A renowned primatologist has given the cold shoulder to climate-change deniers.

Dr Jane Goodall is best known for ground breaking study on chimpanzees. Now, the 85-year-old spends 300 days of the year spreading the message about climate change.

She says that she never thought she would be a scientist, but now believes she has a mission to try and prevent the destruction of our natural world. 

She told Jack Tame what she'd like to do with people who deny the reality of climate change.

"Let's go out to the Antarctica where the sea-ice is melting faster than anybody ever expected, and let's put them on the sea-ice and leave them there and see what happens."

Goodall says that those people don't really believe it isn't happening, but that the facts are "inconvenient" for them.

She is speaking ahead of her New Zealand later this month, with shows in Wellington and Auckland. 

Despite her age, she says is still regularly touring because of the dark times the planet is going through. 

"We're polluting air, water, and land, we're burning fossil fuels. All of this is leading to climate change, so because I was given a gift of communication, and people seem to listen, I feel I have to use it."

She says that she has to "speed up" as she gets older, because there is less and less time to spread the message. 

Goodall, through her eponymous institute, is aiming to court more young people into her mission, describing children as the "future" who can save the plane.t

She says that children tend to love nature, but tragically become distracted by technology and materialistic matters as they get older.  

"Roots and Shoots is trying to get young people out into nature. If you don't know about something, you can't care about it, and then you won't save it."