A month or so ago, I let you know that I was cutting guest writer Whatsblem the Pro loose. You can now find him here. I hope it’s clear now, this is my blog. If you read the tag line it says “Me, Burners, and the Man”. It’s for free, I don’t make money from it, I don’t ask you to give me money, it’s entirely up to you if you want to read this. Hey, if you don’t, then don’t – no skin off my nose.
I’m constantly amazed by the criticism I get, from people who think this free blog should suit their needs better. They don’t want to click the links to stories I’ve already spent hours to write, they just want me to make it simple for them by constantly re-writing the content for the sake of simplicity for the casual reader. For free, of course…“gift me this!”
Well, those ignoramus Burners can get fucked. If you’re still with me, I’m going to use this platform to share my opinions, just like I did when I only had 3 Likes on Facebook. And my opinion is, the most important thing in life on this planet is Habitat Preservation. Steve Irwin style. He’s been dead for 8 years now, and no-one has put their hand up to take his place, to lead the youngsters into a world of respecting the environment.
Forget Leave No Trace® – a registered trademark of the BLM who take $2 million/year from Burners, to generously grant us a permit to throw a party in the desert. They spend that money on dogs and night-vision goggles, all the better to bust us with.
We’re talking about the “fight to save the environment”…That’s what we’re leaving for future generations. If we don’t stand up for Mother Nature, who else will? Oh, you care about “Leave No Trace”, but you don’t care about the environment? WTF is wrong with you? If we turn a blind eye, or think that simply by going to Burning Man, we’re somehow making a difference, then the future of this planet is doomed.
Some of you might disagree, thinking that “happy cows can get fucked”, or crazy judge rulings or new “environmentally friendly” taxes from BMOrg are the best things in life. Fair enough, if I can borrow a phrase from the BMOrg-affiliated online trolls warriors who hit up this site all the time: “if you don’t like it, start your own”.
Right now, what’s got my goat is Corey and Amber Knowlton. They just paid (well, he just paid…who knows what sort of pre-nup agreement she got…) $350,000 to murder an endangered black Rhino in Africa.
Corey Knowlton has hunted widely on 6 continents taking more than 120 species, including a Super Slam of wild sheep and the big five in Africa.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537833/Dallas-Safari-Club-auctions-permit-HUNT-endangered-black-rhino-Africa-says-money-rhino-CONSERVATION.html#ixzz2qNyG3TNX
It’s not just Corey: his wife Amber gets in on the mass slaughter too. Check out these murderers conservationists Christmas card!
Yep, these butchers have two daughters. I hope Santa takes a huge dump down their chimney. These people are scum. The world needs to be made aware of them. They need to be shunned. If I ever see them, I’m going to give them a stern talking to (an understatement!) I hope they never show up at Burning Man, or any other Burner event worldwide. Can you believe that they have a spare $350,000, and what they want to do with that money, is slaughter black rhinos, a species with less than 5000 members on earth?
Corey Knowlton leads a “hunting party”. Why do you need camouflage, when you have telescopic and laser sights?
The take for Burning Man of BMOrg’s new, genius invention of a “vehicle tax” that is supposed to help the environment, is $1.4 million. That’s what the Jacked Rabbit told us, anyway – it’s for our own benefit! Surely it must be true, if it was in Jacked Rabbit.
Last year, there were 35,789 cars at Burning Man, and this new tax will keep 789 cars off the road.That’s about 325 tons of CO2 emissions avoided, or the equivalent of the Man Burn plus fire art burn. For $1.4 million! Really saving the world! These numbers are calculated from the site Jacked Rabbit points us to, coolingman.org. This site was developed in 007 when the theme was “The Green Man”. They claim that if 70% of Burners offset 1 ton of carbon emissions, this could be the world’s first carbon neutral city. Now that seems like a worthy goal!
