Save Planet Bluegrass

[SavePB]

PLEASE HELP SAVE PLANET BLUEGRASS

I understand there will be a private event held at Planet Bluegrass over the Labor Day weekend. As a part of this event there will be a huge tent, temporary flooring and portable bathrooms as well as many other changes that seem to embrace a completely opposite philosophy of what we have been led to believe was an eco-friendly facility. Following are just a few thoughts regarding what is wrong with this event.

A Tent: These are normally huge vinyl or PVC covers. This is a petroleum based product that reflects harmful UV rays and certainly not eco-friendly. Why would you simply not use the existing facilities?

Temporary Flooring: These are typically large plastic pieces that fit together to cover a surface. Plastic? Why? We all know the impact this has on the environment. Additionally if you cover up the grass then it will inevitably die, no matter how long this you leave this suffocating deathmat in place. Even if you used wood or some other natural product you are still covering up the grass which will cause it to die. Why in the world would you want to cover up the grass?

Portable Bathrooms: I can’t even imagine how someone justifies the use of something like this. Do you have any concept of the environmental damage done by the chemicals used in these things? What is wrong with the bathrooms that are already there?

Why: Why would you want to have an event at this beautifully natural setting and then completely change it into something that it is not? I can’t imagine why you would not embrace this extraordinary natural setting in its entirety. In fact I cannot imagine why the Planet Bluegrass ownership would not insist that you do. If that is not of interest then why not go to some hotel ballroom or theater?

Money: I never thought I would see the day when the people who run Planet Bluegrass would put more value on the ability of Planet Bluegrass to earn money than on the ability for Planet Bluegrass to be a beacon in the green movement. Of course we understand the importance of being able to earn money. In fact we applaud the ability of Planet Bluegrass to earn money that in turn can be used to further promote the facility as an eco-friendly venue and help spread that word and their knowledge to people and other facilities throughout the country.

If this event occurs we will formally protest its existence, make other truly green conscious groups aware of this tragic turn at Planet Bluegrass as well as encourage people to not return to Planet Bluegrass until a level of eco-responsibility consistent with the Planet Bluegrass Sustainability Doctrine is implemented and not just talked about.

This is not the Planet Bluegrass that we have come to love and enjoy.
Please voice your concern and help us to SAVE PLANET BLUEGRASS!

[A J]

Are you pulling our leg.
You can't be serious. 
 

[Hooch]

I responded to this under the Rockygrass directory but I'll say it again here:  Your arguments are not reasonable nor necessarily factual. 

[retsin2000]

My response on the RG forum reposted here as I suspect that if any of this person's posts survive the mods knife this will be the one as it is a General Discussion sort of topic.:

Ummm, is this a joke? 

At every PB festival there are:

1) Lots of tents and I don't think they are all made out of hemp even if some of them smell like it.

2) Lots of temporary flooring made out of plastic. Most people call them tarps. It is true that there seem to be some folks that don't like them recently but they have been there for a long time. The grass seems to recover just fine. In fact it is my understanding that they protect the grass.

3) Portable Bathrooms - there are port o' potties in lots and lots of locations.

I would venture to say that unless this private event is huge that it will likely have a smaller impact than a typical 3 day festival. I'm glad to see Craig get the business and I hope he is making a boatload of money on these private events so the festivals don't have to be his only source of revenue.

[Sap]

Save Planet Bluegrass...from goofy spam!

(not real spam, which is actually very tasty, especially fried, on a bun with lettuce and tomato)

We should really be focusing our efforts on stopping those brazen cairn builders.

TOTALLY altering the environment.   displacing rocks, FOREVER!

see the shocking evidence -

[ilovethelorax]

Really?! Moving rocks? I'm outraged! This aggression will not stand.   

[420Sugaree]

[SavePB]

Terribly disheartening to see the responses to this matter. This is how it starts. Open the door a bit, people fail to see the long term implications of their actions and pretty soon they wonder what happened to their wonderful little place.

[bluegrass bill]

I'll help starting now....we can not allow this kind of thing to continue...I'll stop using the port-a-potties at once.....at least till next year

[retsin2000]

I hate to feed the trolls but I'll say it one more time. I can't see how whatever this event is over Labor day can possibly have more of an impact than a 3 day festival does. It almost certainly has a lower impact.

I hope that if you do protest the private event (Really!!? you are going to protest what might be someone's wedding? Really!!? Are you related to Fred Phelps?) you won't use any petroleum based products to get to PB or to make signs. Soy based inks only that were manufactured using wind power. Oh crap, wind turbines kill birds so that is out. Probably no way to make signs without some negative impact to the environment so those are out. Also you are going to need to walk there without touching asphalt. Bike tires are rubber but use petroleum in their manufacture so you can't ride, sorry.

Seriously though. PB is committed to being green and they do a damn good job. None of the beefs you have with private event are unique to that event - they all also exist at all the festivals. Do you plan on protesting the festivals too? We all have a negative impact on the environment merely by our existence. PB is genuine in their efforts to reduce that impact.

