A FIRE SPECIES: THE MASTERY OF FIRE AND HUMAN EVOLUTION

Unique among all genera it is the mastery of fire which distinguishes Homo from all other members of the animal kingdom, while other characteristics, including bipedalism, a large cranial volume, the use of tools and social features, are shared with other genera. Born on a flammable biosphere encrusted with a combustible organic carbon-rich layer in contact with an oxygen-rich atmosphere, the discovery by Homo of the means of igniting fire has become its blueprint, allowing it to evolve from nomad clans to civilizations capable of releasing energy orders of magnitude greater than individual human physiological processes. Living around camp fires over hundreds of thousands of years, the mesmerizing effect of the flickering flames on the human mind inspired perception and imagination, likely leading to a premonition of death, represented by burial. Once stable Holocene climates allowed agriculture and production of excess food, this mindset is expressed in by creation of monuments and unleashing of wars in search of omnipotence and immortality. Toward the end of the Holocene, the invention of combustion of carbon from fossil biospheres, increasing the energy output of the species and of entropy in nature by many orders of magnitude, has reached a rate analogous only to events associated with mass extinction of species, such as global volcanism and asteroid impacts. This lecture will explore the evolutionary rationales underlying the Anthropocene and its consequences.

Andrew Glikson
Australian National University, School of Archaeology
and Anthropology and the Planetary Science Institute.

Dr Andrew Glikson
Earth and Paleoclimate science
School of Archaeology and Anthropology
& Climate Change Institute
& Planetary Science Institute
Australian National University
Honorary Professor, Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence
The University of Queensland