Protesters block road into Burning Man festival; rangers ram blockade
(NewsNation) — Climate activists caused a miles-long traffic jam when they blocked the only road leading into the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert.
Videos posted online show activists using a trailer to block the road that leads into Black Rock City. One video posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, shows a white pickup truck appearing to be from the Pyramid Lake Ranger Station crashing through the barricade set up by protesters.
The blockade led to clashes with motorists and tribal rangers, the Los Angeles Times reported. Pyramid Lake, a tribal law enforcement agency, did not respond to the Times' request for comment.
The group behind the protest, Seven Circles, said the purpose of the blockade was to draw attention to "capitalism's inability to address climate and ecological breakdown," according to a news release. Seven Circles said Burning Man has been commodified by "affluent people who do not live the stated values" of the festival.
Burning Man is an annual festival that brings together "artists, makers, and community organizers" from around the world, according to the Burning Man Project. Created in 1986 on a San Francisco beach, the festival gets its name from the culminating ceremony: the burning of a large wooden effigy referred to as the Man.
Seven Circles criticized Burning Man for what it said was insufficient steps to achieve "carbon negativity and ecological regeneration for Black Rock City by 2030."
The group put forward three demands for Burning Man, including advocating for system change on both a political and economic level; direct action and supporting general strikes, and banning private jets, single-use plastics and unnecessary propane burning.
"The group believes that Burning Man's apolitical stance to date is detrimental to its claimed values, especially as carbon emissions continue to rise despite government and corporate commitments to reduce CO2 emissions by more than half by 2030," Seven Circles said.