Here’s a hot take (sorry): the term #Pyrocene, which some now favor to describe our current epoch, is just as problematic as the better-known #Anthropocene. Here are two good articles for background. 1/10 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/01/born-in-the-ice-age-humankind-now-faces-the-age-of-fire-and-australia-is-on-the-frontline?CMP=share_btn_tw, https://aeon.co/essays/the-planet-is-burning-around-us-is-it-time-to-declare-the-pyrocene

The Pyrocene concept assumes that, as #climate changes, the familiar, ice-covered world suitable for human habitation – often (but incorrectly) viewed as synonymous with the Pleistocene – is giving way to a world of unrelenting wildfires. In this world, we may not survive. 2/10

One problem implicit in the idea is that it assumes that the environmental upheavals of the Pleistocene “promoted” the emergence of humanity by encouraging adaptation, whereas those of the present, apparently, cannot be overcome with innovation. 3/10

A second problem is that it’s shaped by coverage of recent, devastating wildfires in California and eastern Australia. Dozens of studies confirm that these were indeed worsened by long-lasting, hot, dry weather associated with #ClimateChange. 4/10 https://sciencebrief.org/topics/climate-change-science/wildfires

Yet the great majority of the world’s wildfires occur beyond those regions, particularly in the Sahel region and western Australia. There, wildfires have actually become less common in recent decades. Check that map! 5/10 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6345/1356 and https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-how-climate-change-is-affecting-wildfires-around-the-world

In the Sahel, the reduction is largely driven by agricultural expansion and intensification. In western Australia, it’s caused by the widespread application of Indigenous fire management strategies. Wildfires are complex: they involve many environmental and social variables. 6/10

That brings me to a third problem with the Pyrocene concept. Globally, just 4% of wildfires start through natural causes (though this varies greatly from place to place). Slash and burn agriculture, peatland drainage, suburban sprawl: all are avoidable causes for fires. 7/10

The Pyrocene erases these often deeply problematic causes. Everything is reduced to climate change – and the political impact is to naturalize (in a sense) immoral or irresponsible actions on a local scale - with troubling political implications. 8/10

Simulations suggest that, across much of the globe, the risk of wildfires will rise in the coming decades (though probably not in the Sahel). That doesn’t mean the area burned will correspondingly increase, however (nor will our ice sheets immediately vanish). 9/10

So, a changing climate is pushing our world to a fiery future - but not necessarily. We may need to think more carefully about the value of catchall terms like Pyrocene or Anthropocene – and especially about the value of arguing over which best describes the present crisis. 10/10