Fire 2
Fire is a topic on which most people can comment. Fire is a widespread phenomenon. Most of us have seen fires in natural vegetation, or their effects; stark, blackened vegetation or a smoke pall. Because fires such as these can have damaging economic and social effects, can spoil forestry timber, can burn down houses and farms, and can kill people and animals, there has been a lot written about wildfires. Added to this wide perception of the damage that can be caused by wildfires, there has been increasing publicity given, since the 1950's, to the active use of fire as a management tool, particularly in protecting against severe wildfires. The introduction of a policy of deliberate burning as a management tool has a fascinating history, especially in the United States Forest Service, but the ecological effects of prescribing a fixed burning regime on large tracts of land are increasingly being questioned (Lyons, 1985, 3). To an ecologist, fire can be treated as just one of the many factors in an environment. It compares with droughts, floods, hurricanes and other physical disturbances because of the direct impact it makes on organisms. Unlike these physical factors, however, fire as a disturbing force is it
This summer's devastating fires are reminders of what we can expect in the future unless we collectively adopt a global warming action plan. This summer, nature is teaching us a lesson. People remained ignorant of the true character of fire until 1783. In that year the great French chemist Antoine Lavoisier investigated the properties of oxygen and laid the foundation for modern chemistry ([CD-ROM], 1996). It is supposed that early people got fire accidentally from trees set ablaze by lightning or from spouting volcanoes. Then they carefully kept it burning in huts or caves. As far back as the study has gone, primitive peoples have never been found without fire for warmth and cooking. Fire also protected them from wild beasts ([CD-ROM], 1996).
Some common words found in the essay are:
Ice Age, Flame Fire, UNEP On-line, Earth's Climate, Temperature Fire, Earth Earth's, Temperature Heat, Earth Mars-a, Earth CD-ROM, Antoine Lavoisier, on-line 1998, cd-rom 1996, greenhouse gases, lyons 1985, climate change, forest fire, forest fires, greenhouse effect, forest fire activity, fire activity, on-line 1998 graph, 1998 graph, unep on-line 1998, on-line 1998 figure, earth's climate system,
Approximate Word count = 3782
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)
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