Living With Fire

Discover the fascinating science behind wildfire and learn how to live safely and sustainability with fire today. Register now and start anytime.

Time:Price
Free
Time:Duration
4-weeks (18 hours in total)
Time:Delivery
Online
Time:Starts
Anytime

About this course

As the world warms, wildfires are behaving in new, less predictable ways, which present fundamental challenges to our established methods of preventing, fighting and living with fire. And with increasing populations on the wildland-urban interface, we urgently need to find new solutions to these challenges.

This free taster will introduce you to some of the key aspects of co-existing with fire. You’ll learn about the science of fire and the role it plays in sustainability, examine the history of Indigenous burning and how it’s shaped our country, and discover how we can benefit from fire from a bio-diversity aspect, whilst protecting ourselves from it. This is your opportunity to learn how to safely live with fire as individuals and as communities, whilst learning new ways to plan for the future.

This short course is an introduction to the Living with Fire (KPZ104) unit in the Undergraduate Certificate in Sustainable Living, which has been developed in consultation with members of the indigenous community, Tasmanian practitioners, and the UTAS Fire Centre (led by Professor David Bowman).

What you will learn

Gain an understanding of the scientific, social, economic and ethical issues of co-existing with wildfire

Explore the role of indigenous burning in shaping Australia, and how we can learn from this to live with fire sustainably today

Learn about the role of wildfire in the earth system, including how it affects biodiversity

Examine the role of fire in human history and culture, including how our response to fire has changed over the years.

Discover the impact that climate change is having on wildfire activity.

Meet your instructors

Dr Penelope Jones

Dr Penelope (Penny) Jones is a Research Fellow in Environmental Health at the University of Tasmania, and plays a formative role in delivering the Living with Fire (KPZ104) unit within the Undergraduate Certificate in Sustainable Living. Penny combines her government experience in environmental, natural resource management and water policy with a wealth of multi-disciplinary research expertise in the areas of palaeoecology, archaeology, aerobiology and environmental health.  Given her broad research interests, she is a valued contributor to the University of Tasmania's Fire Centre Research Hub.

View Penny's staff profile