Fire Weather

A True Story of Survival and Community in Our New Century of Fire

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John Vaillant: Fire Weather (2023, Knopf Incorporated, Alfred A.)

English language

Published May 26, 2023 by Knopf Incorporated, Alfred A..

ISBN:
978-0-525-43424-5
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4 stars (1 review)

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil industry and America’s biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighborhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—John Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event, but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world.

Fire has been a partner in our evolution for hundreds of millennia, shaping culture, civilization, and, very likely, our brains. Fire has enabled us to cook our food, defend and heat our homes, and power the machines that drive our titanic economy. Yet this volatile energy source has always threatened to elude our control, and in our new age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in previously …

3 editions

Three or four books welded together?

4 stars

Content warning climate crisis, wildfire

Subjects

  • Forests and forestry