The Pyrocene
I coined the term Pyrocene as a catchphrase in a 2015 essay titled "Fire Age" published in Aeon. Since then I've started using it regularly, and in 2019 began to propose it as an informing principle (in a literary sense) by which to understand the world our pact with fire has made. I have long regarded all of the Holocene as an Anthropocene. From a fire perspective I now regard the Anthropocene as a Pyrocene.
Basically, the concept says we are in a Fire Age of comparable scale to the Ice Ages of the Pleistocene. Its core premise is that we made an alliance with fire that gave us small guts and big heads, and then took us to the top of the food chain, and now threatens to unhinge the planet. Whether that alliance is a mutual assistance pact or a Faustian bargain may be the question of our time.
Here, in reverse order, with the most recent at the top, is the chronology of publications through which I have developed the concept.
(2025)
"Human use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning: Welcome to the Pyrocene," The Conversation (22 Jan 2025), updated revision of 2019 article.
"What Fire Wants," The Hollywood Reporter (18 Jan 2025)
(2024)
"Life in the Pyrocene" (Scientific American, May 2024). An accessible overview of humanity and fire, a duopoly that is shaping the Earth.
"Pyrocene," Wikipedia
(2022)
"Aesthetics for the Pyrocene," Aeon/Psyche (2022)
(2021)
"Welcome to the Pyrocene." An elaboration in Grist on an excerpt from the forthcoming book.
"Between Three Fires," Arizona Republic (4 July 2021)
The Pyrocene. How Humans Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next (University of California Press, 2021)
(2020)
"From Pleistocene to Pyrocene: fire replaces ice," Earth's Future (17 Oct 2020). A Commentary on the concept for AGU readers.
"Paradoxes of the Pyrocene," Yale Environment 360 (8 Oct 2020)
Q&A on the Pyrocene for Bloomberg City Lab (August 2020)
Welcome to the Pyrocene. A webinar for the PNW Fire Science Consortium (Jan 2020). Visual introduction to the Pyrocene as analogous to an ice age informed by fire. Had some audio problems, and CC garbled parts of the text, so we redid the presentation - no intro, no Q&A, 31 minutes.
"Australia and the Pyrocene." An op-ed for the Guardian (US). For a fuller, more nuanced version (before editing to fit it to op-ed specifications) see "Burning bush, burning Earth" under Blogs.
(2019)
"The planet is burning" (expanded essay in Aeon, Nov 2019). Leyokki has produced an art video on the theme.
"Winter Isn't Coming. Prepare for the Pyrocene" - for History News Network (25 August 2019)
"Welcome to the Pyrocene," from the lightning bolt to the SUV (from Natural History)
"Portal to the Pyrocene." Alaska as North America's portalto the Pyrocene (from Natural History)
"We got greedy, and a Fire Age is upon us," Crosscut Commentary (2019)
Interview with Salon. An article based on conversation with Salon (2019).
"California fires and a planetary fire age," The Conversation (31 Oct 2019)
(2017)
"Big Fire; or, Introducing the Pyrocene," Fire (23 Oct 2017)
(2016)
"Portal to the Pyrocene, Slate (16 May 2016). Commentary on Fort MacMurray fire.
(2015)
"Fire Age," Aeon (2015)