Would you like to work to manifest this vision into reality? Email me to become part of the Burn Clean Volunteer Collective.

The Burn Clean Project:
Sustainable Fuels for Black Rock City

Mission

The mission of the Burn Clean Project is to organize and energize Black Rock City's evolution from petroleum dependency to the ubiquitous and affordable application of renewable energy sources. Burn Clean seeks to evaluate the energy requirements of our city and aid our community in applying a variety of sustainable power solutions. The ultimate goal of the Burn Clean Project is to see Black Rock City 95% free of fossil fuels before the close of this decade.

Impetus

The time for Black Rock City's independence from petroleum has arrived. There has never been a more opportune moment for this evolution towards sustainability in our community. The cost of petroleum, the true cost, outweighs the benefits of its energy production. Here are some facts about the state of oil consumption in the United States:

• With just five percent of the world's population, the US consumes twenty-five percent of the world's oil and produces about twenty percent of the world’s greenhouse gasses.
• Greenhouse gasses are driving a severe climate change on the planet, warming the Earth’s surface approximately 1°F since 1900 and further increasing it by as much as 10°F over the next 100 years. The three warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998.
• The effects of global warming include rising sea levels, dying coral reefs, spreading of infectious diseases, and extreme weather conditions, including droughts, forest fires, historic floods, and severe storms.
• Climate change over the next 50 years is expected to drive a quarter of land animals and plants into what is coming to be known as the “Sixth Mass Extinction.” More than 1 in 10 of all plants and animals will be lost due to greenhouse gasses already discharged into the atmosphere. Scientists have stated that action to curb greenhouse gasses now could save many more from the same fate. ac
• In the US, more people die from air pollution than from car accidents. They die specifically from asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, lung and heart diseases, and other respiratory allergies. The EPA estimates that a proposed set of changes in diesel fuel technology could result in 12,000 fewer premature mortalities, 15,000 fewer heart attacks, 6,000 fewer emergency room visits by children with asthma, and 8,900 fewer respiratory-related hospital admissions each year in the US.

Unfortunately this is just a short list of why the burning of fossil fuels in Black Rock City does not make sense any longer. The bright side of this situation is that our city has a phenomenally huge resource: human ingenuity. We are an inspired community, one that has proven its ability to create realities from dreams that others may deem impossible.
Countless citizens of Black Rock City are enthusiastic about the possibility of sustainable energy for our city. Through encouragement of the artists, inhabitants, and authorities of Black Rock we can have a community completely run with green energy sources: wind, solar, biodiesel, and people power, as well as energy sources still to be innovated by burners in the future. We need to aid in the co-creation of this possibility by providing education, green fuel sources, infrastructure innovations, and incentives for using renewable resources to power our transitory city.

Initiatives for 2006

1) Sustainably Powered Center Camp
2) Sustainable Energy Education for Artcar Registrants and Creative Increase of Incentives for Sustainably Powered Artcars
3) Discount Program for Biodiesel Bus Riders and Sustainably Powered Vehicle Users Arriving to Burning Man
4) On-site Biodiesel Fueling Station
5) Mother Nature or Energy-Related Theme for 2006

Burn Clean has assembled the Burn Clean Volunteer Collective (BCVC), a group of skilled and talented individuals willing and able to manifest the goals of the Burn Clean Project. They will design and engineer new energy systems for Center Camp/Inner Circle in collaboration with the DPW, create renewable energy educational material for artcar registrants, collaborate with Burning Man Project to create a discount program for green-powered transport to Burning Man 2006 as well as ways to fund it, and negotiate affordable biodiesel rates for the fueling station and Center Camp.

Action Requested of Burning Man Project

1) Approval and endorsement of the Burn Clean Project
2) Connecting BCP with necessary contacts within Burning Man Project to coordinate: Center Camp energy system design, negotiation of biodiesel fuel rates, on-site fueling station, and the discount program for Burners
3) Create greater incentives to artcars utilizing renewable energy and direct artcar registrants to web-based renewable energy education
4) Sponsor a theme such as Mother Nature, Energy, Gaia, etc. that could encompass and encourage projects of environmental stewardship (these themes are also open enough to be inclusive of many other non-environmental interpretations)

Vision of a Clean Burn

Burning Man is a community, an event, a festival, a mental space, an evolutionary harbinger, and a home to many. We are able to manifest dreams in an instant and be transformed completely between sunsets. With the unified efforts of our artists, administrators, activists, and community members we can accomplish a sustainably powered Black Rock City before the close of this decade.

We make this pilgrimage to the pristine desert of Nevada to perform our yearly ritual…to burn the man, to renew, to celebrate, to discover, and to express our true selves unabashed. Let us build our sculptures, play our music, and dance in that beautiful desert without depleting her, without leaving a trace… of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, or any other toxic residues. Let us do our part as a community to initiate positive change, especially when it is vital to our survival and the survival of literally thousands of species on Earth. Our massive effort will be rewarded each time we return to Black Rock and enjoy the popcorn-like smell of biodiesel instead of the chemical scent of gasoline and watch the amazing wind powered artcars sail by on the playa. Let's manifest what we want in this world by working together. Burn Clean, Burn Green.


“Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.”
-10 Principles