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The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next
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 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.
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 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.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2021
27 people are currently reading
609 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
March 10, 2023
I don’t agree with all of Stephen Pyne’s theories in The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next, but I appreciate and agree with most of them. He coined the term Pyrocene to explain the planetary impact of humans (the species that wields fire) since the Pleistocene, an era defined by ice. Within the Pyrocene, Pyne identifies three human relationships with fire: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
First-fire are the fires that ignited in conjunction with plants colonizing continents. Think about that: prior to terrestrial plant life, there were no fires because one third of the fire triangle (combustible hydrocarbons) was missing. Fire existed without humans, but humans can not exist without fire, which is the second type. Second-fire is fire set and manipulated by humans. Third-fire, which is an ingenious concept, is the “burning of lithic landscapes”—fossil fuels—largely beyond our sight to create the energy we use to live.
He and I split a bit when he separates humans from Nature: “As with the wild generally, people, cope best when wild and human habitats are separate.” I disagree. Human habitats are not separate: wind doesn’t stop blowing at the city limits, wildfires don’t ignore human structures simply because they were built by humans, other animals don’t keep to undeveloped areas. When we embrace our position as just another critter in the biosphere, we should be capable of more responsible stewardship, management, and living. We humans have more tools at our disposal, but we’re still not in control.
Otherwise, this book is brilliant and insightful. I have been a fan of Pyne’s understanding and appreciation of fire as a reaction, tool, and relationship since graduate school. The following sentence captures one of his many books’ themes: “We will have to accept that fire is not a fringe phenomenon but an informing principle of terrestrial life and human culture… most everything will be affected, if indirectly, by humanity’s fire habits.” That’s because we’re not separate from our ecosystems. Our choices and actions have consequences for all.
First-fire are the fires that ignited in conjunction with plants colonizing continents. Think about that: prior to terrestrial plant life, there were no fires because one third of the fire triangle (combustible hydrocarbons) was missing. Fire existed without humans, but humans can not exist without fire, which is the second type. Second-fire is fire set and manipulated by humans. Third-fire, which is an ingenious concept, is the “burning of lithic landscapes”—fossil fuels—largely beyond our sight to create the energy we use to live.
He and I split a bit when he separates humans from Nature: “As with the wild generally, people, cope best when wild and human habitats are separate.” I disagree. Human habitats are not separate: wind doesn’t stop blowing at the city limits, wildfires don’t ignore human structures simply because they were built by humans, other animals don’t keep to undeveloped areas. When we embrace our position as just another critter in the biosphere, we should be capable of more responsible stewardship, management, and living. We humans have more tools at our disposal, but we’re still not in control.
Otherwise, this book is brilliant and insightful. I have been a fan of Pyne’s understanding and appreciation of fire as a reaction, tool, and relationship since graduate school. The following sentence captures one of his many books’ themes: “We will have to accept that fire is not a fringe phenomenon but an informing principle of terrestrial life and human culture… most everything will be affected, if indirectly, by humanity’s fire habits.” That’s because we’re not separate from our ecosystems. Our choices and actions have consequences for all.
July 25, 2022
In this book, Pyne brings together a number of previously published articles and book chapters. This results a little bit of redundancy in his use of language, but it's only slightly annoying. He puts all these pieces in context under the overarching concept he calls the Pyrocene.
Kind of like the Anthropocene, he likens the pyrocene to an ice age (the Pleistocene) in terms of its scale and long-term effects. Like, the gradual accumulation of ice made Earth more friendly to more ice. Fire, in the form of burning fossil fuels, what Pyne calls 3rd fire, in the pyrocene, is gradually making Earth more friendly to more fire. Feedback loop type stuff.
I first heard of Pyne on the Last Born in the Wilderness podcast: www.lastborninthewilderness.com which I highly recommend to anyone interested in collapse.
Favorite takeaway from this book is the insight that like life, fire exists only on planet Earth. Only things that are or were once alive can catch fire and fire requires oxygen. Never thought of fire like this before. Makes all the fire of life and heart of fire metaphors feel a lot less cliché and a lot more real.
