“If you were really green, you would have walked here”
GristmillPosted: August 31st, 2007 by Thomas L. Knapp
Author: Judith Lewis
“The headline refers to a sign that appears as you drive (or as I drove, in a huge white pickup truck) into the Playa at five miles an hour, and it’s not a bad summary of the enviro discussion here at Burning Man. How can you really be green at an event you have to drive hundreds of miles to, mostly through desert, with all your heavy crap in the car? Where will all those plastic water bottles end up? Is there such thing as a petroleum-free camp? What about all those Zip Ties, the preferred technology for securing dome coverings and lights on your bike? Is Burning Man this year anywhere close to carbon-free? No, says Andie Grace, the woman who ably answers the media here. ‘We’re doing everything we can to lessen the footprint, but we can’t make it disappear. After all, to do that we’d all have to sit home, strip naked, and eat grubs.’” (08/29/07)
August 31st, 2007 at 1:33 pm
In a festival famous for its lack of rules, how can anybody get mad at a guy for expressing himself by setting a fire that they themselves were going to set a few days later? How ironic is it that somebody is charged with arson at a gathering of people who come to see … a fire? And a suicide is nothing if not the ultimate form of self-expression.
I covered BM in 2001 and I have a warm place in my heart for the event, but I’ll be interested to see how the anything-goes Burners spin this one.
Ron Franscell
Under The News