Burning Table Mountain - An Environmental History of Fire on the Cape Peninsula (Hardcover)

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.

General

Imprint:	Palgrave Macmillan
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Series:	Palgrave Studies in World Environmental History
Release date:	September 2014
First published:	2014
Authors:	S. Pooley
Dimensions:	216 x 140 x 24mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	315
ISBN-13:	978-1-137-41543-1
Categories:	Books > Earth & environment > Geography > Historical geography Books > Humanities > History > African history > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Social impact of disasters > General Books > History > African history > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history
LSN:	1-137-41543-6
Barcode:	9781137415431

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