Comments on Jenn's review of Burning Man
Burning Man
Description: Week long event in Black rock desert.
An eco-hostile event with delusions of greenness
Burningman is really not a sustainable event. Despite talk about "Leave No Trace" and radical self-reliance, it's very clear they're all fooling themselves. Consider the huge amount of energy to prepare months before the event. It's not just about the amount of jet fuel consumed to fly to Nevada or gas burned to drive out to the desert.
Most people are shopping at Costco & Wal-Mart on the way in -- they buy tons of prepackaged food with lots of plastic packaging and "disposable" clothing, blankets and other goods.
There's a lot of waste out there -- most people can't be bothered to properly recycle or carry out all their own trash. Their failure ends up on the camp site or on the side of the road for teams of volunteers to clean.
Many of the art projects are burned. "The Waffle" was great to watch burn, but consider the impact on the environment by shipping all the wood from Europe for a massive structure, air flights for 100 people to build it and then sent all that ash into the air. When the man burns - lots of chemicals go up, too - not just wood but neon, glass, paint and other stuff.
How about people going out there in RVs that get 8 mpg, running engines and generators so they can have air conditioning in sheds built from 2 x 4s and cardboard which they will later burn.
How about just the fact that at the end of the event, there are giant metal trailers where people haul all kinds of crap to burn -- cardboard, wood, painted wood, carpets, clothing, blankets, furniture?
The idea of "radical self-reliance" is interpreted by some as "how much can I make camping in the desert seem like being in my own living room." Last time I went to burningman, I counted no fewer than 8 refrigerators and 6 chest deep freezers set up with generators -- and none of these were covered with insulation to make them operate more efficiently out in the sun. These people would be well off to live in a poor African country for 3 months as volunteers.
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Adam W. says:
Sounds like someone is a little hot under the collar
Jenn A. says:
ha! the whole planet is hot under the collar. The playa is YOUR land. You can go out there any time you want and have a camping trip -- you can go to the hot springs and you can practice "Leave No Trace" without being kept in a cage. "Radical Self Reliance" and camping are not about bringing chest freezers and port-a-potties.