Balancing out the burn

This year, some participants of the 21st annual Burning Man festival are looking to change more than culture.

They hope their efforts will help preserve the climate.

For the first time, three of the largest pieces of art on the playa to be burned to the ground are designed to offset the greenhouse gases released during their destruction.

CoolingMan

Groups such as CoolingMan are accomplishing it by either planting trees, reducing the use of fossil fuels or investing in new renewable energy projects.

CoolingMan has made it its mission to combat the climate effects of burning "The Man"-- the centerpiece of the festivalmade of more than 76,000 pounds of wood.

CoolingMan estimates the act will release 114 tons of greenhouse gases. Before the Burning Man festival started Aug. 28, the group had worked to offset more than 150 tons of greenhouse gas releases through Internet donations and self-reported actions, member Tom Price said.

This, group members say, is more than enough to neutralize the effect of burning both the Man and a "Temple of Hope."

Visitors scrawl their fears and sorrows on blocks of wood and leave them at the temple to have them consumed in flame near the end of the festival. The temple burning is expected to release 30 tons of greenhouse gases, Price said.

"I think the whole Burning Man trend is going that way because ... the Burning Man people really care," said Scott Roegiers, who constructed the spires on the "Temple of Hope."

"They care more than our government," he said. "Burning Man wants to do the right thing."

Price said Burning Man officials, and many participants have noticed a growing need to acknowledge the climate-change effects of the event.

Clean slate

Burning Man already is the largest "Leave No Trace" event. This means individual participants leave the Black Rock desert, 100 miles north of Reno, clear of litter and pollutants.

"It only makes sense they would leave no trace on the air as well," Price said.

At the Web site www.coolingman.org, Burning Man campers can calculate their own greenhouse gas release and plan how to lessen the effect.

Belgian burners

The massive installation called Uchronia translated as "No Time" -- is made of 2-by-3 inch planks of wood, arranged in what appears to be a haphazard fashion. But the structure has a floor span of 196 feet and is almost 50 feet tall.

To compensate for the almost 5,000 feet of lumber used in the project, its organizers plan to plant a forest.

Uchronia is billed as a "message from the future" and popularly called the "Belgian waffle" by burners. But it is more than an ecological statement project leader Jan Kriekels said.

He sees the project as an anthropological study in the creation of ecologically conscious consumerism.

Kriekels said the reforesting is necessary because the materials must be replenished to protect the future.

"I'm interested as an anthropologist, 'Where do future economies grow?'"

Kriekels said. "They usually grow where there's the highest level of freedom, because that's where creative minds, intelligent people want to do their selling."

More than 60 Belgian workers have volunteered to work on the project, according to their Web site.

These traits made the liberal, artistic environment of Burning Man an appealing location for the project, Kriekels said.

"We find that if you create something where everyone can work on it, there's a very strong spirit coming in," Kriekels said. "That's how cultures are built.

"So if you want to rebuild the cultures, you have to create some big things everyone can work on," he said. "That's what we call the creative economy, something where there's room for everybody to create their own products."