A parable about the perils of ignoring climate activists has just played out in the Nevada desert.
As Burning Man 2023 began on Aug. 27, protesters temporarily stopped the traffic heading to the arts festival by parking an 8.5 meter trailer across the road. Then, just a few days later, proceedings were halted by torrential rainfall.
Black Rock City, the name of the temporary civilization that appears every year in the usually hot and dusty playa, was inundated with more than two month’s worth of rain in about 24 hours. The ancient lakebed turned to mud. Driving around the site was banned and people were told to take shelter and to ration food, fuel and water. The burning of the Man, the annual climax of the festival in which an effigy is sent up in flames, was postponed for a day. DJ Diplo and comedian Chris Rock decided to hike 8 km out of the ephemeral city. Triops, a crustacean sometimes nicknamed "dinosaur shrimp," emerged from the bog to join the chaos.