Catching Fire

Catching Fire PDF

Author: Richard Wrangham

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2010-08-06

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 1847652107

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In this stunningly original book, Richard Wrangham argues that it was cooking that caused the extraordinary transformation of our ancestors from apelike beings to Homo erectus. At the heart of Catching Fire lies an explosive new idea: the habit of eating cooked rather than raw food permitted the digestive tract to shrink and the human brain to grow, helped structure human society, and created the male-female division of labour. As our ancestors adapted to using fire, humans emerged as "the cooking apes". Covering everything from food-labelling and overweight pets to raw-food faddists, Catching Fire offers a startlingly original argument about how we came to be the social, intelligent, and sexual species we are today. "This notion is surprising, fresh and, in the hands of Richard Wrangham, utterly persuasive ... Big, new ideas do not come along often in evolution these days, but this is one." -Matt Ridley, author of Genome

To Build a Fire

To Build a Fire PDF

Author: Jack London

Publisher: The Creative Company

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9781583415870

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Describes the experiences of a newcomer to the Yukon when he attempts to hike through the snow to reach a mining claim.

Fire in California's Ecosystems

Fire in California's Ecosystems PDF

Author: Jan W. van Wagtendonk

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2018-06-08

Total Pages: 568

ISBN-13: 0520961919

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Fire in California’s Ecosystems describes fire in detail—both as an integral natural process in the California landscape and as a growing threat to urban and suburban developments in the state. Written by many of the foremost authorities on the subject, this comprehensive volume is an ideal authoritative reference tool and the foremost synthesis of knowledge on the science, ecology, and management of fire in California. Part One introduces the basics of fire ecology, including overviews of historical fires, vegetation, climate, weather, fire as a physical and ecological process, and fire regimes, and reviews the interactions between fire and the physical, plant, and animal components of the environment. Part Two explores the history and ecology of fire in each of California's nine bioregions. Part Three examines fire management in California during Native American and post-Euro-American settlement and also current issues related to fire policy such as fuel management, watershed management, air quality, invasive plant species, at-risk species, climate change, social dynamics, and the future of fire management. This edition includes critical scientific and management updates and four new chapters on fire weather, fire regimes, climate change, and social dynamics.

The Pyrocene

The Pyrocene PDF

Author: Stephen J. Pyne

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2022-08-02

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 0520391632

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A provocative rethinking of how humans and fire have evolved together over time—and our responsibility to reorient this relationship before it's too late.​ The Pyrocene tells the story of what happened when a fire-wielding species, humanity, met an especially fire-receptive time in Earth's history. Since terrestrial life first appeared, flames have flourished. Over the past two million years, however, one genus gained the ability to manipulate fire, swiftly remaking both itself and eventually the world. We developed small guts and big heads by cooking food; we climbed the food chain by cooking landscapes; and now we have become a geologic force by cooking the planet. Some fire uses have been direct: fire applied to convert living landscapes into hunting grounds, forage fields, farms, and pastures. Others have been indirect, through pyrotechnologies that expanded humanity's reach beyond flame's grasp. Still, preindustrial and Indigenous societies largely operated within broad ecological constraints that determined how, and when, living landscapes could be burned. These ancient relationships between humans and fire broke down when people began to burn fossil biomass—lithic landscapes—and humanity's firepower became unbounded. Fire-catalyzed climate change globalized the impacts into a new geologic epoch. The Pleistocene yielded to the Pyrocene. Around fires, across millennia, we have told stories that explained the world and negotiated our place within it. The Pyrocene continues that tradition, describing how we have remade the Earth and how we might recover our responsibilities as keepers of the planetary flame.

Forgotten Fires

Forgotten Fires PDF

Author: Omer Call Stewart

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9780806134239

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A common stereotype about American Indians is that for centuries they lived in static harmony with nature, in a pristine wilderness that remained unchanged until European colonization. Omer C. Stewart was one of the first anthropologists to recognize that Native Americans made significant impact across a wide range of environments. Most important, they regularly used fire to manage plant communities and associated animal species through varied and localized habitat burning. In Forgotten Fires, editors Henry T. Lewis and M. Kat Anderson present Stewart's original research and insights, written in the 1950s yet still provocative today. Significant portions of Stewart's text have not been available until now, and Lewis and Anderson set Stewart's findings in the context of current knowledge about Native hunter-gatherers and their uses of fire.

