No Really, The Wealthy Think Money Can Protect Them From Climate Change
The mud, the mud.. doesn't Nature know who we are?
Photo by Dane Deaner on Unsplash
If you are like me, you have been bombarded all day long by the news pouring out of the desert of Nevada of the temporary Black Rock City event known as Burning Man.
For about 40 years now, a group of “Counter Culture “ enthusiasts, mostly from Northern California, a few from other parts of the state, and even less internationally, have trekked to the barren wasteland of the Nevada desert to set up a temporary city to do art, create music, make fun exhibits, create performance and on the last day, burn an enormous effigy of a man, where people dance around it and pretend they are ancient pagans, because they are so close to the UK, why not.
As you can tell, I have not partaken of the wonderment of the festival, because I am a freckled, fair skinned redhead, and I have no business getting sun and windburn in the middle of nowhere, off the grid and nowhere near an emergency room. Yes, I basically go up in flames in that kind of an environment, but I had my fill of living off grid and in the mud at Woodstock 94 in Upstate New York, and I am pretty good for a lifetime after that.
Let’s just say it is not my scene.
My friends, most of them musicians and visual artists, used to go 20 years ago, when it was not so trendy, and they felt they were a part of some secret cabal of weirdos who met up once a year to create, get laid, drink and do drugs. Most of them have grown out of that.
Apparently, the wealthy and the tech nerds have decided it was their thing now, and have taken over in their normal Marie Antoinette way, and have now declared it their festival, where they invite influencers, and cut business deals, and sell scripts, all off grid, because you know, why should you unplug when there are no plugs around?
You can go if you want, and it will cost you somewhere between $1000 to $10,000 to glamp on a flat, barren, glaring white hot desert playa.
Unless, of course, it rains.
Like a ‘freak flash flood’ of two months of rain in 3 days.
Then you get headlines like these:
Reuters
Burning Man festival road reopens, allowing thousands to escape muddy trap
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/burning-man-festival-exodus-set-start-through-drying-mud-2023-09-04/
And:
San Francisco Chronicle
Sheriff: Burners 'lashing out at each other as they leave the playa'
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/sheriff-burners-lashing-leave-playa-18347196.php
And my personal favorite:
Burning Man attendees road blocked by climate activists: ‘They have a privileged mindset’
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/aug/28/burning-man-protest-climate-change-environment
It’s a very good article by the Guardian that goes into great detail about how delusional the current batch of Burners are:
The activists had driven to the site they’d chosen for the action in separate vehicles, stopping on the road while the driver of a trailer pulled ahead and turned to block both lanes. People in the cars stuck behind them initially believed there had been an accident, and they emerged from their vehicles asking if everyone was OK. The protesters scrambled to erect their signs and flags amid the confusion, and when onlookers realized it was a climate protest, many quickly became incensed, huffing back to their cars frustrated at the inconvenience. “They’re delusional, it’s idiocy,” fumed Molly, a festival attendee. “They think they’re going to fix climate change by blocking Burning Man? I don’t care what their argument is, they can go fuck themselves.”
How fun. Well, I guess it serves them right with that attitude to be caught in a storm caused by Climate Change extremes, doesn’t it?
The lesson to be learned here is that Climate Change is a problem for everyone, and no Ultra Rich People, you can’t buy your way out of it.
Nature really doesn’t care about your cash, now does it? Lesson learned.
Pretty much agree with until the last two words.
Imagine this very loud base voice over the rumble of thunder out of dark chaotic clouds with flashes of bright terrifying lightning:
LEARNED
LEARNED
ONE WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING DOES NOT LEARN
STOP ME WILL YOU, YOU PISSANT
I SHALL SMITE YOU, YOU WHO ARE LOWER THAN A COCKROACHES ASSHOLE
WAIT
STOP
I SAID STOP
DO NOT LOOK BEHIND THAT CURTAIN
And still the coverage this morning on the network morning shows is about all the boo hoo tragedy of the participants, and not about how rare deluges like this are becoming the norm, nor are they discussing the unbelievable biohazard this event left behind.
Hopefully this will make them rethink their priorities, but I am pessimistic.