Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar and varied cultural lessons, prospects and challenges

Abstract

Living with fire is a challenge for human communities because they are influenced by socio-economic, political, ecological and climatic processes at various spatial and temporal scales. Over the course of 2 days, the authors discussed how communities could live with fire challenges at local, national and transnational scales. Exploiting our diverse, international and interdisciplinary expertise, we outline generalizable properties of fire-adaptive communities in varied settings where cultural knowledge of fire is rich and diverse. At the national scale, we discussed policy and management challenges for countries that have diminishing fire knowledge, but for whom global climate change will bring new fire problems. Finally, we assessed major fire challenges that transcend national political boundaries, including the health burden of smoke plumes and the climate consequences of wildfires. It is clear that to best address the broad range of fire problems, a holistic wildfire scholarship must develop common agreement in working terms and build across disciplines. We must also communicate our understanding of fire and its importance to the media, politicians and the general public.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'.

Is Anthropogenic Pyrodiversity Invisible in Paleofire Records?

“…Rather, we think that a research cycle that involves interdisciplinary dialectic between cultural disciplines (history, archaeology, anthropology) and paleofire sciences that lets information from one field inform sampling, analysis, and interpretation from another can increase the likelihood that we can document the presence and impacts of anthropogenic patch burning ( Figure 6). The transdisciplinary nature of pyrogeography is well suited to this task [62][63][64], although it will likely involve questioning some of the basic assumptions of our disciplines as well as a great deal of humility [65]. Although the details of our study pertain to tree-ring fire histories, the broader issues are relevant to fire history analyses using other proxies and other environments (e.g., grasslands, savannas, charcoal records).…”

A biography and obituary of William G. Chaloner FRS (1928–2016)

“…Together with colleagues Andrew C. Scott, Claire M. Belcher and Christopher I. Roos, Bill organised a Royal Society scientific discussion meeting on 'The interaction of fire and mankind' in September 2015 . As part of this event, Roos et al (2016) gave an account of how humans live with natural wildfire at local, national and international scales, the effect of climate change on fires, and many other related topics such as the health consequences of smoke plumes from wildfires.…”

The interaction of fire and mankind: Introduction

“…Discussion group three looked at living in a future with fire: challenges for sustainable communities with little history of fire challenges, and was led by Julia McMorrow and Jonathan Aylan. These discussions have been summarized by Christopher Roos, the meeting organizers and the discussion group leaders [51]. This summary paper represents an important attempt to clarify major scientific, economic, cultural and political issues in relation to fire in a world undergoing climate change and makes recommendations aimed at helping inform national and international policy debates on fire.…”