i don't need to keep. going to go over all over the action on the 4th i'm glad. that it never works out mr obama's barely. 2 years. on. alexander for. himself as an adventurer he really cultivated this image of the daring adventure he was in he was the best publicist to machine ever.

few know him as well as she tells andrea of wolf is an expert on alexander from whom bolts life and adventures her biography reintroduce the great naturalist to a new generation of readers and now the world is marking his 250th birthday we made out with andrea wulf at the royal institution in london one of britain's foremost establishments for scientific education and research. will spend over a decade on the traces of alexander for humboldt she's written 2 books about him including an illustrated album about his famous expedition to south and sin.

america it depicts the hardships in jude but also his fascinating encounters and discoveries and it includes his drawings which fundamentally changed your view of the americas. you alexander for whom boyd was for sure one of the greatest scientists of previous times of all times when he was the most famous scientist of his time and i think he's undergoing a little bit of a renaissance at the moment and i think quite rightly so because i think his views on how he brings together the arts and the science how he says that we need to use our imagination and our feelings to understand nature i think are very relevant today as we are dealing with climate change so no one dares to talk about the wonder of nature of the beauty of nature the vulnerable beauty of our planet and i

think that something that homework that. something we could use a bit of that we could probably use today. alexander front was born to wealthy parents in bergen in 769 after a brief career working for the pressure in government he used his inheritance to embark on the adventure of a lifetime and set off for america at the age of 30 accompanied by the french explorer and botanist. who traveled to venice while out and from there to cuba colombia peru mexico and ecuador he collected plants specimens observed animals and became the 1st european to almost reach the peak of the chimborazo volcano in the n.t. at the time it was thought to be the highest mountain in the world later wrote $29.00 books about his trip he really cultivated this image of the daring adventure he was he was the best. publicist to machine ever he would

write letters from south america long letters to his friends and then he would end them said i don't mind if you send them to the newspaper so by the time he returns everybody has heard about his adventure so it's very much part of his self promotion humboldt is believed to have written a total of $30000.00 letters luckily for him he was exempted from paying postage by the pression postal minister. he documented his adventures in the letters and his notebooks describing how his boat capsized on the r. noko river and he almost drowned talking about the tough hikes and the damage to his feet the various diseases and the mosquitoes. but he also praised the natural beauty and the cultural wealth of the countries he visited. he returned from latin america with

a completely new portray of the ancient civilization so he explained that these ants and south american civilization had been very sophisticated cultures with rich languages and with sophisticated architecture and he then in turn influenced many many scholars who began to study them his contemporaries the great german writer johann vulcan found gerta delighted in his intellectual exchanges with whom he once said in 8 days of reading books you couldn't learn as much as what he tells you in an hour. u.s. president thomas jefferson met several times and maintained a correspondence with him for years. i consider him the most important scientist whom i have met. the english naturalist charles darwin is said to have been inspired by whom both while writing his most famous book. on

the origin of species alexander from humbled was the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived. europeans have really looked down on the new world and then there there's another argument where you can say that he was he had a very strong influence on simone believe are they met in paris and agent of ford just went home returned and later said that homeboy woke up south americans with his pen so was home alone i think so ho almost descriptions of latin america west so vivid and so beautiful he gave the colonists the confidence to fight their fight of independence. the soldier and statesman simone believe i was instrumental in liberation latin american countries from spanish control. alexander from home is the true discoverer of

america his studies did more for america than the action of all the congress before his expedition to south america. to travel permission from the spanish team and received a passport for the colonies but he was shocked by how arrogant and brutal the colonial rulers were towards the indigenous peoples was he aware of his own privileges as a wealthy european. i don't know if you would see it as we see it today we have to always bear in mind these historic figures that they live in their times what i can say is that he was unlike other europeans who traveled through south america so unlike other europeans he did not see the indigenous people for example as savages or as barbarians quite the opposite so he was he respected them he would use them as their guides and he very

quickly realized that they were. that they could navigate the jungle in a completely different way so he described the mess the best observers of nature as the best geographers have ever met he also collected all their languages and later said that is there's not a language in south america through which we could not express an abstract philosophical european concept. yet when he set off on his 1st major expedition on the orinoco one of south america's longest rivers ignored the protests of his local guides and dug up skulls in a burial ground in the name of science. bolt was a man of his time he was committed to the enlightenment but he was also obsessive puja voted to his research and could also be inconsiderate of others as well as of himself. he pushed himself to his limits he was not well prepared when he set off to climb chimborazo the soles of his shoes were far too thin and he

had no gloves his feet was soon blistered and bloody but he almost made it to the top to an altitude of $5917.00 made his. no european had ever made it that far. made drawings of everything that he observed so he could show others later. his famous cross-sectional diagram of chimborazo sheds light on different climates and vegetation signs and gives an insight into his understanding of nature. he came up with a new concept. and that concept is that nature is a weapon life that nature is an interconnected whole where everything somehow hangs together from the smallest insect to the tallest tree and he described as a living organism so that's what i mean with the invention of nature that he's not

