Andrew C. Scott

In this book, Scott examines the nature and history of fire, from the inception of the Earth to present times. He also takes a look at how humans interact with fire and the difficulty in determining a defining national fire policy. The author covers such topics as the impact of natural and man-made fire on the Earth's atmosphere, climate, ecology, vegetation, the evolution of flora and fauna (e.g. the possible causes of mass extinctions and the spread of flowering plants and grasslands), and how early hominids tamed and used fire. A lot of fossilized charcoal and charcoalified (I didn't know this was a word!) plants make an appearance in this book, accompanied by numerous diagrams, photographs, and graphs. Scott also briefly discusses the current impacts and management of wildfires. The book is clearly written without numerous, lengthy, tedious, biographical or travelogue side tangents. The information contained within these pages is interesting and the diagrams extremely useful in understanding the information conveyed.


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