by Rachel Jonitis

Created on: September 04, 2009

The infamous Burning Man Festival is an annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in Northern Nevada. The name "burning man" comes from the burning of a giant wooden man on the Saturday evening of the festival. Participants have described the festival as experimentation in community, and radical self expression and reliance. While the Burning Man Festival pulls in nearly 50000 people every year, there are many criticisms that have come along with the festival, and many people do not agree with it.

The festival takes place on what is called a "Playa" or a large dry lakebed, and although there are no humans livingon this lakebed, there are many plants, animal and insect species that call it home. One of the Principles of the burning man festival is to leave no trace, which means that participants are encouraged to take everything that they brought with them back to where they came from, however, despite the BLM(Bureau of Land Managment) trying to ensure this happens, trash continues to build up at a steady rate. Another problem is damage to the surrounding area. The man is required to be burned on a platform ever since the burn scars on the site got too bad, and while there are instructions as to how to build this burning platform, these instructinos are not always followed, thus creating damage to the area. Even water from showers is not allowed to stay on the dry lakebed, and must either be caught in a container and allowed to evaporate or taken home with the participant. The BLM maintains the desert and have a strict set of requirments set up for this event, which include trash cleanup, burn scar removal, dust abatement, and capture of fluids from vehicles. For an entire 4 weeks after the festival is over a restoration crew called the Black Rock City Department of Public Works (BRC-DPW) stays in the desert and cleans up after the participants making sure that there is no trace of humans.

Now, scientists in San Fransisco are also looking at the possible Green House Affects that the Burning Man could be causing. They created an organization called the "Cooling Man" and have created a system so that they can calculate the amount of green house gases burning man will create. Their website offers solutions to this on their website, urging participants to plant trees or use alternative means of electricity. In 2007, following the Burning Mans "Green Theme" where 900 gallons of jet fuel and 2000 gallons of liquid propane sent a 300 foot mushroom cloud skyward, 30 and 50 kilowatt solar arrays were built to stay there permanently, and has since had an annual carbon offset of 559 tons.

So, while the Burning Man Festival is not the healthiest for the environment, it is a spectacular event and a great place to meet new people.

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