The Pringle Plan: Web of Life

Driving down Lyme Street in Old Lyme, CT, I was amazed at the traffic and the sight of cars lining both sides of the street , as well as the side streets. Normally a sleepy little town by 5:00 pm, I knew I was on my way to an extraordinary event. As I lined up outside the First Congregational Church, I couldn’t help notice the 2 large signs welcoming gays, Muslims, blacks, Latinos and immigrants. For a moment, I wondered if I was in the wrong place. Was I lining up to protest the mistreatment of all these people? If so, I would have gladly joined in. But no, I heard someone next to me say, “Wow, it’s like a rock star event.” I agreed, and as the line moved forward I was able to peak through to the interior where an image of the book was projected on the white screen set up in front of the alter.

Two people checked us in, and directed us either to the main floor or balcony. A woman came in concerned that she didn’t have a reservation, but was assured due to a cancellation, there would be room for her. So what had I been looking forward to all week? Andrea Wulf had been invited by David Rau, Director of Education and Outreach for the FlorenceGriswold Museum to speak about her book. Although she lives in London, she came to the Old Lyme event to speak about her biography, recently named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by the New York Times. The annual event provided by the Samuel Thorne Memorial Lecture series shines a light on an area of culture that would normally be considered outside the scope of an art museum.

OK, enough teasing. You’re dying to know what book I’m talking about! The biography is titled The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World. So, who is Alexander Von Humboldt? He’s an 18^th and 19^th century influencer. That term, influencer, is new to me. I’ve been reading it all over the place as I learn about social media on the world wide web. Listening to Andrea Wulf speak about Humboldt, that word – influencer – kept popping into my mind. His work and his friendships influenced many well knowns: Darwin, Thoreau, John Muir, Frederic Church, and Thomas Jefferson to name a few.

A naturalist, Humboldt’s adventures and discoveries all over the world, led him to raise concerns about humans altering both the landscape and the climate. Although his name is largely forgotten in the U.S., he truly is the father of the environmental movement. As he traveled the world he took notes, made drawings, took detailed measurements, checked gravity, noted the blueness of the sky – every step of the way. The result is he was able to create maps, for the first time, with shading that showed the true topography of a region. He created the first info-graphics to make knowledge accessible to all. Humboldt’s notes are still used by climatologists today to note the changes that have occurred since his time. However, his real invention was not nature as Wulf’s title suggests, but the foundation of natural science itself – the idea that nature is organized into ecosystems known as “webs of life.” Humboldt saw the big picture – the relationship of one thing to another, one life form to another, one system to another, and one field of study to another. He approached his study of nature not just as a scientist, but as a poet, an artist, and an educator. An engaging speaker, Wulf delighted her audience with one revelation after another. My curiosity peaked, I’m off to the library to check out Wulf’s book.