Australian planners recommend buying the land from people whose isolated houses in the forest were burned.

This will surely reduce property damage and deaths from future fires. It may also make containing those fires a little easier, as fire-fighting will not be complicated by the wish to save houses where there are no houses.

However, over the decades as the fires get ever worse, that won't make a noticeable difference. Short-term improvements are good, but we must not let them steal the show from what we need for the long term: to curb global heating.