Jane Goodall constantly reminded us, our daily actions have an impact and the responsibility lies with us what type of impact we make,” it was stated. “We still have an opportunity and this medal will give encouragement and increase understanding about constructive efforts that are being undertaken.”