Fire, power, climate change and well, educating too!

[Simon Dalby]

GEPED folks:

Yes this is in the category of shameless self-promotion, but also in our common cause as educators too.

My new volume Pyromania is now officially published in the UK and Europe but will take a little while longer to be in hard copy in the Americas (see links below).

It's neither a research volume, nor a text book but an attempt to tackle the climate crisis and some other Anthropocene themes directly by focusing on the chemical process at the heart of all this, combustion. The history of the growing use of fossil fuels, the geopolitics of this through the last couple of centuries, and how it has all led to the present crisis, is laid out as simply as I can in an attempt to engage both students and a wider citizenry. 

A key theme argues that using fuel both makes us powerful, but also vulnerable, both in terms of military firepower and the power of wildfires to threaten life in many places, Perth Australia being the latest on the list. Climate disruptions are a consequence of too much combustion. And yes, one of the key themes is who precisely is this "us" anyway! Some of the arguments are briefly discussed in Jo Sharp's new podcast "Beyond the Map" linked below too.

As many of you know I have formally retired, so I won't be at many of the obvious conference venues to promote this volume in person, so I am taking the liberty of using this and a few other elists, to get the word out.

In 2024 I would be open to doing some guest Zoom appearances if students want to pick my brains on the book's themes, but note that I'm in the Pacific Coast time zone having moved permanently to British Columbia. (Yup, that place name says a lot about how firepower has shaped our current circumstances too!) 

All the best,

Simon

--

Simon Dalby, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus, Wilfrid Laurier University,

BSIA Fellow, Balsillie School of International Affairs

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria

Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation

http://www.balsillieschool.ca/people/simon-dalby
"GeopolSimon" on Twitter

"simondalby" on Bluesky

October 2023 "The Geopolitics of the Fire Age", Podcast on "Beyond the Map"  https://zencastr.com/z/T1zoBayh

Simon Dalby Pyromania: Fire and Geopolitics in a Climate Disrupted World (Newcastle: Agenda, 2024) https://www.agendapub.com/page/detail/pyromania/?k=9781788216500 or https://cup.columbia.edu/book/pyromania/9781788216517

Now available in paperback: Simon Dalby Rethinking Environmental Security (Edward Elgar 2022) https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/rethinking-environmental-security-9781800375840.html