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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 ea

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?

29athrowaway 3y 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.
- nwiswell 3y ago
  There is a middle ground between "let the planet warm uncontrollably " and "huddle in darkness waiting for death". Meanwhile, I assume you're a vegan who bikes to work and never uses air conditioning? The difference between just one month of living like the average American and one month of living like the average Indian is significantly greater than the footprint of attending Burning Man. It's absolutely possible for someone to attend Burning Man annually and still weigh in below the average emissions per capita, or even to be carbon negative. We are all going to have to make sacrifices, but we aren't going to have to sacrifice everything, either. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
  - 29athrowaway 3y ago
    The carrying capacity of Earth is approximately 4,000,000,000 humans. We have twice as much. The only way we can have a chance (we really don't, but let's entertain the idea) is to have every person reduce their environmental footprint as much as possible. The other alternative is the elites replacing the masses with AI, and use autonomous means to capture all resources.
    - callalex 3y ago
      >The carrying capacity of Earth is approximately 4,000,000,000 humans. You know what they say about extraordinary claims…
      - 29athrowaway 3y ago
        Whatever the number is, it is clear we are past it, as evidenced by the fact that species above certain weight are going extinct, and key sources like topsoil, groundwater and others are being depleted much faster than they replenish.
JohnFen 3y ago
> should we be similarly outraged about the climate footprint of tech conferences Yes, even more so.

29athrowaway 3y 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.

nwiswell 3y ago
There is a middle ground between "let the planet warm uncontrollably " and "huddle in darkness waiting for death". Meanwhile, I assume you're a vegan who bikes to work and never uses air conditioning? The difference between just one month of living like the average American and one month of living like the average Indian is significantly greater than the footprint of attending Burning Man. It's absolutely possible for someone to attend Burning Man annually and still weigh in below the average emissions per capita, or even to be carbon negative. We are all going to have to make sacrifices, but we aren't going to have to sacrifice everything, either. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
- 29athrowaway 3y ago
  The carrying capacity of Earth is approximately 4,000,000,000 humans. We have twice as much. The only way we can have a chance (we really don't, but let's entertain the idea) is to have every person reduce their environmental footprint as much as possible. The other alternative is the elites replacing the masses with AI, and use autonomous means to capture all resources.
  - callalex 3y ago
    >The carrying capacity of Earth is approximately 4,000,000,000 humans. You know what they say about extraordinary claims…
    - 29athrowaway 3y ago
      Whatever the number is, it is clear we are past it, as evidenced by the fact that species above certain weight are going extinct, and key sources like topsoil, groundwater and others are being depleted much faster than they replenish.

JohnFen 3y ago

> should we be similarly outraged about the climate footprint of tech conferences Yes, even more so.