Rushed exodus frm rain soaked BurningMan could have adverse environmental impact

https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/scars-on-the-playa-rushed-exodus-from-rain-soaked-burning-man-could-have-adverse-environmental-impacts

by c420 • 3 years ago

37 29 3 years ago

thenevadaindependent.com

29athrowaway4• 3 years ago

Burning Man:

- Environmental impact of roundtrip transportation to the middle of nowhere

- Environmental impact of structures and vehicles

- Environmental impact of burning large amounts of crap

- Environmental impact of littering

- Environmental impact of event-specific clothes, garments, accessories, etc.

- Encouraging others to engage into the activities above

- ...

Do you honestly believe that a person that voluntarily engages into all this pollution cares in any way about the environment? They're people living in a bubble, completely detached from reality.

In just 9 days, Burning Man pollutions as much as 19,000 families for an entire year.

nathanaldensr• 3 years ago

It's just another incarnation of the sanctimony that adherents to the religion of climate change seem to inevitably feel.

somewhereoutth• 3 years ago

It is not a religion, it is actually happening. How bad it will get before we manage to do anything about it is an open question. Sanctimony is the least of our worries right now!

klodolph• 3 years ago

The people I know who go to burning man are incredibly thorough about picking up litter before they leave, and they wear the clothing at other events.

Roundtrip transportation to “the middle of nowhere” is no worse than rounddtrip transportation to somewhere. The only difference is that “somewhere” is sometimes accessible by train… but in the US, that’s only a small percentage of the country.

Ymmv, there are 70k people and there’s a lot of variation.

nwiswell5• 3 years ago

Yes, how dare people do things?

The emissions in 2020 were estimated at 100,000 tons CO2, which is roughly equivalent to five hours of air travel (2.5 hours each way) per participant. The lion's share of emissions are from road travel and air travel.

To their credit, the org is trying to green the event (and has been issuing very thorough reports on emissions), but it's difficult when the majority of emissions is due to off-playa transportation.

Moreover, it's an incredibly difficult environment, and not really one where you'd prefer to depend on less-reliable renewables. If you'd opted for solar this year, you'd probably have been wet and dark.

What you should perhaps sit with is: should we be similarly outraged about the climate footprint of tech conferences, or is it just easy to hate Burning Man in particular?

29athrowaway4• 3 years ago

The best way to make the event green would be to cancel it forever and encourage all future similar events to do the same.

It was a mistake.

Same with every international conference that could happen online. Just gather online.

JohnFen• 3 years ago

should we be similarly outraged about the climate footprint of tech conferences

Yes, even more so.

hypertele-Xii• 3 years ago

Meanwhile, airlines fly tens of thousands of empty flights a year, polluting the atmosphere, to "avoid losing take-off and landing slots".

You care so much about the environment, calculate how many Burning Mans that equates to.

Havoc• 3 years ago

It’s never been environmentally sound anyway. Then again few large scale human activities are

mock-possum2• 3 years ago

I was under the impression there was overwhelming effort put into environmental maintenance on-site - ensuring that as much as possible, all traces of the yearly occupation are eliminated after the end of the event.

paulryanrogers• 3 years ago

Efforts to leave no trace should be applauded, yet the event demands emitting a lot of carbon:

- travel to and from

- consumables and their transport

- air conditioning onsite

- burning things

yieldcrv3• 3 years ago

“These playas weren’t formed in a day. If they get torn up, they may restore themselves, but it may take a while,” Verburg said. “It’s going to be a real challenge to assess what those impacts are going to be and what the best way to mitigate it is.”

yeah, as the article mentions, Bureau of Land Management also noted this possible scenario in their permitting assessment

basically, this is a theoretical worst case scenario and nobody knows anything. despite the community's best efforts and ethos to leave no trace.

but it also might not be that worst case as it is really understudied, something to keep an eye on. it is an interesting ecosystem and its good to be cognizant of it. but even if it failed to be preserved, it is strange how people act like this particular festival is so unique in that regard though, although I think its principles and expense ask for criticism.

nwiswell5• 3 years ago

although I think its principles and expense ask for criticism.

... do they though?

"Ah, but in your 'leave no trace' ethos, you forgot to consider the atmosphere! Ha HA! Checkmate!"

"And your radical inclusion principles mean that you have to put up with billionaires at your big counterculture party!"

It's just a bizarre attitude. "How dare you try and make things better if you fail do them perfectly?"

Meanwhile no one would bat an eye at a monster truck rally or whatever.

I realize I'm pissing into the wind here but it's weird how readily people will find reasons not to like a thing if they've already decided not to like it.

psunavy03• 3 years ago

It's just a bizarre attitude. "How dare you try and make things better if you fail do them perfectly?"

Standard internet purity testing these days, really.

yieldcrv3• 3 years ago

its more so the irony that the self proclaimed radically inclusive event winds up being the most insular with high barrier of entry, the socioeconomic class of people that like to pay to be uncomfortable, have the time off, and general tone deafness that comes with like “just stay an extra day no worries bro, dont come if you cant do that! so inclusive!”

irony is funny, I like burning man, we can still acknowledge the surrounding deficiencies

they could drop half of the culty principles and just focus on the art festival, city creation, and the prevalence of theme camps, and 90% of the criticism would evaporate

Rushed exodus frm rain soaked BurningMan could have adverse environmental impact

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