Maybe you could reuse this sign:

[BluegrassDustin]

Dear anonymous activist -

First, allow me to thank you for your passion towards Planet Bluegrass and all that we do. It’s the passion you display within the text above that separates our Festivarians from the average concert and festival goers  all across the world. The time it must have taken for you to express your thoughts is above and beyond what most organizations could even dream of having. For that, we thank you.

With that said, I will address each of your concerns below in an attempt to alleviate your seemingly inflated concerns over the “event” you’ve somehow heard about. Being a private event, I’m unclear as to how you even came to know the date, but I suppose we’ll leave that to one of the great mysteries of life.

First, let me assure you that the event in question is no different than any events held here at Planet Bluegrass. All events held here on the property are held to a very high standard towards being eco-friendly and as sustainable as current knowledge and understanding towards environmental impact allows. Of course, within that line of thinking, there are certain exceptions that must be made from time to time when dealing with thousands of people at our festivals...but I digress.

Please allow me to address your points one by one in relation to the “event” you seem so passionate about.

A Tent: Tents are utilized throughout our property all during the festival season. While you are correct in your accusation of the materials typically being made of vinyl or some other petroleum product, what you are discounting is the reusable aspect of these temporary structures. While I cannot discount the negative effects of petroleum based products. The tents, once made, are used for years and years for many hundreds, if not thousands, of events. Until a quality and sufficiently durable alternative is made readily available, we will be forced to use these tents when our existing structures are not sufficient to house the number of people needing accommodation or protection from harmful UV rays.

Temporary Flooring: As mentioned previously, we here at Planet Bluegrass are steadfast in keeping our property and events as environmentally friendly as possible. The flooring you refer to is, by our insistence, to be made of wood and not plastic. It has also been mandated by our grounds crews that it not be placed on the ground, but a raised surface so that the grass is not subject to a “suffocating deathmat” as you eloquently referred to it. We strive to keep the property as natural and beautiful as possible, and take all precautions available to us to protect the naturally occurring beauty of the grounds. In response to “why would you want to cover up the grass” I don’t really have a good answer. When someone appropriately secures the grounds for a private event they are able to do as they please to accommodate for their friends and family, assuming of course it’s cleared with our grounds keeper and meets our stringent requirements in terms of relative sustainability. Perhaps there will be many elderly that cannot walk on the uneven ground, maybe there is some symbolism, the reasoning is not for you or I to determine, but you can rest assured that we have taken all the appropriate precautions to ensure the safe passage of the temporary structure with little to no damage to our beloved property.

Portable Bathrooms: This particular point strikes me as unusual. Having stated yourself as someone who has come and enjoyed our events, you are surely aware that we use portable bathrooms to help facilitate the needs of the thousands of Festivarians who come and join us from time to time on our property. Our bathroom facilities are simply not big enough, nor do they have the appropriate sanitary requirements to accommodate the volume of people seen a couple of times a year. With that said, the event in question has not received special permission to rent or use portable bathrooms on the property. Our bathhouse facility is sufficient in it’s ability to provide all of the needs a private event happening on the property should need.

Why: In terms of the property, we have no intention of “completely change it into something that it is not.” We simply allow people to provide themselves with the accommodations that they see fit to successfully entertain their guests just so long as they are in line with our requirements. Some people need extra facilities beyond the naturally occurring beauty found here at Planet Bluegrass. As previously mentioned, it is not for you or I to decide what is and is not appropriate for their guests. It is our job to ensure that everything used during the event is as environmentally friendly as possible.

Money: There is little to be said about this point that hasn’t been said already. In fact, the nature of our organization was summed up by you as well as I ever could have: “... ability of Planet Bluegrass to earn money that in turn can be used to further promote the facility as an eco-friendly venue and help spread that word and their knowledge to people and other facilities throughout the country.”

The event in question will happen, though I hope you have come to realize that this event is nothing extraordinary. It is a one day event that has met our strict requirements in terms of eco-friendly requirements. I might add that all events held on the property are required to compost and recycle. There is no exception.

I hope that I have alleviated some of your concern and have helped you closer to the realization that we are not just “talking the talk” but doing our best to “walk the walk” and educate anyone that comes to Planet Bluegrass. It doesn’t matter if they are causal festival goers here for one hour, or a private party wishing to celebrate with friends and family for the day. We strive to show people the best way forward for our future and teach them that each one of us can make a difference in our planet’s future.

It should also be noted that we evaluate what does and does not work each and every fall to try and facilitate the most effective and educational means possible in spreading that message. Should you so choose, you are welcome to offer your thoughts in an appropriate manner for us to review in the upcoming off season.

We wish you the best in your future endeavors, and hope that you will use your passion towards a cause that is just and beneficial to human kind.

All our best,

The Folks on Planet Bluegrass.

[retsin2000]

If I could I would save Planet Bluegrass but so far, from where I'm sittin anyway, I'm the one needing saving and the Planet is saving me

 

[Cindy Lou]

Nice response Dustin.  Very diplomatic.  I didn't even know that PB was available for private events, so I learned something today.   

[420Sugaree]

Terribly disheartening to see the responses to this matter. This is how it starts. Open the door a bit, people fail to see the long term implications of their actions and pretty soon they wonder what happened to their wonderful little place.

