Hell on Earth: The Wildfire Pandemic | 
 enlarge | Authors: David L. Porter, Lee Reeder
Publisher: Forge Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $7.75
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 341849
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0765313804
Dewey Decimal Number: 363.379
EAN: 9780765313805
ASIN: 0765313804
Publication Date: August 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The world is burning, and it appears that we are to blame. Conditions that create large-scale fire disasters are occurring more frequently every year, spurred on by global warming. And the potential for damage, loss of life, and greater harm to the environment is staggering. As devastating fires increase throughout the western and southern United States, the number of fires in the Brazilian rain forest continues to increase as well. Vast areas of the wilderness are dying throughout the West, setting the stage for a human and environmental tragedy. David L. Porter has been covering wild fires in the west for more than twelve years. After losing his home to a wildfire in 2003, he set out to find how and why this was happening, not only in the western US, but around the world. Hell on Earth chronicles the origins of these catastrophes as well as the effects they are having on our planet.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Interesting Look at the Wildland Fires, But With Questionable Science about Cause August 25, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
As a fire protection engineer with over 30 years of experience, and with a degree in environmental science (and graduate credits), I feel somewhat uniquely qualified to be reviewing this book. It is the story of the California wildland fires in 2003, with a small chapter on the fires in 2007. In addition, the authors discuss the causes of these fires.
The chapters that dealt with the fires were good, and allowed the reader to feel the frustration and fear of the residents as their world burned around them. Written in the journalistic style of a newspaper account, it covers various areas and looks at several very specific incidents in great depth. A specifically emotional chapter was one that covered the death of the firefighter from Novato, California. It gives a true sense of the futility of what these men were up against.
I cannot be a generous in my praise on the sections that covered the causes of the wild fires. The authors seem to place the majority of the blame on global warming, which is a stretch. They even try to make the connection to fires in other parts of the country, including the immense prairie fires in Oklahoma and Texas.
By using global warming as an out, they ignore numerous factors that have been documented over the past 20 years as being major contributors to large and uncontrollable fires. Included in the list are homeowners that refuse to clear defensible space around their properties, homeowners that continue to build homes in the wildland/urban interface use highly combustible building materials, the continued encroachment of buildings into this interface zone, the use of suppression to limit fires and the lack of clearing of forest floors of various fuels, with particular emphasis on ladder fuels.
The San Bernardino Mountains did suffer an out break of pine bark beetles that weakened and killed large numbers of trees. These trees were fire waiting to happen, and the government was negligent in allowing thousands of trees to die without action, but again, the authors try to blame global warming induced drought as the cause of the infestation. They also try to make the case that warmer temperatures failed to kill off the beetles as usually occurs. However, any serious fire ecologist will tell you that the best way to wipe out a beetle infestation is to allow slow, low burning fires to enter an area. The heat from the fires is too much for the beetles and they die. While some trees are lost, the vast majorities are saved and a natural thinning occurs.
The book is generally an interesting, quick read; however the science is too biased to be of use for a lessons learned book. For a better treatment on how we can reduce disastrous fires from our forests, I would steer readers towards Flames in Our Forest. He does a wonderful and concise job of explaining the history and future of fire in our forests.
 interesting cautionary book August 20, 2008
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
At a time when California struggles again with the annual wild fires and other parts of the country also have trouble from out of control infernos, HELL ON EARTH is a timely insightful look at what is going on. The author somewhat personalizes his account by telling how he felt when his own house was destroyed during the 2003 season. However, much of the book is making a scientific case that it will get worse not better based on the combination of global warming and the political and public indifference to the fires (except when a person is personally involved). David L. Porter believes the firestorms have not yet had its perfect storm yet though have come close. The environmental disaster is a Catch 22 as the warmer climate brings in new predators destroying trees and the fires devastating much more adding CO2 into the atmosphere to warm the climate even further. Although well written with a strong scientific case for action and containing many anecdotal examples and showing somewhat the heroic side of the fire fighters and their frustrations, Mr. Porter fails to put a victim's face on the fires. He mentions names, but never really digs deep into those who lost their lives, loved ones, or property. Still in fairness his premise is to argue we can win the wildfire war, but must take action now starting with declaring war. This is an interesting cautionary book that warns HELL ON EARTH has only begun.
Harriet Klausner
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