Introduction to Prescribed Fire in Southern Ecosystems

Introduction to Prescribed Fire in Southern Ecosystems PDF

Author: Thomas A. Waldrop

Publisher: Government Printing Office

Published: 2018-03-29

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9780160943959

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Prescribed burning is an important tool throughout Southern forests, grasslands, and croplands. The need to control fire became evident to allow forests to regenerate. This manual is intended to help resource managers to plan and execute prescribed burns in Southern forests and grasslands. A new appreciation and interest has developed in recent years for using prescribed fire in grasslands, especially hardwood forests, and on steep mountain slopes. Proper planning and execution of prescribed fires are necessary to reduce detrimental effects, such as the impacts on air and downstream water quality. Check out these related products: Trees at Work: Economic Accounting for Forest Ecosystem Services in the U.S. South can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/trees-work-economic-accounting-forest-ecosystem-services-us-south Soil Survey Manual 2017 is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/soil-survey-manual-march-2017 Quantifying the Role of the National Forest System Lands in Providing Surface Drinking Water Supply for the Southern United States is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/quantifying-role-national-forest-system-lands-providing-surface-drinking-water-supply Fire Management Today print subscription is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/fire-management-today Wildland Fire in Ecosystems: Fire and Nonnative Invasive Plants can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/wildland-fire-ecosystems-fire-and-nonnative-invasive-plants

Fire on Earth

Fire on Earth PDF

Author: Andrew C. Scott

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-10-31

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 1118534093

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Earth is the only planet known to have fire. The reason isboth simple and profound: fire exists because Earth is the onlyplanet to possess life as we know it. Fire is an expression of lifeon Earth and an index of life’s history. Few processes are asintegral, unique, or ancient. Fire on Earth puts fire in its rightful place as anintegral part of the study of geology, biology, human history,physics, and global chemistry. Fire is ubiquitous in various formsthroughout Earth, and belongs as part of formal inquiries about ourworld. In recent years fire literature has multipliedexponentially; dedicated journals exist and half a dozeninternational conferences are held annually. A host of formalsciences, or programs announcing interdisciplinary intentions, arewilling to consider fire. Wildfire also appears routinely in mediareporting. This full-colour text, containing over 250 illustrations of firein all contexts, is designed to provide a synthesis of contemporarythinking; bringing together the most powerful concepts anddisciplinary voices to examine, in an international setting, whyplanetary fire exists, how it works, and why it looks the way itdoes today. Students, lecturers, researchers and professionalsinterested in the physical, ecological and historicalcharacteristics of fire will find this book, and accompanyingweb-based material, essential reading for undergraduate andpostgraduate courses in all related disciplines, for generalinterest and for providing an interdisciplinary foundation forfurther study. A comprehensive approach to the history, behaviour andecological effects of fire on earth Timely introduction to this important subject, with relevancefor global climate change, biodiversity loss and the evolution ofhuman culture. Provides a foundation for the interdisciplinary field of FireResearch Authored by an international team of leading experts in thefield Associated website provides additional resources

Tropical Fire Ecology

Tropical Fire Ecology PDF

Author: Mark Cochrane

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-04-11

Total Pages: 696

ISBN-13: 3540773819

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The tropics are home to most of the world’s biodiversity and are currently the frontier for human settlement. Tropical ecosystems are being converted to agricultural and other land uses at unprecedented rates. Land conversion and maintenance almost always rely on fire and, because of this, fire is now more prevalent in the tropics than anywhere else on Earth. Despite pervasive fire, human settlement and threatened biodiversity, there is little comprehensive information available on fire and its effects in tropical ecosystems. Tropical deforestation, especially in rainforests, has been widely documented for many years. Forests are cut down and allowed to dry before being burned to remove biomass and release nutrients to grow crops. However, fires do not always stop at the borders of cleared forests. Tremendously damaging fires are increasingly spreading into forests that were never evolutionarily prepared for wild fires. The largest fires on the planet in recent decades have occurred in tropical forests and burned millions of hectares in several countries. The numerous ecosystems of the tropics have differing levels of fire resistance, resilience or dependence. At present, there is little appreciation of the seriousness of the wild fire situation in tropical rainforests but there is even less understanding of the role that fire plays in the ecology of many fire adapted tropical ecosystems, such as savannas, grasslands and other forest types.

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