. then nature was much more seen as a mechanical system and not as a living organism. the idea of nature as a living organism in which everything is interconnected it was a new one in the 19th century but who also ruled that humans were a danger to nature you not only wanted people to understand nature but to feel it this is something that we now have to think about in the current debate about the climate crisis sensible. we have the ability is just not acceptable so in the scientific world for example in peer reviewed articles scientists are not allowed to write about their feelings and their emotions if you speak to scientists most will tell you that they became a scientist because they love nature so i think it is there and it is really time to dare to introduce this into debates again for example i give you one example which you know in the in. our whole debate about climate change we tend to

talk about statistics so we say we talk about the increasing acidity of of the oceans but we don't talk about the beauty of wild when. we all know how terrible oil production is for our planet but it is the photograph of a. black oil drenched that makes us kind of stop. untrainable space selling book the invention of nature alexander from humble it's new world is not only a biography but an adventure story about humboldt's travels and discoveries full of exciting imagery. wherever home bottom bomb plant during those 1st weeks of camara something new there tension the landscape had to spell over at the palm trees where ornamented with magnificent red blossoms the birds and fish seem to compete in.

there are no scopic shoes and even the crayfish were scribed new and yellow pink flamingos to one legged at the shore and the palms fanned leaves mottled the white sand into patchwork of shade sun there were butterflies monkeys and so many plants to catch i know that we run around like fools even the usually. said that he would go mad if the wonders don't stop soon. to get to know her subject will spend hours in archives libraries and private collections all over the world but she also literally followed in whole bolt's footsteps. you only knew. one of the great things when you write a book about an explorer is that you get to travel the world obviously all in the name of research so i had so much fun. following his footsteps so it was a great excuse to go to latin america where i had never been before and i don't know how other writers do it but i need to i can't describe the landscape i've not

seen myself so because i'm not a wealthy prussian heiress to crap i could not go on a 5 exploration so i had to kind of pick and choose so i went up and brought so we are on the edge of the rocks and 5000 meters and. i'm here because this homo came here and it was here on that you can't serve. if you vision as nature is unified this is really the moment where you hear is he's a pretty nice guys high up i'm giving up here 5000 meters. so that was a spectacular moment also because the weather can be so terrible and we were just so lucky everything was perfect and then there was a moment to sun out which is another of the volcanoes where we actually found the hut in which homeworld had slept at 4000 meters. 6. years later on

trail full of stalled on mt sinai again in a lustrous company german president franco to shine meyer had invited her to accompany his delegation to south america they went to colombia and ecuador and to the collapse of the silence in february 29th teen star in my own operate at the home for the year to mark the 250th anniversary of her birth wolf was of course the perfect member of the delegation since she had helped to rescue the great explorer from bella to oblivion. if someone had told me 8 years ago when i sat on my own in an archive reading through home what horrible handwriting that in 2019 i would listen to the german president give a speech in quito about home was relevance for the environmental debate today i would have never believed it and that for me was very very very important moment to

moment with guns bombs and everything because for me the homework that is so important is the one who talks about who warns about the destruction of the environment in it more than 200 years ago and to see him being used for this argument again i think is just wonderful. special has been translated into many languages and sold in dozens of countries she's been invited all over the world has received numerous prizes and given dozens of speeches at conferences or on television and she's also on the program committee of the hall forum the new museum for world cultures that's expected to open in 2020 the building that will house it based on berlin's form a city palace contains old a new architectural elements. the home bought for a showcase berlin's rich collections of non european cultural artifacts. how would

under a of curation exhibition here if given a chance. or 1st fall i'm glad i'm not a curator just a historian so i don't have to do this but i think i would. put something in there that deals with this link between the arts and the sciences that bridge that we've completely forgotten so we tend to draw the sharp line between we see them as 2 different disciplines but someone like homeboy very much united it and i think that's really missing at the moment so i would look at that. and also because it's not just alexander it's also will have his name they both have the name home so it should be also something about languages which i think you could bring like poetry science arts stuff like that together alexander's older brother

statesman an educational reform bill him from whom bolt was also very famous during his life time the whole brothers grew up at schloss tagle losing their father and generally age their mother was a staunch advocate of education and both of them made the most of this each in his own way. so they had they were very different already as children both both set that they had an unhappy childhood. escaped into books stories of ancient rome and greece and alexander escaped into the forests and in table and kind of you know stuff little insects in his pocket and collected them and then later as younger man as they were they were not very close. and then. villan was very critical about alexandre living in paris and said that you know you forget your job and this and

