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An association between our hominid ancestors and fire extends back over a million years. Along with speech and the ability to use tools, fire has allowed humanity an unprecedented power to manipulate its environment. Archaeological evidence suggests that modern humans were present on most habitable continents, firestick in hand, by at least 40000 years ago and probably earlier. Humans were therefore in a position to exert considerable influence over vegetation patterns as web as at least regional climate, at a time when the earth was changing from glacial to interglacial mode and ’natural’ ecosystems were destabilised. Emerging evidence suggests that the interior of Australia may be arid today because of prehistoric anthropogenic burning that inhibited the re-establishment of forests over northern Australia at the end of the last glaciation. On a global scale, the present interglacial period is arid in comparison with what is known of previous interglacials in both Australasia and Saharan Africa, an observation which has yet to be adequately explained. The possibility that we have been living in a global environment partly of our own making since long before the advent of modern concerns over ’global change’ in the twentieth century merits serious consideration.