While BURNcast is devoted to the art, culture and community of Burning Man, I feel it's important -- and only fair -- to give voice to the people of Nevada who live in the area of Black Rock City the other 51 weeks of the year.
This video submission doesn't paint a very pretty picture of Burning Man. It was shot by citizen journalist and YouTuber who goes by the handle desertlovernv as she describes the moop and trash she discovers on a five minute walk-about less than two weeks after the event.
desertlovernv writes:
"This event is supposed to be a "Leave No Trace" event. Pack it in, pack it out. However, this video shows you how little is actually packed out and what still remains. This video was shot on September 19th, thirteen days after the event, and numerous dust storms later. There was no-one else in this area of the playa, not even the supposed clean up team that is supposed to be picking up all the remnants of the event."Metric, a long-time burner, volunteer of DPW, resident of Gerlach, and the Executive Director of the Friends of Black Rock/High Rock responded by leaving a comment that said:
"Nice. You made a film of areas set aside for detailed cleaning, looks like the Man Base and probably someone's art work burn site based on the pile of decomposed granite that's there. The CD with the pink thing? That's a marker to identify someone's art work, and so that the cleanup crew knows whose stuff they are cleaning. The day you filmed is a full 3 weeks before the end of clean-up activities. Nice work, super sleuth. Take your false indignation and shove it, poser."Still, desertlovernv insists:
"Why does it take six weeks to clean up a "Leave No Trace Event?"Obviously both people in this story care about the Black Rock Desert and the impact the Burning Man festival has on its fragile ecosystem.
Hopefully desertlovernv's concerns can be addressed respectfully and without any further insults or name calling and moreover, that she will return in three more weeks to document clean-up and come away with a brighter report.
UPDATE 19 DECEMBER 2010 - Metric has kindly shown us the new link to the updated video that desertlovernv uploaded a few days ago and here it is below:
desertlovernv writes:
"This film was taken on an iPhone on September 19th 2010 in the Black Rock Desert where the Burning Man event is held. This video was posted approximately two months ago but was removed by the maker because they received threats of physical harm from the members of the Department of Public Works (DPW) and other Burners.If desertlovernv has been receiving threats of violence this is a really serious matter. I hope that she is reporting them to the proper authorities as well as putting the Black Rock City LLC on notice. I mean, it would be TRAGIC if she ended up like Karen Silkwood. Just sayin'.
It has become increasingly clear that the organizers of Burning Man do not care about the playa, and there is some question as to the BLM's commitment to our public lands, therefor this video lives again, to show the dirty side of Burning Man."
6 comments:
Hello, Metric here to add a little context.
The tone that "desertlovernv" adopted in her now-deleted movie was very insulting, and thus I made the "poser" comment. I actually removed the comment shortly after, but I see it has been enshrined here without much context.
I admit, her movie made me angry.
It didn't just take issue with the length of time for playa restoration, it suggested that there was no further cleanup effort, and that the trash shown was fully abandoned. That was a LIE, and people believed that lie-- that's how the movie came to my attention.
She also insulted the people who stay after the event to do playa restoration, at one point she said something like "clean up crew my ass." Having been a member of the restoration crew before, and being friends with many of them still, I was personally insulted by that. Ironically enough, many members of the restoration crew were participating with Friends of Black Rock High Rock in National Public Lands Day that same weekend, and we cleaned up a huge pile of trash that ACTUALLY WAS abandoned from an old opal mine site further up the desert.
So Dabomb, if you found my initial response to be harsh, so be it. I agree with you, name calling isn't nice, and that is why I had removed that particular comment. Still, sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. "Desertlovernv" was poking at a hornets nest and being purposely provocative, acting like she had a big expose about Burning Man's irresponsibility. It was dishonest to say the least, and that's what's known as being a poser in some circles.
Thanks for your response, Metric. I very much appreciate the work that you and others do to keep the desert pristine. I didn't see your follow up comment but it's worth noting that she "gotcha", I'm sorry to say. Remember: don't feed the trolls!
Am I correct that this past weekend was the final push for clean up? If so, I made it clear to desertlovernv in my comments that it would be worthwhile and moreover responsible of her to follow up her "exposé" as you call it.
Deleting it is a little chicken-ney (no offense to Chicken John). If you're gonna pull something like that you gotta be able to take the heat!
I was talking to somebody at LA Decom this past weekend who said it just made him laugh.
Just wondering: do you know her personally? Or does anybody else know who she is? I'd be curious to talk to her myself.
I may know who she is, but can't say for certain.
It's great that your friend just laughed at it. Other people believed her false account. You could call that slander. I am glad that I was able to help set the record straight on Burning Man's stellar and irreproachable LNT ethics.
I guess you didn't see Coyote's comments: http://blackrockdesert.org/friends/misleading-video-critical-dpw
She's ba-aack!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMfSReSAopU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Feeding trolls again? :)
But I gotta ask you, Metric, why POINT the way? Do you like the aggravation?
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