then later as older man that's the best is really wonderful shift you can see how they become very close and they begin to work together and when you look at. williams work on language you can see that he does exactly what alexander bass with nature he sees language as a living organism. vilhelm was the prussian academic alexander the cosmopolitan explorer who became world famous he soon found berlin to provincial and lived in paris when he wasn't traveling his journeys took him to the united states and russia. and though he spent years planning a voyage to india he never made it there as britain's king george the 4th wouldn't give him permission. push home bolt is everywhere in monuments places in geographical features around the world have been named after him

including the homebuilt current which flows along the western coast of south america there's also the penguin this lily is named after him even. name. it's weird when you go to america where hardly anyone knows alexander from home there's so many places named after their best for example there are 13 towns named after him there are 4 counties there's a bay there is a river there is a university named after him there's the cheese some some younger. kids kind of teenagers early twenty's people know his name because the best marianna comes from humboldt county so they have heard his name but they don't know who he is 150 years ago it was a different story in 106910 years after his death and on the 100th anniversary of

his birth who both was only with fireworks around the globe why was he only got forgotten afterwards. there's not a single big discovery attached to him was the name so he did not come up with the theory of evolution or he didn't discover. an actual law he came up with this idea that nature as a weapon of life we take this idea for so technical so so much for granted that we've forgotten the man behind this idea i think that's one thing another thing is that he is his way of doing science of saying yes on the one hand you have to measure everything but on the other hand you also have to use your imagination was absolutely not accepted in the early 20th century anymore and then last but not least at least in the english speaking world he there is a very strong anti german sentiment with world war one so that's the that's the moment when he gets gets pushed out of the public memory here. many of whom builds ideas seem to address contemporary problems not only because we're increasingly

dealing with the effects of climate change but also because more and more people are asking what they can do to halt it such as those taking part in the fridays to future movement headed by swedish team richard to. realize 2 centuries earlier that human intervention in the natural world can have terrible consequences. there's a moment in his diary in 81 when he's when he's in in latin america where he actually says that one day we might travel to distant planets and if we do that we will bring who take our lethal mixture of greed arrogance and while it's with us and we will leave those planets as ravaged as we've already done with so i think he sees this trajectory what we are what we are. about what's about to happen i mean he in 832 he says there are 3 ways in which the in which humans can affect the

climate he says is through deforestation through irrigation and through the great masses of steam and gas at the industrial centers $832.00 so that was pretty like a prediction pretty prophetic. but the time bill finished writing the invention of nature she thought she knew everything there was to know about alexander from whom bolt had been state library acquired his diaries which hadn't been accessible to the public before and she wasn't done with will both get. there is actually one moment i can tell you exactly when i decided that i had to write a 2nd book about which was when. when his legendary south american diaries where bored so they had been in private ownership until then but at the end of 2013 they were bored by the prussians heritage foundation and they were made available online so this was the moment when the 1st pages became available at

the end of 2014 this was the moment when i was just handing over my manuscript for the invention of nature. so i couldn't use them. for the imagination which was not a problem tons of content we cause we have transcriptions but seeing the actual paper pages 4000 pages with hundreds of little sketches and drawings i knew i wanted to do a book that would also show on boards artistic visual side because he did not just understand nature intellectually but also visually so that's when i decided to do whatever you want to call it kind of graphic novel or. non-fiction illustrated. journey of discovery or whatever it is but something that would show his stuff this trailer based on the adventures of alexander from home bold shows that the book does more than summarize homebuilt south american adventure. recounts his 1st encounter with the continent's indigenous peoples his fascination with its

natural beauty his discoveries and his observations about man made disasters illustrator lilian melcher worked many of whom original texts and drawings into this wonderful graphic novel. in a way he became the collaborator so i wrote it. about every single page there something that did his manuscripts his his engravings his original plan specimens his maps is so his his handwriting is everywhere. untrainable spent a decade researching the life of alexander. in archives libraries and private collections she traveled the world following in his footsteps to find out what he saw and felt on his expeditions she learned about the hardships he endured and the diversity of nature there's no doubt that alexander from whom bolt was

a fascinating figure. how do you close the fulcrum someone's vibrant and does she even want to know. what i think i want to have to say goodbye forever he's just going to be like an old friend you see not as much as anymore. i'm pretty sure that i'll continue being interested in him i mean this is the same with my previous books about the founding fathers i still do talks and events about it is to do interviews about it not as much as and anymore but i do have the feeling in the last almost 4 years since the invention came out i've been home once purposedly lady and it's kind of time to step back at some stage so. in 2020 i'm going to finally write another book so so i will see less of him i won't get completely divorced but i also will have some new friends which i will have to

entertain not just him. untrainable snoo project is another historical biography this one is about several people though she won't reveal who however she doubt she'll ever encounter another figure as exciting i'm fearful and and important as alexander from whom both the great gemini naturalist and explorer.

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. place . this is the w. news live from berlin and tunisia prepares for a historic vote it's not presidential elections that should see it the 1st handover of power from one freely and fairly elected leader of the next in the country that sparks the arab spring also coming up. the nation celebrates the life and legacy of one of the most controversial afghan leaders.