title: Humboldtian science, Creole meteorology, and the discovery of human-caused climate change in South America.
abstract: The belief that human land use is capable of causing large-scale climatic change lies at the root of modern conservation thought and policy. The origins and popularization of this belief were deeply politicized. Alexander von Humboldt's treatment of the Lake Valencia basin in Venezuela and the desert coast of Peru as natural laboratories for observing the interaction between geophysical and cultural forces was central to this discovery, as was Humboldt's belief that European colonialism was especially destructive to the land. Humboldt's overt cultivation of disciples was critical to building the prestige of this discovery and popularizing the Humboldtian scientific program, which depended fundamentally on local observers, but willfully marginalized chorographic knowledge systems. In creating new, global forms of environmental understanding, Humboldtian science also generated new forms of ignorance.
authors.affiliation: Department of History, University of Kansas, 1445 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 3650, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA. gcushman@ku.edu
authors.forename: Gregory T
authors.initials: GT
authors.lastname: Cushman
mesh_terms: D057231:Climate Change / Q000266:history*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000266:history*; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D055904:Meteorology / Q000266:history*; D010568:Peru; D014687:Venezuela