Episode 99: Stephen Pyne On Humanity’s Evolving Relationship With Fire
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Stephen Pyne, Author of “The Pyrocene: How we created an age of fire and what happens next”
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
Director of Digital Outreach (D.O.D.O.) for The Rewilding Institute
Host and Producer of the Rewilding Earth Podcast
Jack started Rewilding work as Executive Director of Sky Island Alliance in the mid-1990’s, organizing the Sky Island Wildlands Network design, ripping up illegal roads on forest service lands, installing wolf acclimatization pens on Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch & conducting howling surveys to help make way for the final stage of the Lobo reintroduction program in the Southwest.
Through the years, Jack has worked with Dave Foreman and the Rewilding Gang to further Rewilding initiatives and education.