AWU-CER Lunchtime
Lectures 2016
By
Dr. Kevin M. Anderson, AW Center for Environmental Research
The Unity of Nature: The Creation, Discovery, and End of Nature
In 1798,
Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859) was appointed by the King of Spain to make
the first extensive scientific exploration
of Spanish America. “I shall collect plants and fossils and make astronomic
observations. But that’s not the main
purpose of my expedition – I shall try to find out how the forces of nature
interact upon one another and how the geographic
environment influences plant and animal life. In other words, I must find out
about the unity of nature.” Equipped
with the most sophisticated scientific field instruments of his time, Von
Humboldt traveled through the New World
mapping the biogeography of the Americas from 1799-1804. At the end of his
journey, he had a new vision of nature – of
isotherms, ecosystems, food webs, watersheds, climate change, and complex
interconnectivity – and he had invented
the concept of nature that we have today.
Before
returning to Europe, at the invitation of President Thomas Jefferson, he
stopped in the new United States and met with
Jefferson and others. Through that meeting and his subsequent writings, he
opened American culture to his vision of
nature. On his return to the Old World, he became the most celebrated and
influential scientist of his age. No one had a
greater impact on the modern concept of the earth as a “natural whole” - a
biogeochemical system open to rational
explanation yet charged with imaginative potential and threatened by human
mismanagement. This idea of nature - as
an ordered unity, as a globally complex system of interconnections, as a cosmos
open to imagination and wonder, as
a subject for exacting scientific study, and as an object of human
mismanagement – is now a familiar concept,
however, in America, Von Humboldt is largely forgotten.
The 2016
CER Lunchtime Lectures will explore the concept of nature and Von Humboldt’s
legacy. We will begin by examining
the creation of our Western ideas of and the study of nature which laid the
foundations for Von Humboldt’s ideas. From
there, we will trace the influence of Von Humboldt on science, literature, and
environmental management. In Europe,
his influence ranged from shaping the ideas of nature for Goethe and the
Romantic poets to inspiring scientists
like Darwin, Agassiz, Haeckel, and others. Moreover, no other European had as
great an impact on 19th century
American intellectual culture from the sciences (Agassiz, Gray, Bache, Maury)
to literature (Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman,
Muir) and painting (Church, Catlin). In 1869, the centennial of his birth was
celebrated across the globe, from Moscow to
Mexico City and, in the United States, most cities hosted celebrations, with
10,000 people joining President Grant in Pittsburgh
while 15,000 attended the festivities in New York City. One hundred years
later, Von Humboldt was hardly
remembered, but through our beliefs about nature his legacy persists. The year
will end by seeing how his legacy emerges in
contemporary environmentalism, environmental science, and the idea of the
Anthropocene.
Each talk begins AT NOON
Locations and Day of the
Month –
Every 3rd Tuesday - Austin Water Center for Environmental Research (CER) at Hornsby Bend
Austin Water – The University of
Texas – Texas A&M University
A Partnership for Urban Ecology
and Sustainability: Community, Ecology, Research
located at the Hornsby Bend
Biosolids Management Plant
2210 South FM 973, Austin, Texas
78725
CER website: www.austintexas.gov/cer
Every 3rd Wednesday - One
Texas Center (OTC) at 505 Barton Springs Road and South First Street, Austin, Texas - Room 325
Free and Open to the
Public – bring a lunch and learn
Time: Noon to 1pm
The Creation of Nature [January – March]
We begin the year by looking at the two dominant
ideas of American nature: wilderness and pastoral nature. Wilderness as pure
nature and spiritual solace has a unique hold on the American mind, but it
lives in tension with the American agrarian ideal of family farm and ranch
landscapes and culture. We will explore the origins, implications, and contradictions
of these two ideas of nature, and then we will turn to the origins of life
sciences and the study of nature beginning with the ancient Greeks and moving
to the Enlightenment.
January 19 CER – First Nature: The Pristine Myth and Wilderness
January 20 OTC – First Nature: The Pristine Myth and Wilderness
February 16 CER – Second Nature: Pastoral Landscapes and the
Cultivation of Nature
February 17 OTC – Second Nature: Pastoral Landscapes and the
Cultivation of Nature
March 15 CER – The Study of Nature: Natural History and the Creation
of Nature
March 16 OTC – The Study of Nature: Natural History and the Creation
of Nature
The Discovery of Nature [April - September]
Over these six lectures, we will see how
Alexander Von Humboldt transformed the practice of natural history and
collecting nature into the science of nature. We will look at how he balanced
imagination with scientific exactitude, thereby inspiring both poets and
scientists to study nature in the 19th century. In particular, his influence
on Darwin was profound both in setting Darwin’s life course and in fostering
his idea of evolution. As the 19th century ended, new sciences of
nature emerged and Von Humboldt’s ideas to shape in 20th century
science and culture.
April 19 CER – The Nature Collectors: New Lands, New Nature, and
Ecological Imperialism
April 20 OTC – The Nature Collectors: New Lands, New Nature, and Ecological Imperialism
May 17 CER – The Scientist of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt and the
Physical Description of the Earth
May 18 OTC – The Scientist of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt and the
Physical Description of the Earth
June 15 OTC – The Invention of Modern Nature: The Earth as a “Natural
Whole”
June 21 CER – The Invention of
Modern Nature: The Earth as a “Natural Whole”
(NOTE THE REVERSED DAYS)
July 19 CER – The Romance of Nature: Science, Imagination, and the
Poets of Nature
July 20 OTC – The Romance of Nature: Science, Imagination, and the
Poets of Nature
August 16 CER – The Evolution of Nature: Von Humboldt, Darwin, and the
Systematic Universe
August 17 OTC – The Evolution of Nature: Von Humboldt, Darwin, and the
Systematic Universe
September 20 CER – The Economy of Nature: Ecology, Earth Science, and Biotic
Navigation
September 21 OTC – The Economy of Nature: Ecology, Earth Science, and
Biotic Navigation
The End of Nature [October – December]
Today Von Humboldt is largely forgotten in
America, but his legacy persists in environmentalism, science, and natural
resource management. The final three lectures will explore how his ideas
persist in contemporary culture and how relevant his writings and ideas are to
contemporary debates about climate change and human impacts on the Earth.
October 18 CER – The Great Disruptors: Environmentalism and the Idea
of American Nature
October 19 OTC – The Great Disruptors: Environmentalism and the Idea
of American Nature
November 15 CER – The Earth Managers: Balance, Resilience, and
Environmental Science
November 16 OTC – The Earth Managers: Balance, Resilience, and Environmental
Science
December 20 CER – The End of Nature: Permanence, Change, and the Anthropocene
December 21 OTC –
The End of Nature: Permanence, Change, and the Anthropocene
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