I have just finished reading a wonderful biography by Andrea Wulf on Alexander von Humboldt a German naturalist. The most famous scientist of his time (he lived 1769 to 1859), his influence and inspiration stretched far and wide: from the research of Charles Darwin, to the foreign policy of Thomas Jefferson, to the revolutionary Simón Bolívar, to the nature poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Goethe. Apparently more things and places are named after Humboldt than anyone else.

According to Wulf he saw the earth as "a web of life" or "one great living organism where everything was connected.” During his Latin American explorations, thrillingly recounted by Wulf, he discovered a quarter of all plant species known at the time, he "came up with the idea of vegetation and climate zones that snake across the globe," and he invented isotherms – lines connecting places with the same temperature and pressure. He also issued prescient warnings about the effects of climate change. Witnessing local environmental devastation from colonial plantations he “warned that humans were meddling with the climate and this would have an unforeseeable impact on ‘future generations’.”

I hope someone makes a movie out of this book. In the meantime and on a related theme, I’ve also just seen a new narrative movie "Embrace of the Serpents" about the ravages of colonial rubber plantations and the destruction of indigenous civilizations on the Amazon. Shot in black and white by Colombian director Ciro Guerra, it has stunning footage of the river and its ecosystem. It is easy to imagine being there.