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Dear Diary. On October first the world lost a premier scientist who was a renounced environmentalist whose main focus was the study of primates. Jane Goodall was legendary in her younger years for her long stints in Africa’s bush country making friends with gorillas and chimpanzees. She also was outspoken on climate change, encouraging everyone to do their part to help solve the problems behind carbon pollution. At age 91 when she passed Jane was still in the lecture circuit. I’d definitely say that this was a life well lived.
Jane Goodall’s Thoughts for a Reporter: ‘Hope Isn’t Just Wishful Thinking’A Times correspondent who interviewed Dr. Goodall recalled their conversations about the state of the planet.Jane Goodall, right, speaking with Catrin Einhorn at The New York Times’s Climate Forward event in September 2024. It was one of two interviews they did last year. Credit…Benjamin Norman for The New York Times
On the day Jane Goodall turned 90, I sat down at a small table with her. It was April 2024, and she was in Manhattan to promote a partnership with a jewelry company, Brilliant Earth. The company was making a $100,000 donation to support the Jane Goodall Institute, and she was giving her name to an eco-friendly line of necklaces, rings and earrings. The gold would all be recycled and the diamonds would come only from labs. No mining involved.
People buzzed around; a lunch would be served, and fashion influencers were on hand. Dr. Goodall looked small and tired amid the hubbub.
I knew the question I wanted to start with.
“When you woke up this morning, on your actual 90th birthday, what was the first thing you thought?” I asked. The room was so loud that I had to lean forward to hear her response.
“That I wish I was somewhere else,” she said.
It wasn’t the answer I expected. Relistening to the tape of our interview on Wednesday, the day she died, I hear my voice change from cheery to concerned.
“Well, you know, I like being out in nature,” she explained. Then she told me about all the birthday greetings she woke up to, and how she thought of her family and friends. This day wasn’t about that, she said, seeming a little sad but resolved.
“This birthday is about my mission, which is getting the word out to people around the world and raising money for our projects,” she said.
Dr. Goodall was laser-focused on that mission, people close to her told me. She wanted to do everything she could to make sure her institute could continue its conservation and educational work after her death. And she seemed committed to using her fame — more than fame, the reverence she often inspired in people — to try to get the world to take action on climate change and biodiversity loss.
“That’s why I’m traveling 300 days a year,” she told me. “It’s no good just talking about what should be done. We’ve got to flipping well do it.”
Ever since she first attracted attention as a young researcher who documented a chimpanzee using stems and twigs as tools for nabbing termites, Jane Goodall seemed more than willing to let herself be used for her causes.
For example, she often told an anecdote about her legs. There they were in photographs of her in National Geographic in the 1960s, a young woman in the field in Tanzania with a ponytail and wearing shorts. Her legs triggered comments. They were deemed attractive. Recounting the story this year on the podcast “Call Her Daddy,” she told of how some jealous male scientists groused that she was getting cover stories and money for research because of those legs.
“If somebody said that today, they’d be sued, right?” she said. “Back then, all I wanted was to get back to the chimps. So if my legs were getting me the money, thank you, legs!” she said, patting her thigh.
“And if you look,” she added, “they were jolly nice legs!”
But in April last year, she told me she was exhausted, and she looked it. I offered to cut the interview short. She instructed me to keep asking questions.
“It means I can sit here and talk to you instead of going mingling,” she said with a smile.
So, we talked more about the United Nations biodiversity conference coming that fall. I asked her about a message of hers that always struggles to gain traction: the need to consume less. I had read about how she turned the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) into the five R’s, adding refuse at the beginning and rot at the end. She said she believed that a circular economy, one mimicking nature’s zero-waste cycles, was key to getting us out of the ecological mess we’ve made.
She also said that children were central to persuading adults to live more ethically. I already knew how much Dr. Goodall loved talking about Roots & Shoots, her institute’s youth program, and she took the opportunity to highlight it.
We talked about journalism. She thought it was imperative for reporters to share the untold stories of people who are working hard to make a difference.
“Not just the good news story, but how that good news story fits into alleviating the doom and gloom,” she said.
We didn’t talk about death, but it’s something she wrote and spoke about quite a lot. In “The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times,” which she wrote with Doug Abrams, she called death her next great adventure.
