The claim

Anthropologist Jane Goodall apparently advocated reducing the world population to 500 million at a WEF panel discussion.

Our conclusion

In the context, it is very clear that Jane Goodall does not talk about reducing the world population in the last few sentences, but points out that the problems did not exist before, with a smaller population, and that it is therefore important to moderate population growth.

There is a widespread belief among conspiracy mythists that humanity should be reduced to as many as 500 million. Unfortunately, all of the alleged plans (chemtrails, poison in the water, secret radiation, vaccinations) have gone wrong so far. Now, of all people, Jane Goodall is said to have openly spoken out in favor of population reduction at a panel discussion at the WEF (hated by conspiracy mythists) - which could almost sound like that if you only know these 16 seconds of a video.

The claim

The 26-second video is particularly circulating on Twitter and became more popular when its CEO Elon Musk responded by saying that this philosophy is the death of humanity:

The video with Jane Goodall on Twitter
The video with Jane Goodall on Twitter

The German-language tweet claims that Goodall said “ All problems would vanish into thin air if the population decreased to what it was 500 years ago ,” according to the creator, the population at the time was 460 million.

Since the end of December, the video has also been increasingly shared in English-language tweets with the same claim:

The claim in the English-language tweet: “ Jane Goodall at the World Economic Formum… We can solve climate change by depopulating the Earth by just 7.5 billion people.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

What Jane Goodall says in the video

She literally says the following sentences in the short video:

“We cannot hide away from human population growth. Because it has so many other problems. “All these things we talk about wouldn’t be a problem if there was a size of population that was there 500 hundred years ago.”

In German:

“We cannot hide from human population growth. Because it underlies so many other problems. All of these things we’re talking about wouldn’t be a problem if there were population sizes like they were 500 years ago.”

What is certain is that it does not demand or suggest a population reduction, but points out that the problems mentioned would not exist with a population size like 500 years ago. However, this still sounds to some as if Goodall is indirectly suggesting a population reduction.

To take a closer look at this, let’s take a look at what exactly the panel discussion was about!

The complete video

The complete video from which the excerpt comes can be found on YouTube It was already uploaded on January 22, 2020 ; It is surprising that certain people are only now spreading the excerpt and the claim.

The 16 seconds of Goodall's monologue begin at position 31:35 Her entire monologue goes from position 28:05 to position 31:53. The most common excerpt is the last 16 seconds of her monologues.

What Goodall talked about in her monologue

At around minute 27, presenter Mishal Husain asked what steps needed to be taken to ensure that the trees planted as part of their One Trillion Trees project were not cut down.

Goodall said five factors needed to be mitigated to ensure this:

  • Combating poverty
  • less meat consumption
  • Reduction of forest areas used for livestock grazing
  • Elimination of political corruption
  • human population growth

The context

Goodall has also discussed mitigating population growth in other videos, for example HERE . In the video above she also says about the topic:

“It has been shown throughout the world that family size decreases as women's education improves, and it was the growing human population that was the greatest problem in the destruction of forests in this area.”

She added that family planning programs were introduced, which she said were well received as babies' health improved.

In the context of the previous sentences, she says that the problems of the rainforests would not exist if the population was as large as it was 500 years ago - she is concerned with moderating population growth so that the problems do not become even greater.

Conclusion

Mimikama Rating: LACK OF CONTEXT

Since the video was already uploaded to YouTube in January 2020, conspiracy mythists like to take this as "proof" that Goodall revealed the plan to drastically reduce the world population with COVID-19 - which didn't really work.

In the context, however, it is very clear that Jane Goodall does not talk about reducing the world population in the last few sentences, but points out that the problems did not exist before, with a smaller population, and that it is therefore important to moderate population growth .

This type of reinterpretation of statements is already known: conspiracy myths also claimed about Bill Gates that he himself said that he wanted to reduce the population through vaccinations. But his actual statement was that vaccinations would reduce child mortality and thus fewer children would be born - thus reducing population growth ( we reported ).

Further sources:

Logically , the quint , aap , lead stories

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