Kind of like the Anthropocene, he likens the pyrocene to an ice age (the Pleistocene) in terms of its scale and long-term effects. Like, the gradual accumulation of ice made Earth more friendly to more ice. Fire, in the form of burning fossil fuels, what Pyne calls 3rd fire, in the pyrocene, is gradually making Earth more friendly to more fire. Feedback loop type stuff.
I first heard of Pyne on the Last Born in the Wilderness podcast: www.lastborninthewilderness.com which I highly recommend to anyone interested in collapse.
Favorite takeaway from this book is the insight that like life, fire exists only on planet Earth. Only things that are or were once alive can catch fire and fire requires oxygen. Never thought of fire like this before. Makes all the fire of life and heart of fire metaphors feel a lot less cliché and a lot more real.
March 30, 2025
interesting stuff but it’s really often repetitive and redundant in a way that doesn’t serve if.
Hard to be reading an already short book and be like this could have been an essay
Hard to be reading an already short book and be like this could have been an essay
May 30, 2023
Yangın ekolojisi üzerine müthiş bir kaynak. Pleistosendeki buz çağı döngülerinde yangınların ekosistemi nasıl şekillendirdiğini ve ekolojik bir olgu olarak ne kadar önemli olduğunu anlatarak başlıyor kitap. Daha sonra insanın ateşi kullanarak vahşi doğayı şekillendirmesinden bahsediyor. Tüm çevre ve türler aslında doğal ortamda yangının varlığı etrafında evrimleştiğini anlatıyor. Son kısımda teknolojinin gelişmesiyle beraber ateşin günlük yaşamdan uzaklaşması, ateşin teknolojik ürünlerin içine hapsedilmesi, karbon salınımının artması, kırsaldaki agresif söndürme stratejileri ve köylülüğün yok olması sonucu bugünkü mega yangınların nasıl oluştuğunu açıklıyor. Ekoloji ile ilgilenenler için yangınlara ve ateşin kendisine farklı bir bakış açısı sunuyor.
July 5, 2023
This one's a skip. I was hoping to educate myself a bit about out-of-control wildfires--why are they getting bigger and worse, to what extent are they the result of human activity (especially fire suppression), what's the appropriate response.
The author appears to be a proper academic specialist in the area, but picking The Pyrocene was a mistake. It's a short (~4hr) Audible Original & reads like a keynote address for a conference--it's well-written fluff. Short on substantive detail but packed with flowery language and literary references. Exactly the opposite of what I wanted.
The author appears to be a proper academic specialist in the area, but picking The Pyrocene was a mistake. It's a short (~4hr) Audible Original & reads like a keynote address for a conference--it's well-written fluff. Short on substantive detail but packed with flowery language and literary references. Exactly the opposite of what I wanted.
November 20, 2021
Global climate change is like a fully loaded freight train barreling down the tracks with so much momentum it is difficult to slow or stop. Pick up a copy of Stephen Pyne’s The Pyrocene, hop aboard, and get ready for a terrifying fever dream of a ride.
The Pyrocene is an extended essay in five sections bracketed by a prologue and an epilogue. In it, Pyne argues persuasively that the geologic period that began at the end of the Wisconsin continental glaciation, the epoch that the International Commission on Stratigraphy dubbed the Holocene, is not merely another interglacial soon to be ended by a new glacial advance. Instead, the activities of primates in the genus Homo that emerged concurrent with the retreat of the continental glaciers fundamentally altered the biosphere and swamped any of the natural cycles that might have been trending toward global cooling. This human-dominated geologic epoch has been called the Anthropocene. However, because all human endeavors are mediated by fire, it could just as accurately be called the Pyrocene.
Pyne, Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University, fire ecologist, and author of many books on the history and management of fire, has written what feels like a compilation and culmination of his life’s work and his best thinking about humanity’s relationship with fire. He is deliberately provocative, but with the best of intentions: shaking his readers out of complacency.
Life arose in the oceans, where algae generated oxygen as a toxic by-product of photosynthesis. As oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere, a layer of ozone developed in the stratosphere that reduced the impact of solar radiation, eventually allowing organisms to evolve that could colonize land. The resulting volatile combination of accumulating biomass on land and oxygen in the atmosphere generated naturally occurring fires sparked by lightning, volcanic eruptions and rockfalls; the “fire planet” was off and running. Pyne calls this First-Fire—the only fire on Earth until humans evolved.
