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Fire and the Biosphere

  • Chapter
Climate, Fire and Human Evolution

Part of the book series: Modern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences ((MASE,volume 10))

  • 1606 Accesses

Abstract

The advent of plants on land surfaces since about 420 million years-ago has created an interface between carbon-rich organic layers and an oxygen-rich atmosphere, inevitably leading to recurrent fires triggered by lightning, volcanic eruptions, high-temperature combustion of peat and, finally, ignition by humans, constituting the blueprint for the Anthropocene. According to Scott et al. (Fire on earth: an introduction. Wiley Blackwell, Oxford, 413 pp, 2014) (Fire on Earth: An introduction): “Earth is the only planet known to have fire. The reason is both simple and profound: fire exists because Earth is the only planet to possess life as we know it. Life created both the oxygen and the hydrocarbon fuel that combustion requires, it arranges these fuels according to processes of evolutionary selection and ecological dynamics and, in the form of humanity, it supplies the most abundant source of ignition. Fire is an expression of life on Earth and an index of life’s history. Few processes are as integral, unique, or ancient”. Since the mastery of fire by humans some 2 million years ago, and in particular the onset of the Neolithic, cultivation and agriculture-based civilizations, concentrating along rivers or above groundwater reservoirs, applied large-scale burning, with major effects on the atmosphere. Civilization, dependent on climate and water, including annual river rhythms, is founded on transformation of nature through its effects on forests, soil erosion and chemical contamination. For a species to be able to control ignition and energy output and entropy in nature higher by orders of magnitude than its own physical energy outputs, the species would need to be perfectly wise and responsible. No species can achieve such levels.

Orlando’s Vision

Strained wire-like fingers strum a guitar

White strings of pain take you afar

Blue visions tall angel by the gate

Leads down steps where fate awaits

A door swings brilliant light engulfs

A huge hall’s walls cryptic hieroglyphs

Bright ray beams flash pierce toward

A radiant core’s mortal reward

Where the eternal cosmic flame

Creates the life it shall reclaim.

(Andrew Glikson)

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  1. School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Andrew Y. Glikson & Colin Groves

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Glikson, A.Y., Groves, C. (2016). Fire and the Biosphere. In: Climate, Fire and Human Evolution. Modern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22512-8_4

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