An international group of researchers are calling for earth scientists to investigate and better understand the role of fire in the Earth system. In a paper published in the April, 2009 edition of the journal Science, 22 co-authors ask that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, to recognize the overarching role of fire in global climate change and to incorporate fire better into future models and reports about climate change.
From Voanews:
Co-author Steve Pyne and colleagues say there’s currently no systematic, scientific way to study fire. Pyne, a fire historian at Arizona State University in Tempe, says a separate fire science is long overdue.
“Fire is an enormous large ancient presence and it has not been considered in our disciplines. There is no fire topic as a discipline. You know the other ancient elements – earth, air and water – all have disciplines devoted to them but fire doesn’t,” he said.
Pyne and nearly two dozen other researchers compiled current data on fire’s impact on global warming to underscore the need for a new fire discipline.