As humans (what Pyne calls variously hominins or sapiens) emerged and gradually recognized fire’s value for cooking, managing vegetation, hunting, and colonizing colder regions, they embraced the tool. They changed the nature of fire on Earth and fire, in turn, shaped hominin evolution. Fire applied intentionally and deliberately for human-motivated outcomes is Second-Fire. In some respects, hominins and their fires simply folded into the endless, complex processes that had shaped how natural fires affected the landscape. With the introduction of Second-Fire, burning became more widespread and frequent, but it was still dependent on accumulated biomass and its effects were limited by the amount of flammable material available.
At the end of the 18th century, however, Earth convulsed with what Pyne calls the Pyric Transition, when people recognized that fire could be harnessed by machines. Machines expanded human power exponentially. At first, engines were fueled by wood, but ready supplies of wood were soon exhausted. Almost overnight, people recognized that fossilized biomass could be substituted. Taking fuels out of the geologic past, burning them in the present, and releasing their by-products into the geologic future became fire’s narrative arc and one of the great markers in Earth’s history. How the two realms of fire—the Second-Fire of the living landscape and the Third-Fire wholly dependent on the lithic landscape—interact in the present is the Pyric Transition. This transition is the genesis of the Pyrocene and the focus of the majority of the book.
The fifth section of the essay entitled “The Pyrocene” summarizes four strategies and practices that humans can adopt to live with fire. This section is not exactly optimistic, but it does present some realistic and pragmatic scenarios for a future in which the Earth will be warmer and fires will become more frequent and intense.
Pyne’s writing is erudite and exhilarating, but he occasionally stumbles when he coins terminology and stretches metaphors to their breaking point. For example, on page 29 he states, “Social elites decided that fire had to be deconstructed, put into appliances, or as coal became a dominant fuel, sublimated into steam.” Burning coal is not sublimation—but the image Pyne conjures is powerful if not altogether accurate. In addition, Pyne sometimes repeats himself in close succession. He does not repeat himself frequently enough to be irritating, but the stutters are noticeable.
In a digression that doesn’t much advance his argument, Pyne devotes six pages in the second section of the essay to exploring how the Pleistocene got its name. While a bit of a tangent, this historical aside is fascinating nonetheless.
The text is illustrated with eight black-and-while photographs grouped together between the fourth and fifth sections of the essay. End matter includes an author’s note, notes to references in each section, a bibliographic essay, and an index.
The book is short (150 pages of text) and the format is small (8 x 5 inches), so this is a quick read. What propels it along at an even faster pace, though, are Pyne’s compelling arguments and his forceful prose that washes over and overwhelms the reader like an irresistible tsunami. This book may completely reframe readers’ perspectives of fire on Earth in all its myriad manifestations.
The Pyrocene is an extended essay in five sections bracketed by a prologue and an epilogue. In it, Pyne argues persuasively that the geologic period that began at the end of the Wisconsin continental glaciation, the epoch that the International Commission on Stratigraphy dubbed the Holocene, is not merely another interglacial soon to be ended by a new glacial advance. Instead, the activities of primates in the genus Homo that emerged concurrent with the retreat of the continental glaciers fundamentally altered the biosphere and swamped any of the natural cycles that might have been trending toward global cooling. This human-dominated geologic epoch has been called the Anthropocene. However, because all human endeavors are mediated by fire, it could just as accurately be called the Pyrocene.
Pyne, Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University, fire ecologist, and author of many books on the history and management of fire, has written what feels like a compilation and culmination of his life’s work and his best thinking about humanity’s relationship with fire. He is deliberately provocative, but with the best of intentions: shaking his readers out of complacency.
