Description
About
Stephen Pyne became interested in fire as a result of 15 seasons on a fire crew, the North Rim Longshots, at Grand Canyon National Park. He has written a gamut of fire-themed books, among them national fire histories for America, Australia, Canada, Europe (including Russia), Mexico (pending), and the Earth overall, culminating in The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next. Other works include How the Canyon Became Grand, The Ice: A Journey to Antarctica, Voyager, and The Great Ages of Discovery: How Western Civilization Learned About a Wider World. Presently, he is a writer, urban farmer, and emeritus professor at Arizona State University. Stephen holds a BA in English from Stanford University, and an MA and PHD in American Civilization from the University of Texas, Austin. He is currently writing a fire history of Mexico.
Topics
* What if Bison could start fires?
* How humans created the age of fire.
* In the beginning there was lightning. (Or was it fuel?)
* When did humanity really start turning on the afterburners on fire and climate change?
* How human use of fire affects the oceans.
* Good wildfires vs bad wildfires.
* The illusion that we have control over large, intense fires.
* The wildland/urban fire relationship at the center of all fire policy and mistakes.
* Dealing with the huge fire deficit on wild landscapes.
Extra Credit
* Read Stephen’s interview in Biohabitats Leaf Litter
National Interagency Fire Center
Wildfire Today: useful source of fire community news
Joint Fire Science Program: good source of current research and link to regional fire science exchanges
Check out the entire issue of Leaf Litter, The Biohabitats newsletter:
“We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No, we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it” ~Billy Joel
a href="https://rewilding.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Episode-99_-Stephen-Pyne-On-Humanitys-Evolving-Relationship-With-Fire-transcript-1.
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“Whoever you are, wherever your interest lies, whatever you’ve fallen in love with, get out of bed every morning and do something. Act, step into the fray—fight for a human society in balance with the natural world.” —Kristine McDivitt Tompkins
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