We had a big duststorm in Canberra last night and when we woke up everything was covered in red dust. It makes you think about what’s happening out in the bush. Of course, I know that drought is part of the natural cycle, that a lot of the problems are caused by overallocation of water, that Farmhand is just a front for the privatisation of Telstra, and so on. But when you see people not only washing their cars but hosing down their drives to get rid of that nasty dust, you begin to think that criticism of farmers can only go so far.
To be fair to my fellow Canberrans, only a minority engaged in conspicuous water waste. Driving to work, the 4WDs all looked as if they’d been off-road for once, and the average motorist looked like a rally car driver.

Update: As is so often the case on this blog, the comments add more value than the original post. Be sure to click on the comment link, and read a lengthy and thoughtful comment from Gary Sauer-Thompson