"S. McLaren" writes:
Is there a credible solution to the drought and bushfire problems we
experience regularly?

Bushfires are an inevitable part of the Australian scene. Homes bordering
bushland need to be built to withstand the approach of a fierce fire. In
most cases where homes are lost, there has been ample time to implement
a complete lockdown: putting galvanised iron shutters over windows, over
roof gutters, over fences, etc., if only these were an integral part of
the design right from the start. I'm sure it can be done.

The first step to insulating agriculture against extended periods of zero
rainfall is to get rid of all hoofed animals from unimproved grazing land.
Hoofed animals pound grassless trails, the start of soil erosion, along
ridgelines and in gullies, foul waterholes, and trample as much grass as
they eat. Only soft-footed animals should be allowed to graze on native
grasses and uncultivated soil--animals such as camels, kangaroos, emus,
etc. These are what should be farmed in marginal grazing areas. You never
see a mob of roos ploughing up the mud to get to the middle of a water
hole to drink--they drink delicately from the water's edge and stir up no
sediment. They are a lot more efficient in their use of water and food,
too. We cannot sustain the hidden costs associated with the insistence of
applying European agricultural husbandry to our non-European land (tree
clearing, soil degradation and erosion, water waste, salinity in some
places and lowering of the aquifer in others, chemical- and fuel-hungry
practices, native plant and animal extinction, acute vulnerability to
foreign pests and diseases, etc.)

Or is it a situation of simply sucking it in and taking the "punishment"
whenever it comes?

The land suffers in silence.
--
John Savage (for email, replace "ks" with "k" and delete "n")