Forums > Social Discussion > Carbon offsetting for paid fire performers

Posted: 23rd Dec 2007
Ehh... Maybe in your dreams Durbs...

.....In my dreams it would be Meghan in a dress.

Point your toes.

Posted: 3rd Jan 2008
i offset and have done for a number of years, the problem i have is when people don't watch what they are consuming and offset anyway. You have to have a nice balance of being as eco friendly as you can and incorporate it into your every day life. It is pretty much a whole life style not just something that you do to make up for your brand new 4 x 4 for example.

the only problem i have is calculating how much co2 is used per burn. so far i have been using the same calculations as you would for using Oil burners, does anyone know of a better way of working it out?

Life's too short to worry about where you put your marshmallows

Posted: 9th Jan 2008
jesus that knox gets about a lot!!!!

hey antti,
in britain the public transport is very unreliable and also very expensive because of this (for most gigs) its impractical to use buses and trains.
i also dont own a car,instead i hire a car for gigs,this means i only use one when really nessecaryit actually works out ok financially as well because i dont have all the running costs of owning a car.
whenever possible i try to share lifts to gigs but this isn't easy as most of the guys i work with are spread throughout the country,so i also trying to promote myself heavily in my part of england to get as many local gigs as possible.
the main problem come from international gigs my ethics say i shouldnt fly to a gig as it is an unessecary flight but my ego and soul love travelling and dream of performing worldwide,i havent had many international inquires yet but they are coming and i think they will increase................there lies the dilema!!

goth frogette,i totally agree that offsetting should be one part of a much bigger way of life,i would be really interested to know how and where you offset???

Posted: 11th Jan 2008
I have been supporting several organisations for the past three years, the woodland trust being one of them, wildlife truts, friends of the earth etc. At the minute i am looking into some of the organisations that plant trees, and help third world countries develop sustainable ways of farming. alot of research and reading the very small print has to be done i find to work out just how much of the money donated goes to the actualy cause. what i have found is alot of the sites for offsetting promote some companies where a high percentage of the donations goes on admin charges. its not as easy as it all sounds, lol

Life's too short to worry about where you put your marshmallows

Posted: 20th Jan 2008

 Written by: bluecat


that said, any performers want to put money into an eco arts centre in scotland are welcome to get in touch
we desperately need a non-fossil fuel alternative to lamp oil...

Being new to all this and having never used fire, what about soy bean oil???? I have no idea weather it would work or what... just was reading this thread and thought about it.
Genie

Be aware, the evil flowers may eat your toes....
Have no friends not equal to yourself...
Feed your mind, read a book

Posted: 25th Feb 2008
i think people are chopping down rainforest to grow more soya beans??

Posted: 25th Feb 2008
yes they are

Life's too short to worry about where you put your marshmallows

Posted: 26th Feb 2008
and palm oil to run desiel cars!is it me or is this world mental

Posted: 26th Feb 2008
tim_marston had you thought about applying for gigs and booking a tour? that way you atleast get to do more shows per flight?

I {Heart} hand me downs and spinning in the snow.<br /><br />

Posted: 22nd Apr 2008
i thought i'd found the solution. but no


Non-Https Image Link

Holistic Spinner (I hope)

Posted: 9th Jun 2008
Just seen this and thought - that's where he got to. Spit image of my cat called........ Blue! sorry Rob - just hadn't made the connection before

'The last rays of crimson on the spindle tree as the cerise fruit splits and reveals its orange seeds in a gloriously clashing colour scheme no-one would ever dare to wear'
Euonymous Europeus

Posted: 14th Jun 2008
I've been organising the carbon management for a little festival down in Aotearoa/NZ called Kiwiburn (the NZ Burning Man regional). In my real job, I'm also paid to know about these things, so have some thoughts on this matter.

Running the numbers, for Kiwiburn, over 95% of the emissions, possibly 98%, came from people travelling to the festival. This being NZ, and our festival being by a lake in the middle of nowhere, there's no public transport. Damn near everybody drove. To reduce the emissions we made sure to run a ride-sharing scheme, for both people and stuff. Heavy art supplies (lots of wood) were ordered from local stores and delivered to the site. I was taking a van up there, for sleeping in, and the van was full to roof with other people's stuff. The one guy who cycled, I made sure he got a cold beer on arrival.

