EXTREME Environmentalism

Hey Everyone. Oops! I'm a little late on this blog. It's been a long day organizing text, bios, and pictures for the website, talking on the phone......I think you get the picture. If you will remember from my first blog entry I was talking about how there were many important aspects of the events we produce and that music was only one part of the whole picture. Some people think we just throw cool parties. While these events are parties, they are really more of a social experiment designed to make you think about alot of different things. To myself and my partners, the most important part of what we try to convey at our events is the concept of extreme environmentalism. I'm not talking about putting spikes in Redwood trees to stop loggers. That's dangerous and I do not condone anything that puts people in harms way. If you read all The Silo flyers you will see a section that starts by saying " this ia a leave no trace event based on the environmental concepts of Burning Man". Burning Man is many different things but its main concept is that of you take out what you pack in. You leave absolutely no trace of the fact you were even there in the first place. No cigarette butts, boa feathers, bottle caps, etc. If you burn the wood you make your themecamp with, you take that out with you. If you build a shower there, they even make you take the dirty shower water with you. If you need power for your camp, they ask that you consider the greenest possible power sources such as solar power and bio-diesel for generators. This is extreme environmentalism. We should always strive to recycle as much of the things we use as possible. While recycling aluminum, glass, paper, cardboard, and #1 and #2 plastics is good, it simply is just the starting point. We should also go to special recycling centers with our #3 thru #7 plastics, batteries, paint, used oils, electronic components, styrofoam and more. While this is more work than the average person would like to do, it is also the morally right thing to do. We should try to make the garbage truck business obsolete, make composte piles and reduce the amount of things we recycle in the first place. A good example is when you go to a store and buy one, two, or three items. You carried them to the checkout. You can also carry them to your car. Refuse that plastic bag the checkout person puts your purchase in. Bring your own cloth bag to the store so you don't have to use the stores paper or plastic bags. There should be a law the forbids putting one item in a plastic bag. YOU DONT NEED THE BAG! Why should you get a bag for your six pack when it already has a handle on it? Its easier to use the handle anyway. All this leads me to ask all attendees of Grotto to practice these concepts while you are at both Longhorn Caverns and Inks Lake State Parks. If you see recycling bins at these parks, use them. If you don't see them, look for them. If you can't find them, ask where they are. If nobody knows where they are, pack your recyclables and trash out. If you smoke, consider bringing a small altoids tin to put your butts in so you can pack them out. For smokers we will have some interactive asstrays all over the area. No, I didn't misspell that. We will cut up some doll bodies, paint them uv, stick them on a pole stand, and face their butts toward whatever direction you come from. Put your butts in their butts. And for you smokers, remember that smoking in the cave is forbidden. Don't touch the walls of the cave as you might stop the growth of the cave with the oils on your hands. Respect these two beautiful parks and you will leave feeling and knowing you have done the morally correct thing. You've just become an extreme environmentalist. With that said, I'm The Matt Man signing off.