Dude’s got more places and things named after him than anyone else on the globe but hardly anyone outside of nature nerds know who he is. Basically he laid the groundwork for guys like Darwin and Charles Lyell and was credited by modern environmentalists and conservationists alike for developing the idea of ecosystems and man’s ability to alter/harm them.

Geology, climatology, mining, biogeography, volcanology, geomagnetic fields – there was almost no field this phenomenal explorer and naturalist did not make significant discoveries in or propel major ideas forward in that would later bear out in the hands of future experts. He was a giant among natural scientists but hardly gets mention today because he doesn’t have one massive discovery… just a bunch of massive ideas and a truckload of incremental discoveries with loads of data that helped others. There’s a great biography of him by Andrea Wulf called The Invention of Nature. Fascinating.