'Fire has always been our best friend, and now it’s become our worst enemy'
Kern County fire captain Bruce Wells uses a hose line to keep fire from burning up a tree as the wildfire burns closer to homes during the French Fire. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images The devastating effects of wildfires paint a grim global outlook. Just this year, wildfires have burned more than 5 million acres in the United States — the equivalent of the state of Massachusetts.
One way to think about it is to consider three fires. The “first fire” is the fire created by nature — for instance, from lighting or from volcanoes. As soon as plants colonized continents, they began to burn. We have fossil charcoal over 420 million years old, so it’s important to realize that fire is a creation of the living world.
How does the concept of the Pyrocene and Anthropocene — a term used to describe the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet — fit together? The Pyrocene is not just a metaphor: Whatever we decide to call it, a fire age is upon us. Our fire behavior made the problem and will have to unmake it.
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