Talk 19: The forgotten nature lovers*
*Inspired by: The Invention of Nature – The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science, by Andrea Wulf.
Lowering Earth’s fever
Grete has decided to become an Earth-Doctor. She remembers the long list of Earth’s sickness syndromes. She realized that the disease is multifaceted and awfully complex. Without genuine help from many others, she would not be able to find a cure. So, Grete decided to concentrate on reducing Earth’s temperature, what we call climate warming. The disease itself is a bigger grim matter. Earth is happy to see Grete after many months and greets her with a weak tender smile.
“What have you been up to all this time?” Earth inquired.
“I’m trying to get your fever down. Apparently, climate change is warming you up.”
“My dear Grete, that is not new. My temperature has been oscillating naturally for various reasons. I wonder if you know that two hundred years ago some nature lovers found another cause. They alerted humankind that it must correct its behaviour and stop perverse devastation of nature. They expressed their love of nature, giving scientific facts in voluminous books. You will find that these books are holier than all your sacred books combined. Have you not heard of Alexander von Humboldt? He was foremost among them and was the greatest scientist–naturalist that humankind has ever produced. Nature was his sacred guru.”
New prophets
Bursting with curiosity, her eyes widened, Grete pleaded, “Please Earth, tell me more. No one talks about these people anymore.”
“Von Humboldt was born in 1769. He was already more than a prophet when young,” Earth continued. “He learnt so much about me and my nature that he could not finish transcribing his knowledge during ninety years of his life. Right away, his books became a must in educational institutes, literate homes and royal courts.”
“And churches?” Grete intervened. Looking tenderly at Grete, Earth just smiled.
“What he preached were not vague divine prophesies nor incredulous revelations. They were the product of personal experience and scientific observations. Studying his books, many were transformed into famous eco-lovers. Nature-poets like William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Johan Wolfgang von Goethe sang his praises in their poems. Von Humboldt inspired Charles Darwin, who took his books with him on his famous voyage on HMS Beagle.”
“Yes, I’ve heard a lot about Darwin. I am glad he got rid of a lot of rubbish ideas about humans and other living beings. Who else?” Grete prompted tired mother Earth.
Earth continued, “Henry David Thoreau in the USA. Humboldt inspired him when he wrote Walden. Then there was Thoreau’s compatriot, George Perkins Marsh, who described in his book, Man and Nature, how radically the Vermont landscape had changed since Europeans arrived. Human progress, he wrote, has left ‘nature in the shorn and crippled condition.’ It’s a story of destruction and avarice, of extinction and exploitation, as well as of depletion of soil resulting in torrential floods. You see, my dear Grete, humankind or BGH needs to change its behaviour fast if my sickness is to be protected from the ravages of ploughs and axe.”
Science confirms the real virus.
Grete realized that just lowering temperature will not cure Earth’s disease. Earth continued to tell her that Humboldt’s friend, Earnest Haeckel, who coined the term “ecology”, collaborated with Darwin to spread ideas on ecological issues. As an artist his Art Forms in Nature beautifully illustrates nature as seen through a microscope. Grete had not heard about another divine spirit, John Muir. Muir, having failed to muster funds to follow Humboldt’s travels in Orinoco, ended up in the Sierra Nevada and Yosemite Valley. Here he experienced the same sensation of oneness of interactive nature as did Humboldt in Orinoco. He was so inspired that he took up a single-handed mission to arouse the human conscience to block butchering of world’s tallest and oldest sequoia trees and devastating the valley. His compassionate writings about his love of nature convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to declare the valley a national monument, but not without facing much opposition by many greedy eco-exterminator BHG. Few have heard of Simon Bolivar other than as a revolutionary liberator of Venezuela and other South American countries. He encountered Humboldt very briefly but was so touched by his love for nature that he aspired to plant one million trees in Venezuela, and that already two and a half centuries ago.
Fire of human greed
Common people understood Humboldt. Prime ministers, presidents, kings and queens adored and honoured him. But none could put out the fire of human greed.
Grete was most astounded when she heard that Humboldt longed to visit the Indian subcontinent. Despite all the guile, the British Government and other dignitaries failed to obtain an authorization for him from the real rulers of India, the powerful greedy eco-exterminators, the board of governors of the East India Company.
Earth’s voice started to falter. Grete said, “You have truly opened my eyes, dear Earth. I see my mission full of hurdles. I thought all religions would join me to amend the virulent BHG. They rule over the genetic chain, or what they call soul, of the virulent BHG. By staying silent they are a big obstacle. In fact, they continue to champion human activities and human empowerment to dominate and confront nature. You will be amazed to know that in our two-thousand-year history, the Pope uttered the word “ecology” for the first time at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference after one and a half centuries. Evidently, naturalism is not considered compatible with the church ideology.”
Natural is a web
Earth raised her finger and said, “I’m so happy with you, my Grete. You are learning so fast. For centuries, these people of the faith loathed nature lovers and scientists, especially Humboldt. This, I believe, is one of the reasons that few humans now remember Humboldt’s sacred concept: Earth is a natural whole, one great living organism where everything is interconnected. Nature is a web; everything hangs together, not even an atom can be standalone. Cut one thread, the whole will crumble.”
Grete reacted, “Science has made us learn and understand all these intricacies more than ever before. But, at the same time haven’t our super technologies separated our lives from nature?”
Exhaling deeply Earth asked Grete, “How many of your fellow BHG know that Humboldt conceived the term “isotherm” and used it to study my climate for the first time? Who recalls that he was a life-long abolitionist of slave trade and anti-colonialist? He developed the idea of human-induced climate change, local and global? I appreciate your struggle to reduce my fever. You are trying to treat my fever first because it affects human greed. Any benefit to nature might come as a spin-off. Humboldt saw how humankind unsettled the balance of nature. Go out and revive him as the father of your environmental movement. Do not forget him and put his ideas into practice.
Prayer to All Mighty BHG
People do not know or have forgotten that more places in the world are named after Humboldt than anybody else. Yet, has humankind made any positive progress since Humboldt’s time to cure my disease? All I see is that the BHG have become even more virulent. I see only darkness in the intellectual and technological brilliance of humankind. Grete please, it might help if you pray to the All Mighty BHG. Such a prayer might cure me!” Earth laughed.