No matter what I say here, the haters are going to accuse me of being a hater, but this seems like a valid, and easy to realize, objective. BMOrg could set a goal for us all to do that, instead of “keep the number of cars the same, and pay us more”. If we achieved this goal, suggested first 7 years ago and totally ignored by BMOrg ever since, we’d be leading the world environmentally – a zero-net carbon city, which Leaves No Trace® – without us even needing to chip in another $1.4 million to their non-profit for “environmental reasons” (P.S., they really need our donations too, because the party just doesn’t cover it, even with this extra take!)
Imagine if they cut a quarter of those cars out, and took even a tenth of their $30 million+ receipts from their main event…to actually try to benefit environmental causes. They could really make a difference to the world. For a mere $350k, about 1% of Burning Man’s revenues…is one endangered rhino worth as much as 437 cows? It’s only a quarter of their latest tax on us. Make the new tax $50 instead of 40, our money could save this beautiful black rhino AND BMOrg could still bank all the extra buck$ they need from their new tax.
Here’s what Jacked Rabbit has to say:
Burning Man is under pressure from the Bureau of Land Management and Nevada Department of Transportation to reduce the number of cars entering the event. Highways 447 and 34 are at max capacity during the event and we’re being asked to pay for road damage caused by participant vehicles. Road travel represents 60% of the carbon emissions related to the event...Clearly, it’s critical we address the traffic issue — and we can only solve this problem by working together as a community.
…Our community has always policed itself — and changed its behavior when necessary — through awareness. That’s how we became the largest Leave No Trace event in the world, against seemingly impossible odds
Errr, impossible? It’s not impossible to ask the local tribes to collect trash from the Exodus line, or during the event. Odds are, this would be a win/win/win for everyone if they introduced it.
If you ask me, pollution is the problem, not people using motorized vehicles to get to a remote location. Does $1.4 million in”bonus” vehicle tax to BMOrg, help Planet Earth – in terms of pollution, senseless waste, rainforest degradation, habitat preservation, saving endangered species? Does it help the environment in any way – seriously, do you think it does? Please share if you can see how it does. Is it even going to get any cars off the road at Burning Man? Surely, our non-profit Burner funds could be spent in a better way to help the environment. $1.4 million for 857 cars? Really? They couldn’t just ask, and get 1000+ cars off the road for free?
Like coolingman says, we could become an exemplar city for the environment, without any new tax, just with some encouragement from BMOrg to Respect The Environment. I know, I know, the Sacred Principle is “Leave No Trace”, which we took from the BLM …but, really? “Respect the Environment” is evil?
I would rather see 1% of Burning Man’s budget – or even merely 1% of the new vehicle tax- going to the crowdsourced BitCoin assassination market, to send a message to these hunters that Black Rock City respects environmental values, and we are against the murder of endangered species. If the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is only worth $90,000, what should the price be on Mr and Mrs Knowlton, and their $350,000 murder prize?
[Update 1/17/2014]
The Endangered Species Assassin is such a Big Dick Man, he’s alerted the FBI and the Las Vegas SWAT team to complaints against his intended murder. According to CNN anyway. He claims that assassinating Endangered Species is in the name of “science”. 5000 black rhino left on earth is a “surplus”, says Corey. He tries to relate his slaughter to “The Price is Wrong Bitch”, and British Agent Piers Morgan’s moves to attack the Second Amendment. I guess it’s all a big joke to him. How come Adam Sandler and co aren’t out there murdering endangered species? The dick acts all “surprised” that now his wife and kids are threatened by snipers. Ummm….duh! Give the rhino a fighting chance, don’t shoot it with a high-powered laser scope. That’s fair, right? Texas rednecks ain’t no endangered species, last time I checked! It’s just like shooting cows…it’s cool as long as you eat them! You gonna eat that Rhino boy? You and your wife gonna take that rhino horn?
What do you think, Burners? Do you even care?
For anyone who agrees with me and the author about how repugnant and vile these thrill killers are, please sign this petition. Killing is NOT conservation. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/762/406/576/shut-down-safari-club-international-sci/
Killing only makes sense when the killed are non-reproductive individuals that compete with reproductive individuals for food and resources, reducing the survival of the reproductive. No, I can readily cite no examples for endangered species. However, this is why neuter-and-release is bad for feral cats.
