I finally finished reading "The Invention of Nature" yesterday, having been a bit slow due to the other books I read alongside it.

It's really good, and if you're not aware of both Alexander von Humboldt (not the sail training ship, (a.k.a. Alexander von Becks - if anyone remembers those TV adverts with the barque with a green hull and green sails), but its namesake) and his influence on Darwin, Muir and others, I'd recommend it. We should have been taught about him, and Marsh, Haeckel and Muir, in school; they should be household names - as indeed Humboldt was in his day - hence the Humboldt current, and many other things named after him .

Though I'm not 100% convinced there are more things named after von Humboldt than anyone else - I think he's probably pipped to the post by a chap from Nazareth.

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It's common knowledge that we have known about the greenhouse effect since the late 19th century. Having started Andrea Wulf's "The Invention of Nature" about Alexander von Humboldt, its interesting to read that he observed human activity changing climate as well as destroying ecosystems and tried to warn of the risk at the very beginning of that century.

Good thing we paid attention and rapidly learned not to trash the planet, eh?

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