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(a) Increased 'prescribed burning' will cause great and irreversible ecological damage
(b) Whether it would be effective in reducing bushfire risk is at best debatable, and there are many circumstances in which the risk could be increased.
(c) The basic dilemma is this - if 'prescribed burning' is to be effective then it would have to be done very very frequently, but the more frequently you do it the more damage you cause.
With those conclusions I am frequently asked to say what my answer is. In a sense this is the wrong question. Much of the debate on bushfires in Australia is based on the false premise that if a fire happens it is someone's fault and all risk can be removed by the correct behaviour (based of course on common sense). I don't believe this, anymore than I think you can remove the risk of floods in Bangladesh, volcanoes in Indonesia, droughts in Africa or blizzards in Alaska. However I think there are a number of approaches which could be usefully taken which might improve things.
1. There should be studies to try to understand and reduce arson attacks. Heavier penalties might help (it could be argued that the crime of arson should rank as the most serious crime in Australia), but ultimately we need to change public attitudes to fire and let people understand the damage caused by fire. Changing media approaches, and undertaking education programs might help.
2. Similarly there need to be studies of the causes of accidental fires with the aim of greatly reducing those. Both education programs and changes in design of equipment and work practices might reduce the number of fires caused by cigarette butts, camp fires, trains, electricity wires, tractors, electric fencing, welding, chain saws and so on. In Australia in the summer it should be assumed that all areas are under total fire bans except on rare occasions, instead of the present reverse procedure where total fire bans are in place only rarely.
3. Many others have made this point but Australia needs to be much more careful about where it allows houses and tourist facilities to be built in forested areas, and, when they are built, to be much more careful about the design and building materials of such structures. Building wooden houses on stilts on the edge of a gorge for example and then demanding that all the trees be cut down to prevent fire seems to me a very strange approach. The present scattering of valuable property all over the forested areas is resulting in a great demand for fire fighting resources which can't be met, and means that fire fighters are constantly forced into property protection mode (and their lives put at risk) instead of trying to put fires out.
4. Considerable resources must be put into the equipment needs of firefighters. In many ways we are still fighting fires in the same way as we did 100 years ago. A research and development effort comparable to just a part of the effort that is put into defence equipment development could see substantial improvement in our ability to both control fires and keep fire fighters safe. In particular there needs to be investigation of how best to hit lightning fires that start in rugged country before they build up force. If Australia were to develop new equipment it would be much in demand in other parts of the world.
5. Finally the committee could exert pressure on the government to sign the Kyoto protocol, and to try to influence the Americans to also do so. It should be evident by now that whatever the possible costs to Australia of implementing the protocols, agricultural losses caused by extreme climatic events, and the gradual heating up and drying out of the continent will be much greater. Fire events are also likely to greatly increase with more frequent droughts, high temperatures and strong winds. In relation to fire, the direct financial losses are huge and the indirect environmental losses are going to be much greater over time.
Such approaches would certainly be much more productive, and much less damaging than a mistaken belief in the value and benign nature of 'prescribed burning'. Destroying something in order to save it is never a useful approach.
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