Flawed logic using this argument may be why people are doing the wrong thing, which requires poor and subjective reasoning. I have no doubt that we are suffering from loss of biodiversity – then again, the consequential death of humans may be part of the natural selection process.
Pingback: Scientists Endorse Animal Consciousness | Burners.Me: Me, Burners and The Man
Leave no trace is way older than burning man.the boy scouts and the marines used it.
very true. And it’s a registered trademark of the Federal Bureau of Land Management.
The truth is Burners will pay the $40 and merely grumble about it. Unless like every other aspect of the default world, you are well enough off, the extra $40 is of no consequence. BMORG needs to be mindful not to follow the corporate fundraiser model so closely to ultimately build a transformational event for the rich only. It’s already becoming to exclusionary. How many of those vehicles last year were plug and play support vehicles, driven through the special no-waiting gate?
As far as being green,my hero is the guy I saw bicycling out on Monday morning last year. He is doing it right.
I agree with what you say about the fee not taking cars off the road (at least not many). Any reduction in vehicles will come from people trying to comply with BMOrg’s request, and will have nothing to do with the fee. When you’re hauling in bikes and as much water as each person needs for a week, there’s not much you can do to reduce your vehicles. I had three people in a Ford Expedition and we barely had enough room for our bodies with bikes and water. That means that this fee will just make burning man even more expensive for me and my friends. It’s already completely unreachable for most of my college student friends because of price. It’s also absolutely ridiculous that there’s a fee for leaving the event and coming back. They’ve already charged you $392 (with fees), and then you pay even more to leave? Burning Man tickets are already more expensive than annual passes to Disneyland. Think about that.
When someone says, It’s not about the money, you know it’s about the money.
The BM Org does need to reduce vehicles, elsewise the BLM would mandate a reduction in the populations cap. Especially after going a tad over the permitted population cap in 2013. Beside the $1,400,000 raised by the new vehicle levy, reducing vehicles also allows the BM Org to sell more tickets to the event than otherwise would be permitted. Pantloads of money is at stake.
The $40 vehicle levy is solely about more money for the 6 BM Org LLC members. The six of them receive over $4,000,000 in salary (take known payroll figures and minus the org workers’ salaries and benies), and maybe another $4,000,000 per year for the Burning Man for-profit LLC sale to the Burning Man Project non-profit 501(c)3. Still, in their ‘burnerly’ spirit, they still mandate even the mutant vehicles pay their $40 vehicle levy, despite the massive quantities of labour and funds the mutant vehicle owners pour into their vehicles.
In announcing the sale of Burning Man to the Burning Man Project in early 2011, Larry Harvey and other BM LLC members said in three years (late 2013) they planned to turn control of the TTITD event over to the new non-profit Burning Man Project. And, in another three years after that, they would liquidate their ownership of the name and associated trademarks and are paid for their value. (scribe, SFBG, “Is Burning Man going communal or selling out?”, 2011/4/6)
Instead, they pulled a Bait-and-Switch and put their Burning Man for-profit LLC as a subsidiary of the Burning Man Project non-profit 501(c)3, with ticket revenues going to the Burning Man LLC instead of to the Burning Man Project. Which allows them to continue their over $4,000,000 payroll take, rather than being paid non-profit wages. I prayed one of the 6 LLC members would have declined to sign the revised agreement, or the US IRS would have disallowed putting a for-profit company as a subsidiary of a non-profit 501(c)3. But, alas, it was not to be so.
It appears the rubbish of the 6 LLC members making oodles of cash while cool Burners pay to throw the party will continue. I didn’t catch any words stating that the 6 LLC members would EVER dissolve their for-profit LLC, so could it remain a subsidiary of the non-profit Burning Man Project ad-infinitum?
At least, good word is that some GPE volunteers will be paid minimum wages and the ticketing company changes. And, an extra 5,000 tickets are being directed at existing burners so the TTITD event won’t be nearly all Newbies and near-Newbies again.
