Burning Table Mountain

An Environmental History of Fire on the Cape Peninsula

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Human Geography, Health & Well Being, Medical, Reference, Public Health, History
Cover of the book Burning Table Mountain by S. Pooley, Palgrave Macmillan UK
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: S. Pooley ISBN: 9781137415448
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK Publication: September 19, 2014
Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan Language: English
Author: S. Pooley
ISBN: 9781137415448
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication: September 19, 2014
Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan
Language: English

Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain and the surrounding peninsula has been a crucible for attempts to integrate the social and ecological dimensions of wild fire. This environmental history of humans and wildfire outlines these interactions from the practices of Khoikhoi herders to the conflagrations of January 2000. The region's unique, famously diverse fynbos vegetation has been transformed since European colonial settlement, through urbanisation and biological modifications, both intentional (forestry) and unintentional (biological invasions). In all the diverse visions people have formed for Table Mountain, aesthetic and utilitarian, fire has been regarded as a central problem. This book shows how scientific understandings of fire in fynbos developed slowly in the face of strong prejudices. Human impacts were intensified in the twentieth century, which provides the temporal focus for the book. The disjunctures between popular perception, expert knowledge, policy and management are explored, and the book supplements existing short-term scientific data with proxies on fire incidence trends recovered from historical records.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Cape Town's iconic Table Mountain and the surrounding peninsula has been a crucible for attempts to integrate the social and ecological dimensions of wild fire. This environmental history of humans and wildfire outlines these interactions from the practices of Khoikhoi herders to the conflagrations of January 2000. The region's unique, famously diverse fynbos vegetation has been transformed since European colonial settlement, through urbanisation and biological modifications, both intentional (forestry) and unintentional (biological invasions). In all the diverse visions people have formed for Table Mountain, aesthetic and utilitarian, fire has been regarded as a central problem. This book shows how scientific understandings of fire in fynbos developed slowly in the face of strong prejudices. Human impacts were intensified in the twentieth century, which provides the temporal focus for the book. The disjunctures between popular perception, expert knowledge, policy and management are explored, and the book supplements existing short-term scientific data with proxies on fire incidence trends recovered from historical records.

More books from Palgrave Macmillan UK

Cover of the book Dorothy Wordsworth and Hartley Coleridge by S. Pooley
Cover of the book Servant Leadership by S. Pooley
Cover of the book Building a New Community Psychology of Mental Health by S. Pooley
Cover of the book Researching the Police in the 21st Century by S. Pooley
Cover of the book International Negotiation in China and India by S. Pooley
Cover of the book The Social Worlds of the Unborn by S. Pooley
Cover of the book Another State of Mind by S. Pooley
Cover of the book Reviewing Blindness in French Fiction, 1789–2013 by S. Pooley
Cover of the book How Labour Governments Fall by S. Pooley
Cover of the book Communication Rights and Social Justice by S. Pooley
Cover of the book The Cultural Politics of Blood, 1500-1900 by S. Pooley
Cover of the book Modernist Melancholia by S. Pooley
Cover of the book Disasters and Social Crisis in Contemporary Japan by S. Pooley
Cover of the book The History of British Women's Writing, 1970-Present by S. Pooley
Cover of the book Vietnam and the Unravelling of Empire by S. Pooley
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy