Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate-Disrupted World

Simon Dalby

doi:10.1017/9781788216524

We are the only species that uses fire. It has determined how we have made our home on this planet and it has propelled us to the role of the dominant species in the biosphere. But at the heart of contemporary climate change is the process of combustion. Simon Dalby explores what a life without burning things might look like, and how we might get there.

Fires make the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is heating the planet, melting the ice sheets, changing weather patterns and making wildfires worse. Our civilization is burning things, especially fossil fuels, at prodigious rates. So much so that we are now heading towards a future 'Hothouse Earth' with a climate that is very different from what humans have known so far.

By focusing on fire and our partial control over one key physical force in the earth system, that of combustion, Simon Dalby is able to ask important and interesting questions about us as humans, including different ways of thinking about how we live, and how we might do so differently in the future. Simply put, there is now far too much 'firepower' loose in the world and we need to think much harder about how to live together in ways that don't require burning stuff to do so.

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Pyromania

Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate-Disrupted World

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

Dedication
pp vii-viii

Acknowledgements
pp ix-x

Introduction: a world on fire
pp 1-10

1 - The problem of firepower
pp 11-24

2 - Fire history and the making of the modern world
pp 25-50

3 - Rethinking firepower and geopolitics
pp 51-82

4 - Shaping the future: a world after firepower
pp 83-120

Conclusion: join the fire department!
pp 121-124

Anthropocene timeline
pp 125-128

References
pp 129-136

Index
pp 137-140

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Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate-Disrupted World

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