A WHOLE 9 PAGE ARTICLE ON GREENING BURNING MAN IN A MAGAZINE:
check it out! Sierra Club Magazine on Greening Burning Man, got my pic and story in it!:

www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2...gman2.asp

- a note on this, as I'm not going back to BM anymore... I love what BM has been doing/ trying to do on reducing waste and know it's up to each individual to really do the right thing. As the infrastructure starts to understand more and more the better off the festival will be and I appreciate what has been done, especially what Blue, Camera Girl, Hazmatt, DA, Earth Guardians, Burn Clean Project, Hippi Mike, PQ, Sarah Haynes, Green Home, AEZ, the Greening Man list serve, Burners with out Borders, and others have contributed to the workings of the event to go greener. I did have a challenging time with the BMORG, and wish they would have been more organized to get more accomplished, however I think a LOT got done, just check out the Greening BM tribe and the Environmental pages in the Burning Man website: www.burningman.com/environment/


*I just found out last night from the main coordinators of Entheon Village that they got a "Green Camp of the Day" award from the Earth Guardians - our camp and the Evolutionary Center pod celebrate!! Check 'em out: www.EntheonVillage.com

Have a great summer and I'll be celebrating my 28th birthday at home this year in Oakland, CA in the Bay Aug 31st and starting grad school for Organizational Development - - so if you are around come on down to the Numi Tea House to celebrate!!

much love and enjoy this moment to the fullest!!

-off to green the Rothbury Festival for the 4th of July - come and stop by and say hi to all of us and the recycled art projects of Our Future Now!! The peeps who are building the BM Temple this year out of recycled materials - love it!!

-Kachina da Greena*


ps. Here is something worth reading, a very special insight from my good friend and old room mate, Karl Banks, Mayor of WigTown:

Kachina-

I want to tell you that the idea for Water Woman is inspirational. It is aligned with my own and many others' plans of those with whom I have spoken.

I read all of the article online at: www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2...ngman.asp

I did want to provide some feedback. I also feel the need to represent myself and perhaps other Burners out there too.

What we are all confounded by is the World, not the planet. Earth will do fine with or without us. Probably better without us. If we don't want to get evicted, we need change the World.

The distinction is that the World is us, our civilizations, our cultures, our nations, our communities and our families. It is made up of a thousand agreements. We cannot easily escape these, they are handed down to us and some are good, some are bad, but all of them limit us to the particular hell we are finding ourselves in here on Earth.

Burning Man is another World. The slate was wiped mostly clean and we got to choose what to bring. We still choose. Every year. That is precisely why it is so fucking important to so many of us. With all its flaws. Especially with its flaws. It is a crucible for changing the World.

Where else in the Default World can you change so much so fast? Where else on the entire Earth does a fully functioning city rebuild every year?

This is precisely why we must have Burning Man and Water Woman and Rainbow Gatherings and the like.

The concept is not new. Go to Chaco Canyon on the Navajo Nation. From 850 AD to 1125 AD it was inhabited only once a year by people from all directions. They had arrow straight roads built to it from all 4 cardinal directions. They got together, burning large fires in large round houses and did everything we do and probably more. They didn't raze everything every year, because they built in stone. However, they did raze most of it when they abandoned the site.

I agree that as far as being as green as they should be, the BMorg doesn't cut it. AND they pull off the spectacularly amazing year after year. I am actually quite confident that this article will spur them to reach greater goals. If they don't power the man with solar this year, no big deal. Next year it might be wind or thermal or solar again. Or algae fuel?

I say, why knock them? They already do better than 90% of the cities in the US and probably 99% of the cities worldwide. I will continue to assert gentle, but un-fucking-stoppable force in the direction of fully utilizing energy income (sun, wind, bio, heat) and reducing waste too.

Burning Man has always been about bringing only what you need and reducing to a minimum that which you do not. That applies to concepts the same as it applies to food packaging. At one time it didn't seem necessary to have roads there. With that in mind, maybe your friend is right about water distribution. Perhaps there could be potable water trucks which move from corner to corner allowing people to come and fill up bottles. This would have its own monumental hurdles (harder than powering the Man with solar), but it could be done. And if so, the environmental impact, would be worth it.

I like your ideas. I am glad that you shared them in the article.

I do question your indulgence in outrage. In my opinion, "right or wrong", "good or bad", "enough or not enough", don't mean anything.

To be cliche, Burning Man is a DOacrasy. That seems trite, maybe funny or annoying. However, a DOacrasy is part of the World I want to live in. You and I both got to feel good about, and take credit for, and then choose to critique or celebrate what they pulled off last year. However, I know we would have felt so much better had we both been up there installing panels on the playa as part of Black Rock Solar.

I felt good about last year because I attended one meeting, I looked at Tom Price and Blue in the eyes, I told them it was feasible, the limit was only money, they looked back and said they were going to make it happen.

Then another friend of mine, Mota, took charge of a team of volunteers and they made that project happen. It wasn't half-assed. It powered the man and his base all week long. It proved itself in practice. It might have not been the best design, but they know they can do it. And they have continued to install solar in neighboring communities. Wow. That is people doing stuff on the ground. It is easy for me to sit here and press Blue for promises he will continue to power the Man with solar, but unless I am willing to DO it myself...

There is a lot of emotion behind my words. You have to understand, I love Burning Man. It gives me hope for humanity. It gives a ton of people a huge creative influx all year long. People have their hearts and minds (and other stuff!) opened wide on the playa. People start thinking about these issues, which (thanks in part to you) get put in their face, sometimes while they are even more opened by drugs. People change the way they live because of Burning Man. You may not see it in the first time burner, who had to have an RV, and has to run the gennie, but look around. Those people either do not stay, or shift their ways, because we always have more newbies and the place is getting better. And people like to be inspired, not scolded.

This will be year 11 for me and I have seen a positive trend, even as population has grown. There used to be lots more trash. There used to be many more batteries wasted, now there are more solar lights. There used to be real problems with generators between neighbors, now there still are, but fewer, and even they are banding together to use larger, more efficient gennies instead of many small ones. And biodiesel has made big inroads up there and will be used more and more. There is a lot more solar for camps and for art projects, which has a direct effect of improving my experience of art. Air quality and noise are better. And in places where you still encounter "Stinky Loud Generator Camp" there is much greater awareness and I bet those people don't come back and do the same thing.

And if they do, I want to remind us they are still wonderful, amazing, creative, interesting humans. The World I think we both want to live in is one where we have even greater freedom to exercise our free will.

Come back to Burning Man, but live in the Alternative Energy Zone (or WigTown, we qualify as a satellite AEZ). Live with those old hippies and learn how to do solar yourself. Dive into the details and don't come up for air until you are carbon neutral!~

I love you.

Karl

p.s. What would the carbon impact be if we same 50,000 people all went to Disneyland for a week? DisneyLand gets 50,000 people per day during the high season. Shall we protest at DisneyLand? What about DisneyWorld? See link below and put into perspective Burning Man, which only lasts for 10 days! I have to ask you: Do you think we get more "good" from what we do at Burning Man compared to spending a week at Disney?
www.themeparkinsider.com/flume...4/320/