“Last year, there were 35,867 cars at Burning Man”
Exactly where did that number come from?
Their gate count that there were 1.9 people per vehicle on average, divided into the “official” population count of 68,000 (per Wikipedia) . Sorry, it should’ve been 35, 789 – numbers corrected.
They are understating it when they point out that 60% of the emissions come from road travel, because most of the rest come from the air travel. The generator fuel and burning wood and everything we do at the event are essentially in the noise when you look at the environmental footprint of the event.
It’s just not in any way an environmentally responsible thing for 60,000 people to come from all around the world, erect a temporary city for a week and tear it down. Even if we just gazed at our navels and never burned a drop of fuel or art while there.
No, this is a conscious decision to burn a LOT of fuel for art or a party or whatever you think TTITD is. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it better, but it does mean you can only do it a *little* better while on the desert. On the other hand, more carpooling would indeed make a much larger difference.
However, it’s more the traffic than the pollution, I think. More carpooling means shorter exodus waits and probably even gate waits.
While money (ie. the car passes) can help here, if there were a way to reward carpools with shorter exodus or gate lines that would help even more. Problem is, everybody’s a carpool. I almost never see a solo burner in a car. When I see just 2 burners in a car, the back seat is usually full of gear.
One area that could improve is RVs. (I am not an RV hater, I have been in an RV for 12 of my burns, a tent for only 3.) I admit to having brought an RV in with several empty seats. Many RVs have 8 seatbelts, and more to the point, they also have room, at least for the ride from Reno, for a passenger with modest stuff.
So if you want to put a tax on something, it would be RVs with empty seats. You do that by having a staging lot in Reno (and perhaps near SF and LA as well) where burners with modest stuff can park and get a ride in a vehicle with a spare seat. RVs with too many spare seats would stop by to pick up people. If nobody was there, they could get some token to prove they were there, like a photo of the RV in front of a sign there.
Then, show up with empty seats and no token and you need to have a coupon you paid for. If you really don’t want to take pax you can buy one in Reno. On Exodus, same deal, except now you get a shorter exodus line if you pick up some pax. (It is less practical to check for passes or seats in the main line as it has no gate.)
I’m not into sport killing either, but sometimes the best solution to a problem is counter-intuitive and goes against our gut reaction. This may be one of the best examples. Paid killing has been the most effective tool world-wide in keeping species from going onto the endangered list, in some cases even bringing them back from the brink:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-hunting-endangered-animals-save-the-species/
And in Africa even the New Your Times agrees:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/opinion/saving-lions-by-killing-them.html?_r=0
YOU could NOT be more wrong! Trophy killing is NOT conservation! This is the BIG LIE that the hunters love to push on the public to justify their ugly bloodlust. Killing is NOT conservation. A minus is NOT a plus. It never was and never will be. Get your facts straight, please. Do NOT believe the lies of trophy killers. What heinous ugly and brutal acts of ego and selfishness. BAN TROPHY HUNTING NOW!
Fantastic editorial. I fully agree. I would like to add that there is someone who has taken steps and efforts toward the environment like Steve Irwin. Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Every year campaigns and battles around the world are led by Capt. Watson and us volunteers from all walks of life. To try and stop the destruction of our planet. Thank you for your blog. I look forward to reading more. -AC
thanks AC, I am a big supporter of Sea Shepherd. I’ve met Paul Watson, absolutely phenomenal human being, he is a god to me like Steve Irwin was.
YES! Sea Shepherd is amazing. I am a conservationist who is working to save African lions, I follow this kind of news. We could ALL learn some things from the great Captain Paul Watson, he is an amazing human.
They are unfortunately green washing their attempt to collect more money for burners. It is becoming more about the organization making money off the masses than truly reducing a carbon footprint.
If the vehicle tax is for the environment, then 100% of that tax should go to helping the environment and not one cent should go to BMorg. Other than that it is just an increased fee, disguised with the lie that “we are just trying to help”.
agree completely, thanks guys
I see this $40 as an addition to the $380 ticket price, period!
Yup!
