Martin:
Hi Anna, shall we talk about our research for our history of environmentalism unit?
Anna:
Oh hi Martin, sure.
Martin:
So we agreed we'd give a presentation about Alexander von Humboldt, didn't we?
Anna:
Yes, did you know much about him?
Martin:
I knew that he was a German explorer and scientist and that he lived in the 1800s, and you?
Anna:
Well, that, and that he travelled extensively around South America, written lots of books, and been hugely famous.
Martin:
During his lifetime, yes, but these days he's largely forgotten.
Martin:
Yeah, which is a shame really.
Martin:
I mean, it's not like he had these theories which turned out to be wrong, far from it.
Martin:
He was saying things which at the time were groundbreaking, but now it's just stuff that we accept as being self-evident.
Anna:
And having stated the obvious, I suppose you could say that's hardly grounds for remaining famous.
Martin:
I mean, he argued that it's essential to respect the natural world rather than just exploit it by mining and polluting, which we take for granted now.
Anna:
Sure, I've heard him described as the father of environmentalism.
Martin:
And I suppose that's because of his view that in the natural world everything is connected.
Martin:
So in one location there might be a particular animal which has evolved to feed on a particular plant.
Martin:
As a result, the plant will develop its own defence mechanism.
Martin:
If one species changes in some way, then others are likely to in response.
Martin:
Changes in the environment tend to have knock-on effects, and Humboldt brought that to people's attention, really very convincingly.
Anna:
Yeah, I've heard that during his lifetime he was one of the most famous people on the planet.
Anna:
Which seems odd, because he was just a largely self-taught academic, writing in great detail about all these obscure scientific topics, which can't have had much to do with the lives of ordinary people.
Martin:
Ah, but it was the diversity of subjects, from volcanoes to ocean currents, where Humboldt probably knew more than anyone alive.
Martin:
That's what made him such a big name.
Martin:
Even kings and presidents wanted to meet him.
Martin:
And his books sold really well.
Anna:
I think some of them were quite dense and hard to follow, but they combined both scientific research and some very flowery language, poetic even.
Anna:
Very different from conventional academic writing these days, of course, where writers just stick to the facts.
Anna:
But back then, it was what people liked.
Martin:
I suppose Humboldt's books were like an early version of Wikipedia.
Anna:
You mean because of all these collaborators, who'd produce a bit of text for his latest book and send it to him.
Anna:
So he'd assemble all these bits that he got from other people.
Martin:
One amazing thing about Humboldt is that he wasn't just a scientist, he was also a social critic.
Anna:
Well, in theory, yes.
Anna:
But I read that when he met Thomas Jefferson...
Martin:
President of the United States.
Anna:
Yeah, who actually kept slaves.
Anna:
And Humboldt had argued very strongly against slavery, describing it as inhumane.
Anna:
But when he and Jefferson met, Humboldt deliberately avoided the issue of slavery so that they wouldn't argue, which was a waste of an opportunity to take Jefferson to task over his decision to use slaves.
Anna:
A bit cowardly, maybe, if he was so principled.
Martin:
So, in our talk, why don't we link the places Humboldt travelled to what he accomplished while he was there?
Anna:
I read that when Humboldt visited Lake Valencia, he was told by local residents that the area had got a whole lot drier in recent years.
Anna:
So he investigated and concluded that it was because of what people were doing to the landscape.
Martin:
Right, hadn't there been cutting down loads of trees?
Anna:
Exactly, which dried out the land so there was less rain.
Anna:
So people's interactions with their environment were actually altering the weather.
Martin:
Which we know about now, but he worked it out 200 years ago.
Martin:
Right, and when he climbed Mount Chimborazo, aiming to identify what plants grew at different altitudes, he developed acute mountain sickness.
Martin:
But having such a keen, analytical mind, he was able to conclude that it must have been due to low oxygen levels at higher altitudes.
Martin:
Again, common knowledge now.
Anna:
I read that during his time in Cuba, as well as studying the wildlife, he also analysed the technology in trade.
Martin:
Sugar production, you mean.
Anna:
Then he made suggestions as to how it could be enhanced, so as to be more profitable.
Martin:
And in Venezuela, hadn't he heard rumours of a natural waterway that supposedly connected two separate river systems?
Martin:
It's just that such things are rare, and he wanted to verify if it really existed.
Anna:
The Casiquiere Canal, I think it's called.
Martin:
Yeah, well, sure enough, he found it and mapped it.
Anna:
What an amazing guy.
