Pyrocene is a proposed term for a new geologic epoch or age characterized by the influence of human-caused fire activity on Earth.
The concept focuses on the many ways humans have applied and removed fire from the Earth, including the burning of fossil fuels and the technologies that have enabled people to leverage their influence and become the dominant species on the planet.
Since that time, it has been adopted by journalists and scholars in the fields of wildland fire, ecology, and environmental policy focused on the impacts of climate change and increased risk of wildfires around the globe.
The concept of the Pyrocene argues that humanity's collective fire practices have become an informing presence and a geological force on Earth.
This third kind of fire has created by-products in the form of pollution and greenhouse gasses on a scale that have overwhelmed the atmosphere and the planet's capacity to cope with the accelerated rate with which humans burn these fuel sources.
[18] In his original conception, Pyne imagined the Pyrocene as coextensive with the Holocene (current geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago), commencing as a fire-wielding species that interacted more widely with a fire-warming Earth.
Burning fossil biomass lacks those baffles and barriers; the available sources overwhelm the sinks, unhinging air, seas, and terrestrial biotas.
[20] Most commentators reserve the term for a shorter Pyrocene era that begins with humanity's use of fossil biomass, which changed the use of fire in quantity and kind.
Wildlife ecologist Gavin Jones and others have defined the Pyrocene as "the modern, human-caused era of extreme fire characterized by greater negative impacts to society and ecosystems than in the past.
Jones has argued that fire is a key driver of evolution and situated his research in the framework of the Pyrocene to investigate how species are evolving in response to more frequent and intense wildfires.