Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff Lorn Vogelbaum. Here in December of eighteen oh two, a small ship set sail from sail Peru northward along the South American coastline toward Guayaquiel in present day Ecuador, a trip of about seven hundred miles or eleven hundred kilometers. One of the ship's passengers was a thirty three year old Prussian
aristocrat by the name of Alexander von Humboldt. A mining engineer by training, Humboldt had an insatiable curiosity about nature that led him to roam the planet, studying plants and animals, as well as phenomena ranging from magnetic rocks to river
systems and ocean currents. Fresh from studying the value of batguano as manore in Kale, Humbolt used the sailing trip to investigate a powerful cold current that flowed from the tip of Chile to northern Peru, changing from just offshore to about six hundred miles off the coast about a thousand kilometers. The current's existence had been known for centuries to sailors and fishermen, but no scientist had ever systematically
studied the flow. Humboldt carefully measured the water temperature and the speed, and continued on his journey, which eventually would lead him to Mexico. Humboldt's work was the beginning of scientific understanding of what's now known as the Humboldt Current or the Peru Current. The current helps hold warm, moist air off the coast, keeping the climate on land cool.
It also pulls plankton rich water from deep in the Pacific to the surface, feeding a vast number and variety of fish and birds, and creating the richest marine ecosystem on the planet. Its fishing grounds provide about six percent of the world's catch. The Homebolt currents nutrients support the marine food chain of the Glopagos Islands and influenced its climate as well. It helped make possible the archipelago's incredible biodiversity.
In that sense, the Humboldt Current also shaped the development of evolutionary theory. The Galapagos provided the living laboratory for another nineteenth century scientist, Charles Darwin, whose paradigm shifting work on the origin of the species was published in eighteen fifty nine, the year of Humboldt's death, Darwin was himself
inspired by the work of Humboldt. He's not extremely well known today outside of his eponymous current, but in the early to mid eighteen hundreds, Humboldt was one of the most renowned researchers on the planet. Thomas Jefferson corresponded with him. Humboldt was the first to investigate the relationship between mean temperature and elevation, and came up with the concept of maps with isothermal lines that delineate areas with the same temperature at a given time. He did important early work
on the origin of tropical storms. Humboldt altered the way that scientists see the natural world by finding interconnections. As Humboldt biographer Andrea Wolf wrote, the scientist invented the concept of a web of life, what he called this great chain of causes and effects. Some consider him to be the first ecologist, a thinker who paved the way for the likes of Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring helped
change the way we look at and regulate pesticides. Humboldt was ahead of the curve on understanding environmental problems such as deforestation and its effect upon climate, which he first observed around Lake Valencia and Venezuela back in eighteen hundred. Humboldt was also a predecessor to Albert Einstein as a scientist with a strong interest in social justice. As Andrea Wolf notes, he was a critic of colonialism and supported
revolutionary movements in South America. He also criticized the US, a country he otherwise admired for its institution of sar slavery. For the article this episode is based on how Stuffwork, spoke via email with Aaron Sachs, a history professor at Cornell University an author of The Humboldt Current nineteenth Century
Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism. He thinks that rather than focusing on Humboldt's specific discoveries, it's more important to look at the insights and approaches to environmental work that have been based upon his research and observations. Sex said to me his version of ecology was significant not just because he stressed interconnection, but because he combined it
with a social and ethical perspective. The fact of interconnection had certain implications with regard to human responsibilities toward each other and the environment. It was a cosmopolitan, open minded ecology. Today's episode is based on the article who was Alexander von Humboldt and what is the Whole Bolk Current on HowStuffWorks dot Com written by Patrick J. Higer. Rain Stuff is product of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com
and is produced by Tyler Klang. But four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.