Life arose in the oceans, where algae generated oxygen as a toxic by-product of photosynthesis. As oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere, a layer of ozone developed in the stratosphere that reduced the impact of solar radiation, eventually allowing organisms to evolve that could colonize land. The resulting volatile combination of accumulating biomass on land and oxygen in the atmosphere generated naturally occurring fires sparked by lightning, volcanic eruptions and rockfalls; the “fire planet” was off and running. Pyne calls this First-Fire—the only fire on Earth until humans evolved.
As humans (what Pyne calls variously hominins or sapiens) emerged and gradually recognized fire’s value for cooking, managing vegetation, hunting, and colonizing colder regions, they embraced the tool. They changed the nature of fire on Earth and fire, in turn, shaped hominin evolution. Fire applied intentionally and deliberately for human-motivated outcomes is Second-Fire. In some respects, hominins and their fires simply folded into the endless, complex processes that had shaped how natural fires affected the landscape. With the introduction of Second-Fire, burning became more widespread and frequent, but it was still dependent on accumulated biomass and its effects were limited by the amount of flammable material available.
At the end of the 18th century, however, Earth convulsed with what Pyne calls the Pyric Transition, when people recognized that fire could be harnessed by machines. Machines expanded human power exponentially. At first, engines were fueled by wood, but ready supplies of wood were soon exhausted. Almost overnight, people recognized that fossilized biomass could be substituted. Taking fuels out of the geologic past, burning them in the present, and releasing their by-products into the geologic future became fire’s narrative arc and one of the great markers in Earth’s history. How the two realms of fire—the Second-Fire of the living landscape and the Third-Fire wholly dependent on the lithic landscape—interact in the present is the Pyric Transition. This transition is the genesis of the Pyrocene and the focus of the majority of the book.
The fifth section of the essay entitled “The Pyrocene” summarizes four strategies and practices that humans can adopt to live with fire. This section is not exactly optimistic, but it does present some realistic and pragmatic scenarios for a future in which the Earth will be warmer and fires will become more frequent and intense.
Pyne’s writing is erudite and exhilarating, but he occasionally stumbles when he coins terminology and stretches metaphors to their breaking point. For example, on page 29 he states, “Social elites decided that fire had to be deconstructed, put into appliances, or as coal became a dominant fuel, sublimated into steam.” Burning coal is not sublimation—but the image Pyne conjures is powerful if not altogether accurate. In addition, Pyne sometimes repeats himself in close succession. He does not repeat himself frequently enough to be irritating, but the stutters are noticeable.
In a digression that doesn’t much advance his argument, Pyne devotes six pages in the second section of the essay to exploring how the Pleistocene got its name. While a bit of a tangent, this historical aside is fascinating nonetheless.
The text is illustrated with eight black-and-while photographs grouped together between the fourth and fifth sections of the essay. End matter includes an author’s note, notes to references in each section, a bibliographic essay, and an index.
The book is short (150 pages of text) and the format is small (8 x 5 inches), so this is a quick read. What propels it along at an even faster pace, though, are Pyne’s compelling arguments and his forceful prose that washes over and overwhelms the reader like an irresistible tsunami. This book may completely reframe readers’ perspectives of fire on Earth in all its myriad manifestations.
May 9, 2022
A thought-provoking book that stands out for its inspired writing, The Pyrocene argues that our collective actions are sending the planet into an age of fire. Read my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2022...
February 6, 2025
culmination of this guy’s lifetime of work. definitely read like that of fair amount of redundancy interspersed with these insanely lofty sentences. usually i hate the ____ocene debate but pyrocene was actually pretty interesting and compelling like i like it as a concept. still a lot of really interesting ideas and an interesting way to view the earth.
June 28, 2023
This book redefines a geological age, the Anthropocene, where humans have had such a profound influence over the natural world that their presence is recorded in geological strata all over the globe, to the Pyrocene, which began when people started using fire to serve their needs. As long as fuel was available on the landscape and oxygen was present in the atmosphere, the world has always known fire. Once humans came along, they learned how to control and manipulate fire to suit their needs. Because of fire's ability to integrate the complex relationships that shape ecological systems, humanity's use of fire began to reshape those systems. It opened up a greater variety of food available to people from cooking, and it allowed people to migrate into colder regions of the planet where they could use fires to keep warm. More recently, humans have learned to exploit fuels from past millennia in the form of fossil fuels to drive its industry, which transfers carbon from long ago from deep geological reservoirs into today's atmosphere causing a massive disruption in our climate. Just as the accumulation of ice pushed the Earth into an ice age (the Pleistocene), humanity's growing need for fire--particularly this latter type of fire--is pushing Earth into a fire age; the Pyrocene.
