Celebrating the lives of eco-luminaries who returned to Earth this year

Our language around death is influenced by denial and fantasy: passing away, reincarnating, heading up to the big pearly gates in the sky. Even my preferred Gaian term, “returning to Earth” could be perceived as some sort of subterranean afterlife or upload of consciousness to the great Earth Mother. But it is not. We, humans, like all living beings, are briefly differentiated, individuated, aware for a geological blink of an eye. After—and before—that, we are part of a larger flow of life, Gaia—a living holobiont made up of countless bacteria, plants, birds, fungi, insects, fish, and mammals. But after we die, never again will we be our current conscious form, never will these memories or the countless experiences that wired our brains and bodies in just this certain way be available again, except through others’ memories—stories shared and retold.

At the end of Is a River Alive? Robert Macfarlane paints a picture of his children returning to a spring they frequented with him after he’s dead and gone, dropping a bit of his ashes to spread through the waters, and commenting how dad would have liked that all the springs were flowing this year. Macfarlane lives on—in the memories and conversations of his children—but his ‘spirit’ is gone, his body is either suspended in the atmosphere as CO2 and H20 released during cremation or is contained in a bag of powder and bone bits.

No one wants to consider this loss of self, but I do think it is essential to recognize that this “one wild and precious life” is what we have, and thus we should live accordingly: reveling in the beauty of the living world and devoting ourselves to sustaining and healing it.

That said, I want to celebrate two amazing lives lived and two individuals who have returned to Earth in 2025 but whose legacies will continue on for many decades, perhaps even centuries. Both of these world-changing women—Jane Goodall and Joanna Macy—were over 90 years old when they died, and devoted many decades of their life energy to Earth-healing work. I do not know how much their life paths crossed, if at all, but both had profound impacts on our understanding of the world and the work necessary in being a systems-oriented environmentalist.

Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is so well known for studying chimpanzees that a summary of this work is unnecessary. What’s more important is, as the New Scientist describes, “Jane Goodall changed the way we see animals—and the world.” By revealing that humans are not the only tool-makers or users, she helped unravel “the view of human exceptionalism and superiority that had prevailed not just among scientists but in society as a whole.”*

Of course, there’s a long way to go before this view is fully unwound. And frankly, as we become more detached from nature and more trapped in an AI-fueled mediated navel-gazing marathon, we are starting to convince ourselves we truly are exceptional—though as nature’s systems unravel this façade of exceptionalism will surely crumble.

The beauty of Goodall’s life is that she realized that as important as studying chimps and the forests they live in was, it was even more important to protect those beings and ecosystems. She established the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 to support conservation projects, and Roots & Shoots in 1991 to teach young children about conservation. Amazingly she died this year while in the middle of a book tour, using even her final year of conscious life to continue to help heal humans’ understandings of their place in and dependence on Gaia.

Joanna Macy

Also, returning to Earth in 2025 was Joanna Macy. Not as known in broader circles, she is very well known in the spiritual environmental community for “The Work That Reconnects.” I remember discovering her work in 2012 while working on State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? Her ideas on Active Hope influenced my research that year, which in turn shaped the development of the Gaian Way. But more importantly, from her development of the Council of All Beings, to her advocacy for nuclear guardianship, she has been a powerful force for the deeper environmental framings that are required to get us beyond a capitalistic domination of the living Earth. In other words, both Jane and Joanna devoted their lives to challenging our broken relationship with Gaia and the beings that make up this holobiont. And both leave a legacy for others to continue this important work, this “work that reconnects.” Perhaps for centuries.

In a novel I’m writing, in a post-collapse future, I imagine wherever there is a nuclear scar, there is a Joanna (or a rare Jo), who have taken it upon themselves to serve as nuclear guardian. Their lives are not easy: as the years pass and fewer remember the nuclear plant or accident, more transgress, drawn by the resources, land and other artifacts in the danger zone. It’s hard, after all, to understand the invisible danger of radiation, especially in a post-science future. In other words, the work that reconnects will probably never be easy, but it will always be important.

Postscript

One other notable environmental champion died in 2025: Robert Redford, who used his celebrity to fight to protect public lands and draw attention to climate change. Every year, I’d hear his powerful voice introducing the Goldman Environmental Prize winners. And of course, let’s not forget to pay tribute to the more than 142 environmental defenders who were killed in 2025—those working to protect lands, forests, and rivers around the world. While not famous, they sacrificed their lives to protect Gaia from ‘exceptional’ tool-using humans who have forgotten they are part of and utterly dependent on the living Earth. Take a moment to give thanks for their lives lived, and lives concluded too quickly, and that their memories and devotion continue on in and spread to others in the years to come.

Endnote

*Perhaps the worst form of human exceptionalism is the belief in eternal life, just for humans, not for all other creatures, big, small, conscious or not. Until we let go of that myth, it may be hard to come to terms with our humble place in Gaia.