Transportation
Overview
Black Rock City's Transportation Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gases Emissions Are the Largest of All Sources
Fossil fuels burning vehicles and aircraft emissions include greenhouse gases that cause global warming and air pollutants that harm human health.
Greenhouse Gases
Each year the Burning Man event produces approximately 54,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases.
91% or approximately 49,140 metric tons of Black Rock City's emissons are produced by the transportation of people, housing, equipment and supplies to and from the event.
Fossil fuels burning vehicles and aircraft emit greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, and methane and nitrous oxide in lesser amounts.
Global warming has caused the worldwide and regional climates to change resulting in potential adverse effects to the environment, human health, and safety.
Harmful Air Pollution
Burning gasoline and diesel fuels creates harmful by products like carbon monoxide that can cause serious injury and death to Black Rock City participants, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrocarbons, benzene, and formaldehyde - all direct human health hazards.
Aviation gasoline (avgas) is the aviation fuel most commonly used in piston-engine aircraft within the general aviation community and remains the only transportation fuel in the United States to contain lead.
Our Collective Purpose
Our purpose is to create radical solutions for moving people, housing, equipment, and supplies to and from Black Rock City efficiently, economically, and ecologically.
Vision: Our Dreams for BRC 2030
BLAST Ideal: Camps reduce the environmental impact of their travel and equipment transportation as much as possible, and offset the impact they do have through supporting regenerative activities in the default world.
Mission: How We'll Get There
BLAST Focus: Reducing and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions due to travel, to and from the event.
Ways to Get Started
Use the Burner Express Bus Program (BxB)
Look into Burning Man Project's Container Program
Use a rideshare document for your camp!
Consider using nearby storage like Black Rock Mini-Storage
Use the Driving CO2e Emissions Estimater to figure out your emissions, or even your whole camps!
The cost to offset the entire annual Black Rock City transportation CO2 emissions would range from $10 to $50 per metric ton and cost between $491,400 and $2,457,000. While we know it's not a real solution, you can always look at doing carbon offsets (climeworks and project vesta).
Watch this presentation about air pollution and greenhouse gases
Radical Transportation? Buses! by Scott Williams
Full occupancy motorcoaches are the most efficient type of fossil fuels burning transportation followed by Class B motorhomes and the most fuel-efficient sedans and SUVs. All other types of vehicles and airplanes are the least efficient.
Looking to cut your carbon emissions for Burning Man this year? Here’s some great news — electric vehicles are capable, today, of hauling big art projects and heavy camp infrastructure to Black Rock City.
Driving CO2e Emissions Estimater by Tim Barry (AKA Frog)
Have you had enough? Ready to help our people and our planet?
Well then, just how much CO2e are you emitting?
If you fill in this BLAST calculation, your camp will meet the Baseline credit for Transport:
"Transport - does your camp track the environmental footprint of personal travel and equipment transport to and from playa?"
Electric bicycles and electric scooters, or e-bikes and e-scooters, are more popular than ever. These devices give riders a lower-cost and environmentally friendly way of getting around. But, unknown to many users, the batteries that power e-bikes and e-scooters have also been known to catch on fire and cause explosions.
Curious About How Much Your Air Travel Produces Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
Use this tool to calculate and explain emissions for specific flights
The Travel Impact Model (TIM) is a transparent & continuously improving emissions estimation model that is built from public and licensable external datasets, based on the latest science. It aims to provide a single source of truth, as a public good, for calculating and presenting the climate impact of individual flight trips to passengers.
Burning Fuels Carbon Dioxide Emissions Calculator by Scott Williams
This easy-to-use calculator can help you estimate carbon dioxide emissions, or reduction of emissions, from burning Biodiesel (Soybean Oil), Bio-FT (Fisher Tropsch), Diesel, Ethanol (Cellulosic), Ethanol (Corn Based), Gasoline, Kerosene (Tiki Torch Fuel), Propane, Renewable Diesel, and wood.
