Smokescreen cuts through years of misunderstanding and misdirection to make an impassioned, evidence-based argument for a new era of forest management for the sake of the planet and the human race. Natural fires are as essential as sun and rain in fire-adapted forests, but as humans encroach on wild spaces, fear, arrogance, and greed have shaped the way that people view these regenerative events and given rise to misinformation that threatens whole ecosystems as well as humanity’s chances of overcoming the climate crisis.
Scientist and activist Chad T. Hanson explains how natural alarm over wildfire has been marshaled to advance corporate and political agendas, notably those of the logging industry. He also shows that, in stark contrast to the fear-driven narrative around these events, contemporary research has demonstrated that forests in the United States, North America, and around the world have a significant deficit of fire. Forest fires, including the largest ones, can create extraordinarily important and rich wildlife habitats as long as they are not subjected to postfire logging. Smokescreen confronts the devastating cost of current policies and practices head-on and ultimately offers a hopeful vision and practical suggestions for the future—one in which both communities and the climate are protected and fires are understood as a natural and necessary force.
Table of Content
1. Prologue: Detours
2. Chapter 1: The Fiery Myths that Undermine Climate Solutions
3. Chapter 2: The Snag Forest
4. Chapter 3: You Can’t Fight the Wind with a Chain Saw
5. Chapter 4: The ‘Megafire’ Narrative
6. Chapter 5: What’s the Real ‘Carbon Bomb’?
7. Chapter 6: The Economics of Deceit
8. Chapter 7: What You Aren’t Being Told About ‘Thinning’
9. Chapter 8: An Inconvenient Woodpecker
10. Chapter 9: Climate Change Enablers
11. Chapter 10: The Logging Collaboratives
12. Chapter 11: Fire in the East
13. Chapter 12: Fire-Safe Communities
14. Chapter 13: Keep it in the Forest, Keep it in the Ground
15. Chapter 14: A New Wildfire Vocabulary
16. Chapter 15: Moving beyond the Politics of Fear
About the author
Chad T. Hanson is a research ecologist and the director of the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute. He is coeditor of The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix, and his work has been featured in the International Journal of Wildland Fire, Ecosphere, and Bio Science.
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