The invention of nature wulf5/19/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() At Lake Valencia, near Caracas, Humboldt observed the effects of deforestation and developed an early notion of the link between people’s activities and climate change. He deplored slavery and the ravages of the plantation economy. Whatever nature’s raw grandeur, Humboldt also saw the worrying hand of humankind at work. At night, as jaguars hunted tapirs, the air was filled with the sounds of “a long-extended and ever-amplifying battle of the animals.” Such views would influence Darwin as he grappled with his theories of evolution. Here, in the thickness of the jungle - the mosquitos were hell - he saw a mixture of harmony and competition, plants battling one another for precious light. With his French scientist companion, Aime Bonpland, he voyaged down the Orinoco River, accompanied, at one point, by a mastiff, eight monkeys, seven parrots, a toucan, and macaw. His explorations of the Americas between 17, which took him from Washington D.C., to Lima, Peru, from hot plains to icy heights, profoundly shaped his vision of nature. She is at her best in her vivid and exciting chapters describing Humboldt’s epic travels. Wulf knows her subject well, but her book, divided between a biography of his life and sections tracing his influence on Thomas Jefferson, Simon Bolivar, Charles Darwin, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and others, sometimes feels disjointed. ![]()
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