Alexander von Humboldt

This book aims to view and to understand Alexander von Humboldt from different perspectives and in varying disciplinary contexts. His contributions addressed numerous topics in the earth but also life sciencesspanning from geo-botany, climatology, paleontology, oceanography, mineralogy, resources, and hydrogeology to links between the environmental impact of humans, erosion, and climate change. From the very beginning, he paved the way for a modern, integrated earth system science approach to decipher, characterize, and model the different forcing factors and their feedback mechanisms. It becomes obvious that Humboldts holistic approach is far beyond simple description and empiric data collection. As documented and analyzed in the different texts of this volume, he combines observation and analysis with emotions and subjective perceptions in a very affectionate way. However, this publication does not intend to add another encyclopedic text compilation but to observe and critically analyze this unique personalitys relevance in a modern context, particularly in discussing environmental and social key issues in the twenty-first century.