Burned Out on Burning Man 2007: The Green Man · July/August 2008 · Sierra Magazine

From her base in Oakland at an ecologically-oriented cooperative complex with beehives and rainwater catchments, Kachina Katrina Zavalney campaigns to convince Burning Man organizers to shoulder more environmental responsibility. After all, does burning 2000 gallons of propane and 900 gallons of jet fuel, as did Crude Awakening, truly contribute to sustainability?

Burning Man environmental manager Tom Price scoffs at eliminating this small amount of art. "I mean, should we recycle the Eiffel Tower? We don't really need the view, right?" Indeed, transporting everything into the desert for a week of merriment sounds hedonist, but Tom argues, the festival in a temporary city provides an opportunity for participants to learn and change radically how they manage transportation, solid waste, materials, energy, and art, when carried into the remainder of the year, makes a bigger difference.

Some like 12-time attendee Ray Cirino remain unconvinced. He and his friends plan to pack their ideas into a new ethic and festival celebrating permanence, nature, and resuscitation, Water Woman.