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Support CoolingMan

According to our estimate, Burning Man 2007 will be directly responsible for ~27,000 tons of greenhouse gases, including participant travel to and from Black Rock City, as well as on-Playa power generation, art cars, and fire art.

Dividing ~27,000 tons by ~40,000 participants, yields ~0.7 ton per person.  At $10 per ton, we would each pay $7 to offset our share of total Burning Man greenhouse gases. Of course, anyone able to afford more could cool it forward for someone who cannot afford to.

CoolingMan will aggregate donations, and then acquire and retire high-quality offsets from new renewable energy, methane capture or other projects that reduce greenhouse gases. We seek projects that have social or environmental co-benefits whenever possible. More about CoolingMan Offsets.

Here are three ways you can help:
(you can also estimate your entire camp's emissions here)

Option 1: Take direct actions to reduce GHG

Plant a tree, ride more, drive less. To help compensate for their Burning Man-related emissions, participants can take direct actions that reduce GHG in other ways.

Direct actions to reduce GHG >>

For example, every tree planted can offset ~0.2 tons of GHG. Because trees deliver additional social and environmental benefits (cooler cities with cleaner air, community involvement, habitat), planting programs that provide long-term protection of trees can overcome concerns to meet CoolingMan's GHG offset standards.

Concerns:

"Young trees don’t actually start to sequester significant amounts of carbon dioxide for 20 years, and it takes a tree 100 years to remove 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere—assuming the tree survives drought, fire, flood, disease, and other afflictions. In contrast, the emissions being offset are entering the atmosphere with 100 percent certainty today. Moreover, most of the carbon that gets sequestered in these forestry projects will eventually be released again when the trees die and decompose—or get harvested."

From: Discover Magazine 'Counting Carbons'

Volunteer to plant or sponsor trees with one of many tree-planting organizations.

Plant a tree >>

Option 2: Purchase GHG Offsets from a credible provider

Investments in new renewable energy projects (e.g. wind, solar, biomass) produce GHG offsets by replacing fossil-fuel powered electricity generation. Offsets purchased from Native Energy support renewable energy development by dairy farmers and Native American tribes. To help CoolingMan 'cool it forward,' Native Energy will donate extra GHG offsets for every ton purchased by CoolingMan participants:

NativeEnergy WindBuilders and RemooableEnergy

You can also support one of the many other offset providers in the market today. Please note CoolingMan has not reviewed or verified the quality of offsets provided.

Greenhouse Gas Offset Providers
Please be sure to report all GHG offsets purchased from other providers so CoolingMan can track and report total climate benefits.

Report GHG Offsets Purchased >>

Option 3: Donate to CoolingMan Offsets

CoolingMan requests a donation of $10 per ton. Any difference between the amount donated and the cost of offsets acquired by CoolingMan will be applied to additional offsets, artworks and operations.

CoolingMan is a project of the Trust for Conservation Innovation (TCI), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations to TCI/CoolingMan are tax deductible. There are two ways to make a payment at this time:

1. You can send a PayPal payment to CoolingMan@TrustforConservationInnovation.org.

2. Or go to the TCI donations page.

Thank you very much.

Friends of CoolingMan may obtain a CoolingMan 2007 certificate and stickers by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: CoolingMan/Trust for Conservation Innovation; 423 Washington St., 5th Fl.; San Francisco, CA 94111.