
Six Degrees of Separation at Burning Man - zivvy
http://nautil.us/issue/74/networks/six-degrees-of-separation-at-burning-man
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choward
> How, after so many years, could Burning Man throw an event of such chaos,
> and yet leave the desert without a trace?

Pretty simple answer actually, they don't. And a lot of the trash they do take
with them they illegally dump in Reno. "Leave no Trace" is just a marketing
slogan.

[https://www.apnews.com/ab70872567d94e2585d744e676c976f5](https://www.apnews.com/ab70872567d94e2585d744e676c976f5)

[https://m.sfgate.com/travel/burningman/article/Burning-
Man-g...](https://m.sfgate.com/travel/burningman/article/Burning-Man-garbage-
reno-dumping-leave-no-trace-13186812.php)

~~~
robocat
"Burning Man’s contract stipulates that no more than 1 square foot of debris
per acre can be left behind after the event. The area where a human effigy is
burned had nearly 7 square feet of trash after the event, according to the
BLM."

1 acre = 43560 square feet, and over the 7 square miles of the event (= 4480
acres) that was the peak measurement? Get real.

"attendees — returned from a week of self-discovery and partying on the
'playa' — have the propensity to dump trash illegally"

I think you need to be fair and compare against the mess left at _similar_
events.

Although it seems obvious Burning Man should provide trash bins - rubbish is
generated in large amounts and they should accept that.

~~~
inuhj
The reasonable complaint is that attendees are hauling their trash off the
playa but the infrastructure to deal with the trash after that still needs to
be improved.

Personal anecdote: I attended lightning in a bottle years ago and they had a
similar "pack it out" rule. Well that doesn't help when you're not aware of
that prior to attending and need to dispose of plates from food you purchased
at the event. I guess the expectation is that a day visitor carry around a
trash bag full of waste with them all day. It came across as lazy by the event
organizers.

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toss1
Great project, both requires and creates optimism.

Sadly, some marketer is probably reading this and trying to figure out how
they can exploit the "cooperative effort and whimsical creativity" of the non-
tech-driven IRL networks...

~~~
wizardforhire
“Probably” doesn’t do it justice. If you haven’t seen this documentary it’s
worth checking out if you’re curious to see how sinister and deep the rabbit
hole goes.

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s)

~~~
toss1
Indeed!! Hell, just the first three minutes indicates where this is going...

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smitty1e
So, this is a traceroute LARP.