I guess this is a very old trade, Im afraid….Authorities dont look after what´s good/wrong but rather if you can afford the cost of doing wrong….. im sure top RVs wont have problems paying 20/30/300 USD to make their way in, right? Re the endagered species, you are totally right…..unless, this was an old rhino with no capacity to mate anymore…in that case (and if we leave out the ethics around life and death),those 350k (well, part of that money) will most likely have a positive impact on local population, which leads to locals understanding/profitting from wildlife which leads to long term sustainability of the área= postive impact on environment that we are trying to get to, right?=. Bit of a Maquiavelo view, I know.
Huh, just stumbled on this site. Kind of interesting. Some of it.
Young Academic Freind of mine active in the field, (she’s done real field work all over the world in wildlife management and conservation), asked “you think the average goober has any freaking idea about modern wildlife management methods and policy ?
You could call it murdering an old black Rhino if animals are people too you know. Game management in Namibia is better than most. This was an effort to cull the old bastard Bull Rhino who couldn’t mate anymore, (bad back I reckon, which will eventually cause all you old bulls to be unable to mate eventually too) make some money for more conservation efforts, by holding an auction for the cull license, with Safari Club international because their members have the bucks, and give regularly and mightily to conservation. Namibia could have just had a local game manager go out and shoot the old troublemaker that is likely harrassing the calves and younger bulls out of territorial aggression. So this guy who is a hunter and has the money to have a wife better looking than yours, and probably happier too … bids because the bidding is dropping off and he wants the event to be a success for their conservation efforts. So he becomes a target for wackos and cowards, who threaten to torture his kids and burn down his house. Anonymous threats almost always come from cowards who have neither the means or the internal capability for a real confrontation. But lets assume that it comes from those that really do plan on following through. I live in the SF Bay Area, but I’m from Chicago. Anybody who has the means to spend $350,000 plus at least $30,000 per person for the trip plus at least $50,000 in taxidermy fees after, has the means to hire the best internet sleuths and private investigators and to make the call to Chicago or Philly, or New Orleans, to have the problem taken care of quietly. No need to call the FBI. They’re pretty busy and don’t have a great track record in these matters. And the cost to do so quietly is chump change compared to just the one hunt.
From the Television Interview, and the background on this hunter, now that doesn’t seem to be his style. Not at all.
But I know acquaintances first hand, that would not hesitate.
Nothing is anonymous anymore. Nothing.
People who threaten to torture the children of someone of this kind of means are really being quite foolish. Reach out and touch someone’s children, even with “just” threats, and it’s no longer just a Critical Environmental Issue. It’s personal.
No, Diego, NO excuse for the killing of this rhino. That $350k could have hired several rangers to combat poaching, could have schooled and fed hundreds of African children in rural villages, could have protected the national park habitats of these precious animals, but no, he just wanted to kill it because he is into thrill killing for his big fat ugly ego. No excuse. And no, trophy killing is NOT conservation.
Scott C, REALLY? Are you fucking kidding me? Corey Knowlton is a piece of human filth. The man has a reputation as a braggart and a bully. He is a reprehensible asshole just like all the rest of the members of SCI. He deserves all the hate he is getting. Signed with my REAL name. Come here, Corey and I’ll say it to your face, and many more things, you thrill killing prick! People like him are what make me ashamed to be American sometimes.
haahhaaha!! definitely not the best troll comment i´ve seen, but i still grant you this reply cos i likes trolls very much…….. 😉
Speaking of carbon neutral cities, have you seen this?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masdar_City
I am on this boat. I have things to say, but you said them all right here.
yes, know it well…I’ve seen it first hand. A noble idea, are they still building it? The pollution and environmental destruction generated from the UAE is staggering
It is set to be completed in 2020. IT is being built as a mecca for clean tech companies. I just wish those dudes would meet with the dudes from Venus Project.
it’s a showcase for big money companies who want to get PR for being green. Having said that, it’s better than anything else in the world. what we really need is a showcase for green startups. With all the money in SF Bay Area for green tech, you’d think they could make this…