“Father of Environmentalism” and famous explorer

My reading of David McCullough’s Brave Companions has led me an entertaining and informative chapter about the famous explorer, Alexander von Humboldt. If you haven’t read McCullough’s book, which I highly recommend, perhaps you would like to read a lengthy article about Humboldt from a different source. Well, here it is:

Alexander von Humboldt

First published Mon Jan 16, 2023

Alexander (Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander) von Humboldt (1769–1859) was a scientific explorer and natural philosopher, who achieved fame following his return from South America in 1804. Already during his lifetime, biographies celebrating Humboldt began to appear (Rupke 2008), and upon his death in 1859, Humboldt was commemorated across the world—from Alexandria to New York City, from Paris and Moscow to Adelaide and Melbourne (Wulf 2015). An ocean current was named after him, as were numerous national parks, regions, and a penguin species. He has been described as the first ecologist (Bertaux 1985), the “father of American environmentalism” (Sachs 2004), the inspiration behind the National Parks Movement in the United States and Great Britain, and a major influence on environmentalism in India (Grove 1990).

Read more via this Stanford University link.