I was thinking the same thing -- but I was thinking about SAVING OUR PLANET, and how Our Country has been hijacked. We've become centered on inflicting perpetual torture and kidnapping whenever we want, on anyone we secretly choose, and imprisoning people indefinitely without charges - and secretly disappearing them. We are conducting illegal wars, have violated Treaty obligations, and have committed crimes against humanity. We are spying endlessly on our citizens illegally, without search warrants, and rarely based on probable cause. All this is being done by our leaders with impunity. We are imprisoning 2.3 million of our citizens - the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. We are financially ruined.

Quote from peace activist Philip Berrigan in 2002: We are number one in war, and war is our number one business. We’re number one in poisoning the planet with radioactive garbage. And I recently received a report from Afghanistan: we have poisoned that land with 3,000 tons of depleted uranium, these huge—these huge bombs we have manufactured, earth-penetrating and rock-penetrating, and we have left it as a legacy to that unfortunate land. [Also Iraq.] We’re number one in paying for war. And at last count that I came across, it’s something like $20 trillion. We’re number one in killing people—one-half million annually, resulting from our leadership of the nuclear club. One-half million annually, the world’s people, and increasingly, as the cancer epidemic hits this country, our own people.

What we have now are the results of "divide and conquer" on steroids, in the 21st century. And we have Government by Fear. Perhaps worst of all, we have lost our news media at the most critical time in our history. Our public has proven itself to be ignorant and uninformed on the most important issues we face. I don't see any sustainability on this path whatsoever. World population is currently 6.8 Billion and it is skyrocketing. Did I mention global warming, climate change, shrinking water supplies, potable water shortages, and growing industrial polution?

There are 9 countries with nuclear weapons, and counting - with over 23,000 nuclear warheads.

Who cares?

In this context, how will we ever be compasionate enough to provide healthcare to all our USA citizens? Or how will we ever put a stop to the numerous perpetual Ponzi schemes our system is feeding? We've reduced ourselves to name calling and shouting matches at town hall meetings about healthcare. "I don't want to see a Government-run healthcare plan messing around with my Medicare." Or, now we will have government-run "death-panels" for our seniors.

Medicare "is" government-run healthcare. And it's pretty decent. All you have to do is ask. Without a healthy, proud, and well-informed population of voters and taxpayers, how will we ever maintain a democratic country worth preserving?

The truth is, our society has rapidly become a bunch of fat people addicted to fat, sugar and salt. The food industry certainly understands what works.

Earth Policy Institue

[420Sugaree]

Way too many voters (individuals and groups) got behind Obama and voted for him without ever demanding anything from him. People simply accepted him 100 percent. This pic of The Dead's pathetic stand behind him epitomizes this problem well.

The only promise Obama made and kept is the troop build-up in Afghanistan. I was opposed to that. Now we have Obama's War in Afghanistan and Pakistan — AFPAK. Have any of you even heard the name, AFPAK?

Pakistan and India are nuclear powers and hate each other. They've fought 4 wars in the past 60 years. Don't they still have a conflict in Kashmir?

The Obama administration just took major steps last month toward helping several major US defense contractors sell sophisticated US arms and nuclear technology to India. Increased US-India nuclear cooperation is stoking fears the US is escalating India’s arms race with Pakistan. During her visit to India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed an arms deal that could prove a boon to Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Both firms are in the running to sell India 126 fighter jets at an estimated cost of $12 billion. It is the most lucrative fighter aircraft deal in fifteen years. Richard Kirkland, president for Lockheed Martin in South Asia, said, quote, “This signals an era of increased defense cooperation between the United States and India.”

India is also moving forward on a deal for US companies to build a pair of new nuclear power reactors. The plants will likely be built by General Electric or Westinghouse Electric at a cost of $10 billion. Before any contracts are signed, the US companies are asking the Indian parliament to pass legislation limiting the liability of the companies in case of nuclear accidents. Remember Bhopal? Union Carbide killed 10,000 people there on Dec 3, 1984.

Quote by Arjun Makhijani, president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and author of the book Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for US Energy Policy:

This is going to aggravate Indian-Pakistani tension, certainly, because India is now seen as a long-term strategic partner, whereas Pakistan is an ally, the role is really limited to fighting terrorism. And I think Pakistanis are afraid that once those objectives are accomplished or the US has done whatever it needs to do in Afghanistan, that they won’t matter much anymore, as happened at the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1989. So I think this strategic cooperation with India has the potential to aggravate relations with Pakistan.

Already, the nuclear deal—Pakistan wanted a similar nuclear deal, and the United States said, “No, you have A.Q. Khan. You’re a proliferant country.” And Pakistan turned to China. And the acquisition of the planes really isn’t much to do with Pakistan or China, because India cannot fight a war with China or Pakistan, because both are nuclear-armed states. India wants to stride on the world stage as a major power and has seen its road to that stage as acquiring more and more sophisticated military equipment, a blue water navy, a triad for its nuclear weapons, missiles based in the ocean that are capable of delivering nuclear weapons, and so on—all the hallmarks of what I would say is a 20th-century power.

I am ashamed. I'm sorry.