Bombeiros combatem incêndio em Palisades, Los Angeles, em janeiro de 2025: a Humanidade e o fogo vêm moldando a face da Terra desde a última glaciação, mas escala do uso do fogo mudou com a transição para uma civilização movida a combustíveis fósseis. Peyman Fakhraei/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

O “Piroceno”: uso do fogo pelos humanos está produzindo uma era de incêndios descontrolados

Os seres humanos se tornaram uma força geológica que ‘cozinha’ o planeta, usando o fogo em uma escala que está alterando a terra, a água, o ar e os ecossistemas.
Le vent fait tourbillonner les ambres d’un arbres incendié à Riverside en Californie le 3 octobre 2019 . AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu

Les incendies en Californie, signal d’une ère de feu

La Terre entre peut-être dans une ère où le feu naturel et le feu généré par l'humain remodèlent tous deux la planète.
Wildland firefighters, like this crew heading into New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, in 2012, are equipped and operate differently from urban firefighters. USFS Gila National Forest

All wildfires are not alike, but the US is fighting them that way

A historian of wildfires explains the difference between urban and rural fire cultures, and what it means for protecting communities in fire-prone rural areas.
Wildfires are getting bigger and more costly. Can we return them to a less dangerous state by looking to the past? U.S. Department of Agriculture

Recreating forests of the past isn’t enough to fix our wildfire problems

Restoring forest landscapes through active thinning and letting fires burn in order to minimize fire damage has proved harder and less effective than advocates believed, says historian of fire.
Hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees. NASA/SDO (AIA)

Before fusion: a human history of fire

Fire has played a vital role in human history, and will continue to. Recent advances in fusion herald the freeing of fire from captivity back into its natural form.
Sunrise on Angel’s Window, North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park. National Park Service/Wikimedia

How the Grand Canyon changed our ideas of natural beauty

Why do Americans revere the Grand Canyon? It taught us to look at nature in a new way, and to respect iconic places by leaving them alone.
Can we take responsibility for an increasingly human-driven planet? (Photo by Mark Klett) Witness to Sunrise, Muley Point, Utah.

What does it mean to preserve nature in the Age of Humans?

Scientists, philosophers, historians, journalists, agency administrators and activists grapple with what it means to ‘save nature’ in the Anthropocene.

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