Programme Details
Wildfires: environmental and social entanglements
By The Open University
About the programme
This course explores how environmental and social factors interact to cause wildfires and shows why these interactions need to be considered when preparing for future wildfires. Focusing on the 2007 wildfires in Greece, this course introduces students to the geographical concept of entanglement as a tool for exploring these interrelated factors. Using the ideas of the environmental historian Stephen Pyne, the course establishes that wildfires are entangled physical, ecological, and human processes. Then it helps students critique the relative benefits of trying to prevent or respond to the environmental challenge of wildfires in the future.
This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course DD213 Environment and society.