Part of the problem with this third type of fire (fossil fuel burning) is that it's being used to fuel equipment to suppress the first type of fire (natural fire). Natural fire is an important feature of terrestrial ecosystems. It clears out dead underbrush and liberates nutrients locked in dead biomass, providing access to sunlight and nutrients required for ecological and agricultural rejuvenation. When natural fires are suppressed, fuels accumulate such that when fire finally arrives it ravages instead of rejuvenates. We now tend to think about fire as a disturbance that requires human intervention, rather than a necessary ecological feature of natural systems.
Science has finally come around to recognizing the value of fire, and the profoundly consequential effects of liberating fossil carbon into today's atmosphere. We are finally in the early days of a global transition that will reduce the quantity of greenhouse gasses that we release to the atmosphere. However, that transition does not consider how we can re-establish a healthy relationship with fire. As the pace of this global transition increases, we would be wise to consider fire as an ally instead of a foe, and make use of its powerful integrative capacity to help restore our damaged world.
Although the writing can be a bit saccharine at times, this book offers a unique perspective of past, present, and future fire and offers several insights into what we can do to use it to secure a sustainable future. Having said that, I'm not convinced that the concept of a Pyrocene usurps that of an Anthropocene inasmuch as it is complementary to it. Fire has always existed since plants invaded land. In the end, it was humans who dug up old coal, oil, and bitumen to transfer ancient carbon into future atmospheres. As the author argues convincingly, fire is a net force of good in the world, but its irresponsible use by humans has led to the ecological turmoil we face today. The agency of this ecological abuse rests squarely with humans, best captured by the Anthropocene (Greek "anthropo" = man) concept. What this author defines as the Pyrocene is but a symptom, albeit an important one, of the Anthropocene.
Part of the problem with this third type of fire (fossil fuel burning) is that it's being used to fuel equipment to suppress the first type of fire (natural fire). Natural fire is an important feature of terrestrial ecosystems. It clears out dead underbrush and liberates nutrients locked in dead biomass, providing access to sunlight and nutrients required for ecological and agricultural rejuvenation. When natural fires are suppressed, fuels accumulate such that when fire finally arrives it ravages instead of rejuvenates. We now tend to think about fire as a disturbance that requires human intervention, rather than a necessary ecological feature of natural systems.
Fire transmutes stubble and slash into accessible nutrients and typically stimulates nitrogen-fixing organisms. The alternative? Manure and artificial fertilizers. Fire can burn away the unwanted vegetation, at least long enough to plant a year or two of crops. The alternative? Chemical herbicides and tractors. Fire sweeps away and smokes away, for a time, problem species. The alternative? Chemical pesticides. Fire does all this in a single process of flaming and smoldering. The alternative? There is none. In intensive cultivation, there is no desire to achieve all these outcomes, only those few that maximize production.
Science has finally come around to recognizing the value of fire, and the profoundly consequential effects of liberating fossil carbon into today's atmosphere. We are finally in the early days of a global transition that will reduce the quantity of greenhouse gasses that we release to the atmosphere. However, that transition does not consider how we can re-establish a healthy relationship with fire. As the pace of this global transition increases, we would be wise to consider fire as an ally instead of a foe, and make use of its powerful integrative capacity to help restore our damaged world.
Although the writing can be a bit saccharine at times, this book offers a unique perspective of past, present, and future fire and offers several insights into what we can do to use it to secure a sustainable future. Having said that, I'm not convinced that the concept of a Pyrocene usurps that of an Anthropocene inasmuch as it is complementary to it. Fire has always existed since plants invaded land. In the end, it was humans who dug up old coal, oil, and bitumen to transfer ancient carbon into future atmospheres. As the author argues convincingly, fire is a net force of good in the world, but its irresponsible use by humans has led to the ecological turmoil we face today. The agency of this ecological abuse rests squarely with humans, best captured by the Anthropocene (Greek "anthropo" = man) concept. What this author defines as the Pyrocene is but a symptom, albeit an important one, of the Anthropocene.
