Fires burn in all terrestrial ecosystems on the globe, and wildfires are getting larger and more destructive. The fall 2021 EarthTalks series “Fire in the Earth System” will address humanity’s long relationship with fire, how humans and climate create conditions conducive to megafires, and how policy-makers and land managers can address the fire problem. The seminars, which are free and open to the public, take place from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. (ET) on Mondays.
This event features Jessica Thompson from Yale University and is the first in the EarthTalk series hosted by Penn State’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute.
The remainder of the schedule is as follows:
- September 20 — David McWethy, Montana State University, “Examining climate-human-fire interactions and feedbacks in temperate ecosystems”
- September 27 — Rebecca Bliege Bird, Penn State, “Indigenous fire regimes and their ecosystem services under climate change”
- October 4 — David Bowman, University of Tasmania, “Viewing the 2019–2020 Australian bushfire crisis through a pyrogeographic lens”
- October 11 — Alejandra Domic, Penn State, topic to be announced
- October 18 — Victor McCrary, Vice Chair, National Science Board, “National Science Board Vision 2030: Making a difference for America’s research ecosystem”
- October 25 — Speaker and topic to be announced
- November 1 — Rebecca Hamilton, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, topic to be announced
- November 8 — Mark Cochrane, University of Maryland, “The role of fire and land use in tropical forest decline in Indonesia and Brazil”
- November 15 — Phil Higuera, University of Montana, “Fire, climate change and the resilience of Rocky Mountain forests”
- November 29 — Park Williams, University of California, Los Angeles, “The role of anthropogenic climate change on fire in California”
- December 6 — Scott Stephens, University of California, Berkeley, “Fire policy and policy conundrums in fire-prone Mediterranean climate forests and shrublands”