For this festival, there's no way, right now, around the fact that there's going to be some emissions. Hence we put a chunk (5%) of the ticket price towards carbon offsets. We looked into offsetting with a certified scheme, but the one's available in NZ are aimed at much larger business and event emissions, so have high costs for the paperwork. We could have gone overseas for our offsetting, but wanted to keep the money local. So we ended up making a fair donation to a local nature reserve who are helping a mountain's worth of native bush to regenerate.

The fire spinners, and there were plenty, accounted for well under 1% of the emissions from the festival. Emissions from gennies were a bigger factor.

We asked international travellers to offset their own travel, as one person flying to NZ from the US had emissions roughly equivalent to 100 people driving to the festival from Auckland or Wellington.

And that brings me on to the key point here - it's the big picture that matters. We started Kiwiburn so people here could have a Burning Man-like experience, without flying 11,000 miles there and 11,000 miles back. If Kiwiburn means that two NZers choose not to go to Burning Man but instead to the regional, then we've reduced overall emissions. Including the emissions from the festival, the saving of not flying is more than the emissions from the festival. And I know for a fact that far more than two people made that choice. So Kiwiburn can make a claim to being carbon negative.

So yeah, I think that reduce, reuse, recycle, offset, in that order, is the way to go. If there's an event you want to go to on the other side of the world, reduce your travel by making a local event work better.

Posted: 4th Aug 2008
happyinmotion
nice post and nice work,
its great you are considering the carbon output of your fun,
it gets more complicated for me when i am trying to make an ethical living,
i have almost given up on carbon offsetting as it seems to riddled with ripoffs
i would love to know your thoughts/experiences
bye for now
tum

Posted: 16th Aug 2008
Yeah, ethics are easy... in theory.

I think for Kiwiburn we've found a solution that's low on overheads and hassle, and high enough on effectiveness. Of course, "enough" is an ever increasing standard, and what we're doing now isn't going to be enough in five years time.

We're donating to the Maunatautari Ecological Island. The problem we have is that we don't know how much carbon will be tied up by the forest regeneration that they're doing. Obviously, it's some and if we give them our money, then it'll be more. For now, that's good enough.

And yes, it's easier to do this for an annual event than it is to do for all of one's life.

Posted: 21st Aug 2008
it looks like a great project,but i cant see any plans to plant trees?

Posted: 21st Aug 2008
havent read most of whats been writen as i'm at work, but i would like to point out that:



the government says that we're using to much carbon based fule! (yes we hav all heard that)



well being that all the carbon we use came from the planet and was once in the air before. so being that it was once in the air whats the problem with it being there now?



the problem is not that we use too much fule it's that we have logged all our forests and poluted the sea.



now we don't have enough trees to sustain the planet.

(for example there is only 1 rain forest left in the world compleatly untouched & unexplored by man. that should give you an idea of just howmuch we as a spices have raped this planet)



the sea cleans it self over a 3 year period consuming vast quantatys of carbon (can't give you a figure as i'm not even sure of a ball park figure)



so the problem isn't the amout of fule we use its the lack of forests , planing of trees and the vast amount of crap being pumped in to the sea.



so i don't think taxing people for the use of fule is good at all unless it's being put towards cleaning up the world which its not.
EDITED_BY: BLACKPHOENIX (1219333234)

Posted: 23rd Aug 2008
Has ANYONE actually found an offseting scheme that ISNT full of rip=offs or largescale 'admin' costs!
It seems thatb although we as a group and as performers WANT to offset, we just CANT seem to find a legit way of doing it.
YES it is a cop-out and I would prefer to travel less (actually I have cut down!) - but I would like to find a successful way of salving my conscious

Feel the Flame
Phirenix

Posted: 26th Aug 2008
tim_marston:
Trees round these parts are pretty good at planting themselves. Problem is that the possums (imported from Oz) tend to eat the new shoots, keeping damaged native forests regrowing. We just get rid of the possums and let the forest grow back itself, sucking up more carbon. This is very cost-effective, and why spend more money than you have to?

FireNix:
The UK government is working on a Code of Best Practise for offsetting schemes, which should provide extra assurance that the schemes do what they say they do. This hasn't been finished yet, but some UK offset schemes met the proposed guidlines:
Pure
Global Cool
Equiclimate

I can't vouch for any of these, but these come with the best guarantees so far that these are legit. Of course, it doesn't matter where offsetting schemes are based, it's all sucking up carbon dioxide from the same atmosphere. So I'd point to NZ's CarboNZero scheme too.

And yes, avoiding emissions is better than offsetting them, so travelling less is best, but that's often tricky for performers, we go where the work is.