My favorite memories of that day were sitting in the greenroom with Dr. Goodall before the interview. We chatted about her Welsh grandfather and my Welsh mom. This time, she seemed full of quiet energy. She was gentle and sharp, all at once.
Onstage, I knew what my last question would be.
Preparing for that interview, I had asked virtually everyone I came across, from all walks of life, what they wanted to know from Dr. Goodall. Again and again, the answer was the same: They wanted to know where they could find hope. But I didn’t want to ask that question, because she has answered it in at least two books on the subject. So I asked her about balancing hope — which she found in human intellect, in the resilience of nature, in the power of young people and in the indomitable human spirit — with false hope, sometimes called “hopium.”
She didn’t hesitate.
“Hope isn’t just wishful thinking,” she said, telling us to imagine a long, dark tunnel with a little star at the end representing hope.
“There’s no good sitting at the mouth of the tunnel and wishing that that hope would come to us,” she said. “We’ve got to roll up our sleeves. The Bible says, gird your loins. I love that. I’m not quite sure what it means, but let’s gird our loins. And we’ve got to climb over, crawl under, work around all the obstacles that lie between us and the star.”
Catrin Einhorn covers biodiversity, climate and the environment for The Times.
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
3 OCTOBER 2025
Save this map for the books because this is HISTORIC
From 36C in SPAIN to snow in the Balkans
Unbelievable maximum temps <5C at low elevations;
One for all:Kraljevo,SERBIA 215m asl Min 0.4 Max 4.2
with few hours of snow.
Not even Centenarians had ever lived this
Breaking news: Snowline has dropped to 200m asl !
Kraljevo,Serbia 🇷🇸at just 215m asl is reporting snow falling at the moment.
We are living a historic cold event which will be remembered for generations to come and hard to replicate in a lifetime.
Map:http://Meteociel.fr
BALKANS HISTORIC COLD SPELL
2025 has seen very few historic cold spells worldwide and this is one of them.
Once/twice in a lifetime early October cold ongoing with lowland max. <10C.
Incredible maximum of just 7.1C at Skopje,North Macedonia,-13C/average,+1C December average.
EUROPEAN COLD SPELL
Snow fell in Pristina, Kosovo !
Historic super early wintry cold spell.
Since historic cold spells have become so rare nowadays,I ll dedicate some posts later about this event.
Webcam:
video.gjirafa.com/slowtv-staci...
Snow fell in Sofia, Bulgaria
We go on with some historic images of this wintry cold spell in this 3 October.
A month which started in full wild-mode with July-like conditions in Canada,East Asia,south Algeria and December-like in the Balkans.
H/t Image: dnes.dir.bg/
Very sharp difference between heat records from Morocco to Japan and cold air from Central Europe from Siberia:this October is being very interesting.
Heat records in PAKISTAN with abnormal hot nights.
Min 27.6C at Chhor today is the warmest October night in history.
RECORD HEAT IN INDIA
Just like every Asian country, India is also experiencing record heat.
Today it was the October hottest day in history at Palayankottai with 39.5C.
More record heat on the way
Another extraordinary hot day in CHINA
with 108 October records (18 High max,90 High min).
MUCH worse from tomorrow.
Records also in THAILAND
37.0 Kampeng Phet
and MONGOLIA
Minimum 13.7 Khalk Gol,12.6 Matad
600+ records in 3 days in East Asia and
2000/3000 expected next days!
HISTORIC
38.7c today at Wagu
TAIWANESE HOTTEST OCTOBER DAY TIED
We might have not reached the peak of the heat yet and 39C next days can't be ruled out.
It's an incredibly intense and long heat wave with also hot nights and dangerous heat indexes.
Map credit CWA
INSANE NEVER ENDING SUMMER IN JAPAN
Another scorching day with up to 34C in the South with October records smashed from Hokkaido to Okinawa (including Naha).
See list of records below: (hundreds more on the way)
Exceptional heat in AUSTRALIA.
Despite being the first days the October, temperatures are already close to October records.
Next days Western Australia might reach the first 44C of the season in the Northern Hemisphere
CARIBBEAN
2 records in 2 days in SAINT LUCIA !