August 17, 2025
sometimes hard to read and repetitive, however, I now have a different view of fire than I did before, one of appreciation, respect and awe.
March 2, 2022
A book that articulates insights that are deeply valuable at our current historical moment, despite its sometimes-disconcerting mashup of too-lyrical description; jargon that inexpert, non-academic readers will find difficult or awkward; and passionate argument for a particular (and fascinating) way of seeing Earth's history in terms of fire. In places, there are rough splices showing from what the author frankly admits are borrowings from his previous books and articles -- the borrowing is well-justified if his aim is (as it seems to be) to bring Pyne's ideas to a wider audience, but when most of a sentence appears for the second time, verbatim, in the space of three pages ... again, a little disconcerting to see that the text didn't quite get the editing it deserved.
That said, the core idea, for which ample and convincing evidence and argument are laid out -- that fire and terrestrial life have deeply intertwined, interdependent origins and existence, past, present, and future -- definitely justifies working through the sometimes-awkward prose and structure of the book. So much so that, after convincing my local library to order a copy so I could read it, I went ahead and bought a copy myself to keep close-by. I'm sure I'll come back to it.
That said, the core idea, for which ample and convincing evidence and argument are laid out -- that fire and terrestrial life have deeply intertwined, interdependent origins and existence, past, present, and future -- definitely justifies working through the sometimes-awkward prose and structure of the book. So much so that, after convincing my local library to order a copy so I could read it, I went ahead and bought a copy myself to keep close-by. I'm sure I'll come back to it.
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November 5, 2025Punto di vista interessante, ma testo spesso ripetitivo.
Stephen Pyne si è specializzato nello studiare gli ecosistemi del fuoco, e i loro cambiamenti, da quando nella preistoria esso vinceva e gli ominini non potevamo fare altro che cercare di conservarlo a quando umanità e fuoco coesistevano - e magari si incendiava apposta una foresta per avere un campo concimato - a oggi, dove cerchiamo di nascondere il fuoco il più possibile anche se ogni tanto esso riesce comunque a sfuggire. Il punto di Pyne è che il fuoco, come e più dell'acqua, è un modellatore, e non possiamo pensare di far finta che non ci sia. È un punto di vista interessante, ma secondo me l'autore ha allungato un po' troppo il brodo, riprendendo alcuni suoi vecchi articoli: probabilmente se si fosse accontentato di un saggio di 160 pagine anziché 240 sarebbe stato molto meglio. Buona la traduzione di Simonetta Frediani.
Stephen Pyne si è specializzato nello studiare gli ecosistemi del fuoco, e i loro cambiamenti, da quando nella preistoria esso vinceva e gli ominini non potevamo fare altro che cercare di conservarlo a quando umanità e fuoco coesistevano - e magari si incendiava apposta una foresta per avere un campo concimato - a oggi, dove cerchiamo di nascondere il fuoco il più possibile anche se ogni tanto esso riesce comunque a sfuggire. Il punto di Pyne è che il fuoco, come e più dell'acqua, è un modellatore, e non possiamo pensare di far finta che non ci sia. È un punto di vista interessante, ma secondo me l'autore ha allungato un po' troppo il brodo, riprendendo alcuni suoi vecchi articoli: probabilmente se si fosse accontentato di un saggio di 160 pagine anziché 240 sarebbe stato molto meglio. Buona la traduzione di Simonetta Frediani.
September 14, 2025
Although we often conceptualize it this way, fire is not a disaster like an earthquake or hurricane. Fire is a biological phenomenon, and wouldn’t exist without the presence of plant life on Earth. Humans wouldn’t exist in our present form without fire, like many trees and shrubs, we have coevolved with fire.
Pyrocene is a well- written meditation on humanity’s relationship with fire and our role in creating an age of fire on earth. It’s up to us to determine our relationship to fire: do we want to recklessly burn through all fossil fuel deposits and let our planet become increasingly uninhabitable? Or do we want to have more second fire (aboriginal) to help restore some balance? Fire, ultimately is beyond our control, it’s up to us how we choose to live with it.
