Fire: A Brief History

Index

Boldface page numbers refer to illustrations. Aboriginal fire: Australian Aborigines, 35–36, 50–51, 54, 58–60, 122 controlled burning, 51–52 destructive use of, 146 fading of, 57–64 in low-fuel areas, 56–57 Mesolithic Europeans, 48 pre-agricultural dependence on, 46 Tasmanian Aborigines, 122, 140 See also Anthropogenic fire; Colonization of fire; Early fire; Native Americans Acid rain, 180 Adams, John, 50 Adaptation to fire, 15–18 Aeschylus, 119 Afotroa, 38 Africa, 169 biomass burning in, 169–70 colonization of fire in, 92–94 emergence of Homo erectus, 30 fire regimes, 32 forest clearing with fire, 174 nature reserves, 150, 175 smoking out bees, 48 See also individual African countries Agni, 137 Agricola, Georgius, 124, 125, 132–33 Agricultural fire. See Agriculture; Anthropogenic fire Agricultural revolution, 146 Agriculture: in the Amazon, 88, 97–98 climate and, 66 as closed cycle, 145 colonization of fire by, 29, 35–37, 87–88, 174 cycles of fire, 69 decolonization of, 99–101, 174–75 ecology of, 68, 70 effect on biotas of, 65, 87 ending of aboriginal fire by, 57, 65 in Europe, 95–96 fire as aid to, xvi, 65–67, 183 fire frontiers of, 89–96 fire-fallow, 67–68, 72–73, 88, 144–45, 162–64 fire-free, 83–84 fixed-field rotation, 71–72 forest-clearing for, 70–71, 89–90, 174 fuel-creation role of, 27, 29, 68 grazing and, 79–82 in Indonesia, 88, 97–99, 174–75 industrial fire as catalyst to, 97 industrialized, 158 in Madagascar, 92 Neolithic, 89, 95 in New Zealand, 91–92 stages of colonization, 87–88 subjection of fire by, 82 water’s effect on, 67–68 See also Swidden Agroforestry, 144 Agronomy, 146 Air, 7–9 Air pollution, 117, 159–60, 164, 180–81 Airsheds, 112 Alaska, 54, 55 Alberta, 172 Alps, 80, 124 Amazon basin, 70, 88, 97–98, 172–73 Americas, fire colonizing in, 39–40, 94 Andaman Islands (India), 36, 46–47, 122 Andes Mountains, 94 Angiosperms, 12 Animals: domestication of, 76–77, 81, 94 extinction of (megafauna), 31–32, 34–36, 77 fire for controlling movement of, 48–50 fire regimes effected by, 32, 77–78 imported into Australia, 142–43 195 INDEX Animals (cont’d) See also Grazing Antarctica, 167 Anthropogenic fire, xv–xvii absence of, 24–25 American rejection of, 178 in Australia, 35–36, 50–51, 54, 58–60, 122 coexistence with industrial fire, 164, 170–71 as domesticated species, 119–21 elimination of, 166–67 firestick farming, 50–51, 65 for hunting, 48–50, 58, 62, 94–95 limits to, 182–83 location of, 54–55 in nature reserves, 43, 45, 57, 59 predation and, 25 for safety, 48 in tallgrass prairie, 60–62 as tool, 46–51 traveling with, 52–54, 140 for wild harvesting, 48 See also Aboriginal fire; Colonization of fire; Early fire; Urban fire Architecture, urban, 105–6, 162 Arson, 107, 110, 116, 162 Aspen, 63 Atlantic islands, 37 Australia: abundance of fire, 54 adaption to fire, 29 animals imported into, 142–43 arrival of fire, 32, 33, 35–36 Australian Aborigines, 35–36, 50–51, 54, 58–60, 122 biomass burning, 169 climate, 35 European colonization, 39, 142–43 fires of 1974–1975, 78 fires of 1997–1998, 172 firestick farming, 50–51 intermix fire, 175 public lands, 148 Sydney savannas, 58 Tasmanian Aborigines, 122, 140 wildland fire in, 153 Austronesia, 90–92 Azores, 37 Aztecs, 38 Bachelard, Gaston, 138 Backdrafts, 104 Backfires, 110, 152, 166 Baltimore fire of 1904, 108, 109 Banff National Park, 62–63 Bantu (peoples), 93–94 Basque (people), 80 Bees, 48 Beltane, 86 Bible, Holy, 85 Big Burn, 156, 157, 158–60. See also Industrial fire Biomass: accumulation on Earth of, 3, 76 burning in Australia, 169 conversion of, 89 distillation into fuel of, 122–23 fossil, 9, 131–33, 135–36, 155, 158–59 for fuel or forage, 78 human use as fuel, 27 moisture content of, 19 prehistoric burning of, 4 present-day burning of, 169–71 production and consumption, 14, 160 See also Industrial fire Biomes, 19 Biosphere, 4 Biotas: African, 93 under agricultural decolonization, 100–101 agriculture’s effect on, 65, 87 of Easter Island, 91 ecology of, 10 fire-resistant, 35–37, 57 fire’s effect on, 64 industrial fire’s effect on, 167 Mediterranean, 168 prehistoric, 11–13, 31 tallgrass prairie, 60–62 Biotic islands (native reserves), 21 Biringuccio, Vannoccio, 132–33 Bison, 61 Black Forest...