Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2021 -

Pickerell is well known in Australia as a science journalist focusing on climate change and wildfire. His extremely timely book differs from most North American literature on wildfire effects. The text is part post-fire personal journey, written during the 2019-20 bushfire season, and part scientific fire ecology study of Australia. Eleven chapters describe contemporary wildfire effects on mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and endangered plants, documenting an environmental journalist's perspective on the disastrous wildfire impacts on endangered species. Australian geography reflects tens of millions of years of wildfires and multiple cycles of species extinction. Each essay is a powerful presentation on how a well-known endangered species (e.g., koala, wombat), which had already experienced a crash in population prior to the 2019-20 bushfire season, was affected by the wildfire. Pickerell's tone is sober and personal but also optimistic. The dual narratives contrast tragic descriptions of endangered animals like koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, and cockatoos dying by the millions with vivid accounts of people responding to the crisis to mitigate damage where possible. This is a rich, well-documented resource on the impacts of Australian wildfires with relevance to the North American context, a must read primer to inform the climate change debate in a highly readable form.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.