I was waiting for this

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/green-ideas-must-take-blame-for-deaths-20090211-84mk.html?page=-1

Ms Devine has been waiting, anticipating, maybe even hoping for something like this to happen.  Not only is the green movement responsible for shocking economic policy but now for mass murder.  The Victorian fires are shocking are devastating but they're hardly unexpected.  The Australian bush survives by fire - it always has and it always will.  In a few years time when we revisit the sites of "hell on earth" we'll find a paradise of greenery and regenerated bushland.  The urban areas that were destroyed by fires over the past week should have been better managed in terms of fire prevention - that is a given.  But the blame does not lie with the philosophy behind keeping areas pristine and "untouched" by human hands - it lies with the people who moved into the bush and were then baffled when it did what it evolved to do.  Burn.  It is tragic and sad that so many people have died but nature is amoral - if someone swims in shark infested waters and is killed we don't blame the sharks (although frequently we do) we blame the person for being where they shouldn't.  It's like the frog and the scorpion - the scorpion can't help it's nature.  If you're going to build towns surrounded by the bush you can't be surprised when this happens.  That said, the towns are there - we're not going to move them now, so they may as well be fire-proofed (as much as that's possible) - we've already made an impact on our environment and we can't say we've done some damage, let's leave it and let it return to it's natural state - the natural state is dangerous and it does have to be managed.  I'd be very surprised if there isn't a fundamental rethink on the way we manage the urban bush.  But there's enough urbanised bushland already - let's not create any more.