Abstract
The advent of plants on land surfaces since about 420 million years-ago created an interface between carbon-rich organic layers and an oxygen-rich atmosphere, 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. For a species to be able to control ignition and energy output, leading to increase in 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.
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Glikson, A.Y. (2014). A Flammable Biosphere. In: Evolution of the Atmosphere, Fire and the Anthropocene Climate Event Horizon. SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7332-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7332-5_5
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