Environmental Movement:  Art

Introduction

Relatively few people who travel the world have been to Lake Annecy.

Pretty much everyone who has

thinks it one of the most beautiful places they ever saw.

Dr Servettaz devoted the larger part of his professional life to saving lake Annecy.  He taught himself the science of limnology and created an environmental movement in order to save the lake.  But what motivated him?  What drove him with such determination and focus for over more than 30 years?  It was not science.  It was his passion for the beauty of the natural world.

His beloved lake Annecy urged him to poetic expression.   The sight of its beautiful landscape inspired him afresh each day.  The combination of lake and mountains drove him to philosophize about the world and man's place in it. Above all he  loved the great variety of ways in which Annecy allowed its fortunate visitors to engage with this beautiful natural world - his particular chosen activity being diving.  It was these streams of motivation that drove his commitment to the cause, to the seemingly endless lobbying and political persuasion, and especially the scientific research to which more than a  third of his book is devoted. These streams of motivation fuse together with his scientific curiosity and wonder,  into a fifth emotion which connected him directly with the early founders of the environmental movement such as Humboldt, Darwin and Haeckel   - a passion fusing Art and Science - a passion for the 'Scientific Beauty' of lake Annecy.

This section leaves science  behind and focuses on the Art and Philosophy that was the source of Dr Servettaz's unique original vision and sustained dedication over so many years.

The four sources of his inspiration by the dramatic combination of lake and mountain, described above, Poetry, Art, Philosophy, and Physical Recreation, are each part of cultural traditions which are entirely taken for granted now, but which are  very modern human inventions with specific histories and with individual founders. These and other influences are briefly outlined in the chapters of this section. The final chapter joins them together with his scientific interest  into a fusion which I call his love of the Scientific Beauty of Nature. A love he shares directly with the founders of the modern environmental movement.

Part One of this history outlined how during the past five centuries Science has fundamentally changed Man’s understanding of his relationship to Nature. Part two sketches the contribution made by the Arts.

If the change wrought by Science began with Copernicus, then that wrought by the Arts began with the Enlightenment. With the growing supremacy of Science and Reason over superstition, the Enlightenment cultivated the arts and an emphasis on learning, art and music became more widespread, especially with the growing middle class. Areas of study such as literature, philosophy, science, and the fine arts increasingly explored subject matter to which the general public could relate. The English date the beginning of the Enlightenment to the publication of the French philosopher, Descartes’ Discourse on Method, published in 1637. The French cite the publication of the English genius Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica in 1687. The former shifted the basis of knowledge from external authority to internal certainty with his idea of “cogito ergo sum”. The latter gave men the idea that even something as vast and complex as Nature was governed by a few simple laws of motion, which, if understood, could in time be used to control Nature. The two ideas together produced the notion that ideas and individuals could determine the fate of nations, rather than tradition and dynasties. And so in time revolutionary movements arose in America to throw off the English yoke, and in France to throw off the aristocracy, and revolutionary fervor inspired the minds of great poets, artists, philosophers and writers of the age. And, in our particular case, produced a revolution in the way Mankind thought and felt about Nature.

The great tides of history have transformed the way we now feel about the Natural world: the discovery of all corners of the world, the rise of industry, and trade, the growth of cities, exponential expansion of population, the wealth of nations, the development of tourism and easy global travel, the interconnection of populations first passively through television and then actively through the internet. At the same time there were a handful of remarkable individuals who saw beauty in Nature that no-one had expressed, who explored and polished their Art meticulously, and whose resulting work forever changed the way future generations feel about Nature.

Dr Servettez was a remarkable individual who made a significant contribution to his community’s appreciation of their natural environment, namely the lake and mountains of Annecy. By seeing a beauty in lake Annecy that his fellow citizens did not see, and working meticulously to express his sense of Nature’s beauty in prose, in speeches, in conversations and in campaigning, his work changed forever the way future generations appreciated and engaged with Lake Annecy.

Continue Reading  Chapter One