Nevada Rangers Wikipedia, Police, Tribal

Nevada Rangers Wikipedia, Police, Tribal – A two-lane, rural route winds through northwest Nevada to get to Burning Man. An estimated 80,000 people travel to the cherished bacchanal every year, many towing trailers and RVs across miles of sweltering desert to reach their famous Gomorrah. This year, however, a 28-foot trailer blocking the road and an hour-long traffic delay caused by climate activists temporarily stopped the influx of enthusiastic festival-goers. They got into a fight with enraged Burning Man visitors and Nevada rangers.

Climate activists block the road for Burning Man participants.

Burning Man has strayed away from its hippy roots in recent years and is now more well-known for its extravagant RVs, wild parties, and Silicon Valley guys. Extinction Rebellion, Rave Revolution, and Scientist Rebellion were among the environmental organizations represented by the Seven Circles protesters, who asked that Burning Man outlaw the limitless use of generators and propane as well as private planes and single-use plastics. Around the roadblock, signs bearing the messages “Burners of the world, unite!” “Mother Earth needs our help” and “System change” were erected. Four activists chained themselves to the trailer and locked their arms through PVC pipes.

The protestors had traveled separately to the location they had selected for the action, pausing on the road as the trailer’s driver drew up ahead and turned to block both lanes. Those in the cars stopped behind them initially thought there had been an accident and got out to see whether everyone was alright. When observers understood it was a climate protest, many of them were enraged and huffed back to their cars out of frustration at the inconvenience. The protestors hurried to set up their posters and flags amid the commotion. Attendee Molly, who was at the festival, yelled, “They’re insane, it’s idiocy. They believe that by preventing Burning Man, they can stop climate change. Whatever their defense, they should go fuck themselves.

The festival’s roots are anarchist and countercultural, having started as an unofficial meeting in San Francisco in 1986. Unlike at a traditional festival, attendees construct the event themselves by bringing their own infrastructure, food, water, and entertainment in place of scheduled musical headliners, transforming a 4,000-acre dry lake bed into an ephemeral metropolis dubbed Black Rock City. The radical spirit of Burning Man also forbids brands from advertising their goods on the festival’s grounds and forbids the exchange of money.

But in recent years, Silicon Valley technocrats, celebrities, influencers, and other people have taken an almost cultish interest in Burning Man, using the event as a chance to network, post selfies, and experiment with psychedelic chemicals. These wealthy people frequently travel to the festival in gas-guzzling luxury RVs. Black Rock Desert’s record-breaking 103°F warmth last year has contributed to a greater reliance on air conditioning powered by generators. Despite the festival’s intention to expand, federal officials have limited attendance to 80,000 due to concerns about the unlawful disposal of rubbish.

According to Tommy Diacono, co-founder of Rave Revolution, “Burning Man attracts the elite of the elites to party and pretend they’re in a classless, moneyless society.” “However, there are more private planes than ever traveling to the Burn. We’re having fun burning propane. Every year, the air-conditioned domes grow larger.

Another co-founder of Rave Revolution, Emily Collins, stated that the tech utopianism ingrained in Burning Man culture had made many of its participants feel complacent. Many individuals believe that they are vegans who drive electric cars and work in sustainability, she said. It has a highly affluent, technocratic mentality.

They possess a wealthy mentality.

The activists believed their demonstration would point out how our climate critical requires wider changes in the system in addition to the personally transformative experiences of realization of oneself that can occur at a festival, in addition to their concerns over Burning Man’s carbon footprint, which in 2019 reached 100,000 tons of CO2.

Organisers of Burning Man claim to be trying to be more environmentally friendly. The festival’s organizers noted their recent accomplishments in their 2023 sustainability report, including the implementation of solar panel pilot programs, the purchase of carbon credits to offset their emissions, and the support of environmentally conscious camps as they strive to achieve carbon-negative status by 2030. These actions, in the opinion of the campaigners, are not enough to slow down the uncontrollable rate of global warming.

“The climate movement has reached a point where there is a split between climate mitigation through technological fixes, and climate justice that’s more oriented around systemic inequalities,” said Will Livernois, a scientist with Scientist Rebellion who attended the protest wearing a white chemist coat and sitting with a dejected expression next to the trailer. “We need to turn away from the green capitalism of Burning Man and concentrate on degrowth.”

“We’re not moving fast enough to reach the 2030 net zero goals,” claimed Christina Chu of Solarpunks, a climate-focused camp that last year during the event constructed a community microgrid using solar panels. “Burning Man has inspired individuals like myself to develop initiatives like this, but there is still much opportunity for development. Most of this is done at the local level by volunteers and falls short of providing top-down guidance on how to decarbonize. Raise your hand if you plan to use solar energy this year, is how it currently reads.

Not everyone who was backed up behind the blockade was a Burning Man participant. One man passionately stated that he was a working-class person just trying to get to work during a heated conversation. Diacano attempted to reassure him by saying, “I’m on your team, I promise.” “The government is not concerned with us.” He shook his head and returned to his car.

Later, Diacono added, “The individualization of structural problems under late-stage capitalism is absurd. There’s this idea that if I just change myself, the rest of the world would follow. However, the existing economic system has forced us to track both inequality and airborne carbon, and they are related.

The majority of the Burning Man visitors snarled in the traffic did not support the activists. After the barricade was set up, several people tried to take up and move the trailer themselves, while others called the police to report the demonstrators. An activist handed him a flyer listing their requests, which one man crumpled up and threw away in disgust. A man named Will Semmbs, who was traveling to the festival, said: “I think protest is very important, but destroying and upsetting people doesn’t do anything.” “I have solar panels on my RV,” he said. “The demonstrators arrived in gas-powered vehicles. They are actually deteriorating the climate.