Earth might be under pressure, but the Queen guitarist Sir Brian May is hopeful a new award from the science, music and arts festival he co-founded will encourage people to take action.
The Starmus Jane Goodall Earth medal will be given in honour of the British primatologist who died this year and will recognise those who champion life on Earth.
The first recipients are expected to be announced at the Starmus VIII festival in Tenerife and La Palma, which will run from 17–22 October next year.
May told the Guardian that Goodall, who was a Starmus advisory board member, had supported the award’s creation. “The idea of having this medal, and Starmus being entrusted to organising it, is Jane’s. Jane said she would like this to happen. And I think it’s because of the very special relationship she had with us,” he said.
(left to right) Peter Gabriel, a Starmus board member, with Garik Israelian and Brian May. Photograph: Paul Harmer
Goodall’s grandson Merlin van Lawick welcomed the award. “The Starmus Jane Goodall Earth medal will acknowledge sustainable programmes undertaken to make our world a better place for people, animals and the environment and provide encouragement for the continuation of that work,” he said.
Starmus’s co-founder Garik Israelian said the medal – which was announced at the Royal Society – would probably have multiple categories.
“It’s going to be very much similar to the Stephen Hawking medal for science communication that we created exactly 10 years ago,” he said. Goodall was a recipient of that award.
May said it was difficult to be sanguine about the future of the planet. “Honestly, it’s very hard to be optimistic,” he said. “The present government in America is conducting a war on science and knowledge. So this really cripples the world’s efforts in my opinion.
“To be honest, things don’t look very good so we have to really start thinking again, I would say, much more seriously about the consequences of our actions. And that’s not just global warming, that’s the whole way that we treat the natural world.”
As a result, May said, it was a good time to follow Goodall’s example. “I think that when we’re awarding the prize, we will be considering this essential spirit of Jane’s – that was her priority, to change the way we treat the other animals around us.”
Israelian said an important issue at present was the proliferation of misinformation. The focus of next year’s Starmus festival will be “the search for truth”.
“We realised that truth is becoming a subject of discussion when politics is involved. And it’s a very dangerous thing,” he said. “The climate science is a science; you cannot have any influence from politics in climate science.”
May hopes the medal will inspire action. “It’s about encouraging people to get involved and to care and to work in that direction, really. Whether or not we’re optimistic we have to look at working the best we can,” he said. “Be prepared for failure, but you still have to work towards succeeding.”
Van Lawick, who is involved in conservation work, said he was optimistic that “with guidance and when empowered, humans can be responsible caretakers of our planet”, pointing to the work of the Jane Goodall Institute which, among its other activities, helps young people get involved with their community, animals and environment.
“As my late grandmother Jane Goodall constantly reminded us all, our daily actions make a difference and it is up to us the kind of difference we make,” he said. “It is not too late and the Starmus Jane Goodall Earth medal will give encouragement and raise awareness about the positive actions that are being undertaken.”
