Editing Alexander von Humboldt (section)

{{short description|German geographer, naturalist and explorer (1769–1859)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Alexander von Humboldt
| image             = Stieler, Joseph Karl - Alexander von Humboldt - 1843.jpg
| caption           = Portrait by [[Joseph Karl Stieler]] (1843)
| birth_date        = 14 September 1769
| birth_place       = [[Berlin]], [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1859|5|6|1769|9|14|df=yes}}
| death_place       = Berlin, Prussia, [[German Confederation]]
| resting_place     = [[Schloss Tegel]]
| education         = [[Viadrina European University|University of Frankfurt (Oder)]]<br/>[[University of Göttingen]]<br/>[[Freiberg University of Mining and Technology|Freiberg School of Mines]] ([[diploma]], 1792)
| field             = [[Geography]]
| known_for         = [[Biogeography]], ''[[Kosmos (Humboldt)|Kosmos]]'' (1845–1862), [[Humboldt Current]], [[magnetic storm]], [[Humboldtian science]], [[Berlin Romanticism]]<ref>Helmut Thielicke, ''Modern Faith and Thought'', William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990, p. 174.</ref>
| academic_advisors = [[Markus Herz]], [[Georg Christoph Lichtenberg]], [[Carl Ludwig Willdenow]], [[Abraham Gottlob Werner]]
| notable_students =
| prizes            = [[Copley Medal]] (1852)
| signature         = Alexander von Humboldt signature.svg
}}

'''Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ʌ|m|b|oʊ|l|t}},<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/humboldt|title=Humboldt|work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|access-date=11 July 2019}}</ref> <small>also</small> {{IPAc-en|US|ˈ|h|ʊ|m|b|oʊ|l|t}},<ref>{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Humboldt|access-date=11 July 2019}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|UK|ˈ|h|ʌ|m|b|ɒ|l|t}};<ref>{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Humboldt,+Alexander+von |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512144325/https://www.lexico.com/definition/humboldt,_alexander_von |url-status=dead |archive-date=2021-05-12 |title=Humboldt, Alexander von |dictionary=[[Lexico]] UK English Dictionary |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]}}</ref> {{IPA|de|ˌalɛˈksandɐ fɔn ˈhʊmbɔlt|lang}}}} (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German [[polymath]], [[geographer]], [[natural history|naturalist]], [[List of explorers|explorer]], and proponent of [[Romanticism|Romantic]] philosophy and [[Romanticism in science|science]].<ref>Malcolm Nicolson, "Alexander von Humboldt and the Geography of Vegetation", in: A. Cunningham and N. Jardine (eds.), ''Romanticism and the Sciences'', Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 169–188; Michael Dettelbach, "Romanticism and Resistance: Humboldt and "German" Natural Philosophy in Natural Philosophy in Napoleonic France", in: Robert M. Brain, Robert S. Cohen, Ole Knudsen (eds.), ''Hans Christian Ørsted and the Romantic Legacy in Science: Ideas, Disciplines, Practices'', Springer, 2007; Maurizio Esposito, ''Romantic Biology, 1890–1945'', Routledge, 2015, p. 31.</ref> He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and [[linguistics|linguist]] [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]] (1767–1835).<ref>{{cite news|title=''The Invention of Nature'', by Andrea Wulf|date=25 September 2015|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|first=Colin|last=Thubron|author-link=Colin Thubron|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/books/review/the-invention-of-nature-by-andrea-wulf.html|access-date=1 March 2017|archive-date=17 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017183940/http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/books/review/the-invention-of-nature-by-andrea-wulf.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |year=2014 |title=Von Humboldt, Alexander |first=Jeffrey |last=Lee |website=The Encyclopedia of Earth |url=http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/156871/ |access-date=2015-09-26 |archive-date=2015-09-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150927171502/http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/156871/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |title=Alexander von Humboldt and the General Physics of the Earth |first=Stephen T. |last=Jackson |volume=324 |pages=596–597 |url=http://faculty.jsd.claremont.edu/dmcfarlane/bio176mcfarlane/pdf%20papers/Humboldt%20hsitory.pdf |access-date=2015-11-11 |archive-date=2019-04-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412023559/http://faculty.jsd.claremont.edu/dmcfarlane/bio176mcfarlane/pdf%20papers/Humboldt%20hsitory.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Humboldt's quantitative work on [[botany|botanical]] [[geography]] laid the foundation for the field of [[biogeography]], while his advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement pioneered modern [[Earth's magnetic field|geomagnetic]] and [[meteorology|meteorological]] monitoring.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Love|first=J.J.|title=Magnetic monitoring of Earth and space|journal=Physics Today|volume=February|issue=2|year=2008|pages=31–37|url=http://www.intermagnet.org/publications/Magnetic_monitoring_of_earth_and_space.pdf|access-date=29 June 2015|doi=10.1063/1.2883907|bibcode=2008PhT....61b..31H|archive-date=28 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190728141158/http://www.intermagnet.org/publications/Magnetic_monitoring_of_earth_and_space.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Thomson|first=A.|title=Von Humboldt and the establishment of geomagnetic observatories|journal=IAEA-Inis|year=2009|url=http://inis.iaea.org/search/searchsinglerecord.aspx?recordsFor=SingleRecord&RN=41118488|access-date=2015-03-08|archive-date=2020-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304143542/https://inis.iaea.org/search/searchsinglerecord.aspx?recordsFor=SingleRecord&RN=41118488|url-status=live}}</ref> Humboldt and [[Carl Ritter]] are both regarded as the founders of modern geography as they established it as an independent scientific discipline.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hartshorne |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Hartshorne |date=1939 |title=The pre-classical period of modern geography |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00045603909357282 |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=35–48 |doi=10.1080/00045603909357282 |via=Taylor & Francis|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kerski |first=Joseph J. |author-link=Joseph Kerski |title=Interpreting Our World: 100 Discoveries That Revolutionized Geography |publisher=ABC-Clio |year=2016 |isbn=9781610699204 |pages=284}}</ref>

Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in the [[Americas]], exploring and describing them for the first time from a non-Spanish European scientific point of view. His description of the journey was written up and published in several volumes over 21 years.

Humboldt resurrected the use of the word ''cosmos'' from the ancient Greek and assigned it to his multivolume treatise, ''[[Cosmos (Humboldt book)|Kosmos]]'', in which he sought to unify diverse branches of scientific knowledge and culture. This important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity,<ref name="Walls 2009 3–15">{{Cite journal|last=Walls|first=L.D.|title=Introducing Humboldt's Cosmos|journal=Minding Nature|volume=August 2009|pages=3–15|url=http://www.humansandnature.org/introducing-humboldt-s-cosmos-article-26.php|access-date=2015-03-04|archive-date=2019-05-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512163431/https://www.humansandnature.org/introducing-humboldt-s-cosmos-article-26.php|url-status=live}}</ref> which introduced concepts of [[ecology]] leading to ideas of [[environmentalism]]. In 1800, and again in 1831, he described scientifically, on the basis of observations generated during his travels, local impacts of development causing [[Climate change|human-induced climate change]].<ref name="Paul-2017" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/12/the-forgotten-father-of-environmentalism/421434/|title=The Forgotten Father of Environmentalism|last=Wulf|first=Andrea|author-link=Andrea Wulf|date=2015-12-23|work=[[The Atlantic]]|access-date=2020-01-14|ref=none|archive-date=2020-01-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200114203439/https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/12/the-forgotten-father-of-environmentalism/421434/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=2019-08-29|title=Humboldt's legacy|journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution|language=en|volume=3|issue=9|pages=1265–1266|doi=10.1038/s41559-019-0980-5|pmid=31467435|issn=2397-334X|doi-access=free|bibcode=2019NatEE...3.1265. }}</ref>

Humboldt is seen as "the father of ecology" and "the father of environmentalism".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://biology4095.science.blog/2020/02/19/the-father-of-ecology/ | title=The Father of Ecology | date=19 February 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/12/the-forgotten-father-of-environmentalism/421434/ | title=The Forgotten Father of Environmentalism | website=[[The Atlantic]] | date=23 December 2015 }}</ref>