Pyrocene is a well- written meditation on humanity’s relationship with fire and our role in creating an age of fire on earth. It’s up to us to determine our relationship to fire: do we want to recklessly burn through all fossil fuel deposits and let our planet become increasingly uninhabitable? Or do we want to have more second fire (aboriginal) to help restore some balance? Fire, ultimately is beyond our control, it’s up to us how we choose to live with it.
April 25, 2023
"There are three kinds of fire—natural, anthropogenic, industrial. There are two realms of combustion—one in living landscapes and one in lithic ones. The task for the future is to divide three into two and have something left over." Stephen J. Pyne, 129.
August 24, 2023
I was expecting a bit more technical treatment on the subject of fire, but the book is in a way poetic about the presence of fire on Earth and its interaction with Man.
Inspiring and though provoking, I finished it with the feeling that we should have more fire in rural an forest landscapes, instead of trying to stomp out every single ember that we find.
Inspiring and though provoking, I finished it with the feeling that we should have more fire in rural an forest landscapes, instead of trying to stomp out every single ember that we find.
December 28, 2023
I enjoy an interesting historical argument. Pyne wanted to look at how humanity's relationship with fire affected the development of people and our planet. It was an interesting concept but I feel like it didn't quite nail the execution. I didn't feel like I learned that much from the book overall, which was sad for me.
September 14, 2024
This history of fire and its role in geologic change is beautifully written. The book is confluence of literature and science, explaining the importance of fire and how we have changed its natural influence and how climate change will continue to synergize to recreate the landscape. This book gives the reader the bigger picture of fire over the ages in a quick but pleasurable reading experience.
October 4, 2024
Through this book, our world suddenly seems like unknown territory when you think about living in the Pyrocene. It feels strange if you haven't had much to do with fire before. J. Pyne offers a very different perspective on the relationship between humans and fire. I highly recommend it, but found it quite hard to read and too much repetition.
December 9, 2021
A great eloquent articulation on the big picture of fire on earth and humans relationship with fire. Reads simply and quickly and key points are redundant making it easy to take away important points.
May 18, 2023
I was expecting something more scientific and less woo-woo; on some level I could never get past the author's narrow definition of fire as combustion solely involving fuel of biological origin and I found the language overly fulsome. YMMV.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2024
I suppose there is a call to action in this, but it's more edutainment and the author's desire to coin a term. It does bring some intriguing geological and anthropologic facts together into a reasonably interesting set of perspectives, but the style is a bit too repetitive and precious.
April 17, 2024
The book is like an extensive essay written with a slight admiration for fire. As an ecologist who works with fire, it was particularly enjoyable for me to read something other than scientific papers about fire.
August 17, 2024
A lot of very cool ideas that are generally engagingly presented. I will definitely find myself coming back to this at some point. But the book finds a lot of different ways to say similar things and I think the “extended essay” could’ve just been an essay.
November 10, 2024
Muito interessante mas com conceitos que me escaparam. Advoga o uso preventivo do fogo para controlar a natureza. O fogo bem usado reduz o uso de fertilizantes e pesticidas. Tem uma linguagem que em muitos trechos não domino.
dnf
February 1, 2022Can't get into the writing - bit to convoluted. I find myself rereading sentences to figure out what they mean. It's not long, but I'm not invested enough to continue. DNF
March 21, 2022
The thematic frame of is a must-read for anyone remotely interested in world history, physical/cultural anthropology, ecology, mythology and climate change.
June 9, 2022
Good read … sobering
This was say great read, with respect to climate change and where we are. I was hoping for a little more forestry and perhaps what we can do about it.
This was say great read, with respect to climate change and where we are. I was hoping for a little more forestry and perhaps what we can do about it.
Read
September 5, 2022Informative and thought provoking. It gave me a context for our planetary evolution with fire and the relationship humans have with this phenomenon.
February 25, 2023
A great overview of humanity and its use of fire through the ages.
March 1, 2024
A great read in our current age of fire.
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