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Follows Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland as they travel together in South America and then go their separate ways, in the process illustrating two very different ways of understanding humanity's place in the natural world.
In Ecology on the Ground and in the Clouds, Andrea Nye raises a question: In a time of climate change and environmental crisis, where should we look for inspiration? Is it to Alexander von Humboldt, the "inventor of nature" who viewed the cosmos from the lofty peak of Mount Chimborazo? Or is it to Humboldt's travel partner, the botanist Aimé Bonpland, who left Europe behind for forty years of conservation, agroforestry, and cooperative farming in the newly independent Republic of Argentina? For Bonpland, order and harmony are not unveiled with European reason and insight; they are made on the ground by intelligent, honorable, and diverse working men and women. Cosmos is not a hidden balance of nature; it is order in thought and action that ensures what we do is coherent and for the common good. It is fair and efficient government, just adjudication of disputes, and good management. It is loving attention to intricate "cogs and wheels" of natural processes at the same time as imagining new forms of beauty and stability in human communities and working landscapes.
"Well-researched and deeply nuanced, this book presents a wealth of substantive material on the relationship between Aimé Bonpland and Alexander von Humboldt. Nye offers a fresh alternative to works that understate Bonpland's role, restoring his life and work to the foreground. The book's binding theme—the contrast between Bonpland's pragmatic proto-environmentalism and Humboldt's 'cosmic' idealism—richly deserves our attention. At times stirring and poignant, Nye's account is relevant for those seeking to understand the deep roots of sustainability thinking." —Curt Meine, author of Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work
"Andrea Nye significantly augments and balances biographical scholarship on Alexander von Humboldt. By properly crediting Humboldt's travel companion and coauthor Aimé Bonpland, Nye's book corrects and enriches the often singular recognition of Humboldt. Moreover, Ecology on the Ground and in the Clouds successfully compares the two men's respective styles of research to refine our thinking about the very nature of environmentalism." — Nicolaas A. Rupke, author of Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography
Introduction
Part I: Setting Out
1. Close Encounter at a Paris Boarding House
2. A Walk across Spain and a Climb Up a Volcano
Part II: The Voyage
3. Aerial Views, Nocturnal Birds, and Wild Indians
4. The Eel Ponds of the Llanos
5. Riverworlds
6. The Mountain
7. The Changing of the Gods
Part III: The Return
8. Coming Home
9. Tales of Three Cities
10. Botany on Demand
11. Taking Leave
Part IV: Worlds Apart
12. A Lost Friend
13. Warlords and Kings
14. Cosmos and Microcosm
15. A Last Exchange of Gifts
16. Scattered Remains
Afterthoughts: A Bonplandian Ethos
Notes
Primary Sources
Bibliography
Index