Yesterday Hewanorra Int. Ap with 33.8C and today Vigie George Charles Int. AP with 33.7C both set their new records of October highest temperature.
Not a single day has passeed without records being broken in the Caribbean
A seemingly modest 7% increase in winds and 12% increase in rain due to global warming increased the damages from Typhoon #Ragasa by over 1/3, a new study has found. yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/10/clim...
Climate change is going to hit the economy: “Even though this [crisis] is more regional [than the Great Financial Crisis],” says Burt, “it’s still something that’s pretty terrible.” He wishes we could prepare. Otherwise, he says, we’ll see “disorderly results” similar to what happened in 2008-2011.”
Climate change is going to hit the economy: “Even though this [crisis] is more regional [than the Great Financial Crisis],” says Burt, “it’s still something that’s pretty terrible.” He wishes we could prepare. Otherwise, he says, we’ll see “disorderly results” similar to what happened in 2008-2011.”
"God will ask us if we have cultivated and cared for the world that he created for the benefit of all and for future generations, and if we have taken care of our brothers and sisters - what will be our answer, my dear friends?"
#ClimateEmergency - “We all have a right to support in the face of calamity, but the Trump administration wants to put an end to an era of prioritizing humanity over politics”
www.mercurynews.com/2025/10/03/b...
Our latest paper exploring the complicated relationships between the energy source for processing the ubiquitous metal - aluminum / and economic measures of productivity when we factor in carbon into the equations cc: @katharinehayhoe.com www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New study shows people seriously underestimate the degree to which people understand humans are driving climate change. In reality, 71-88% of people get this. But people “feel” it’s much lower. Good News: We are more willing to pitch in when they understand the consensus:
spsp.org/news/charact...
At Climate Week NYC, the message was clear: progress is underway. While none of us can do this alone, the number of people who are committed to tackling climate together is growing every day.
Read on Mailchimp: shorturl.at/yXmnn
Read on LinkedIn: shorturl.at/bssRq
#ClimateAction: Congress needs to hear a chorus of many different voices taking action and getting LOUD. Today is a great day to join that chorus.
citizensclimatelobby.org/get-loud-tak...
This map, the National Weather Service temperature outlook for Monday to Friday of next week, indicates a high chance of above-average temperatures.
That’s likely what we’ll see early week, but what the map hides is a significantly cooler late week.
More details: cwg.live
October looks DRY -- in DC, and throughout the eastern United States. European model forecasts rainfall deficits of 1-2"+ for the month.
More info in our DC October outlook - gift link: wapo.st/4mInA1C
#Homes: "Today, nearly ¾ of America’s buildings use fossil fuels to heat space or water, or cook food, creating 10% of our carbon pollution each year."
citizensclimatelobby.org/our-climate-...
"The termination of funding can be appealed within 30 days, and some ventures have already begun that process, according to the statement, without identifying them." Trump's Energy Cuts Hit California Grid Upgrade
www.mercurynews.com/2025/10/02/t...
#Energy - #FossilFuels: “All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for”
Large Fire Burns at Chevron Refinery in El Segundo.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/u...
#Energy vs. #Environment: “The sad truth is that more drilling will increase pollution and climate-fueled heatwaves, wildfires and floods but it won’t do a thing about gas prices”
www.mercurynews.com/2025/10/03/w...
A new interactive map from ClimateTrace shows how air pollution from fossil fuels is threatening over 1.6 billion people around the world.
Want to see the air pollution where you live? Check the map here:
Frances Wagner was one of the first women to carry out field research for the Geological Survey of Canada and became a distinguished expert in the use of micropaleontology to study marine geology. adalovelaceday.subst...
Imelda's farewell: A dazzling sunset show Tuesday
Departing stacks of low, mid- + high clouds were painted orange & purple while pierced by the sun’s rays.
Photos by Karen Fulkerson, Jason Kopp and Suzannah Grace.
More at cwg.live
Jane Goodall, right, speaking with Catrin Einhorn at The New York Times’s Climate Forward event in September 2024. It was one of two interviews they did last year. Credit…Benjamin Norman for The New York Times