Alexander von Humboldt

The 19th-Century Savior for 21st-Century Climate Change

The negotiators in Paris should've asked: What would Alexander von Humboldt do?

• BY ANDREA WULF
• DECEMBER 17, 2015
• 

Now that the speeches have died down and the champagne has been put away, it’s worth considering French President François Hollande’s note of caution at the conclusion of the Paris climate conference. “We will not be judged on a word but an act,” he declared. Actions, however, were not an emphasis of the final deal. The Paris agreement included pledges from 196 countries to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius but not any penalties for failing to reach the specified targets for emissions cuts./.../