Let’s start with some common sense: Covering the Earth with plastic carpet is a terrible idea. And yet we continue to cover an ever-growing swath of our public and private open spaces with artificial turf in a way that will surely leave future generations scratching their heads in confusion.

It’s time to embrace healthier, cheaper and more environmentally responsible alternatives, and Los Angeles can help lead the way.

The artificial turf industry has had a great deal of success convincing millions of people that its short-lived, nonrecyclable, fossil-fuel-derived product is somehow good for the environment. Were there a greenwashing hall of fame, this would be in it.

In fact, it’s clear that artificial turf is bad for our ecosystems as well as our health.

Artificial turf exacerbates the effects of climate change. On a 90-degree Los Angeles day, the temperature of artificial turf can reach 150 degrees or higher — hot enough to burn skin. And artificial turf is disproportionately installed to replace private lawns and public landscaping in economically disadvantaged communities that already face the greatest consequences of the urban heat-island effect, in which hard surfaces raise local temperatures.

Artificial turf consists of single-use plastics made from crude oil or methane. The extraction, refining and processing of these petrochemicals, along with the transporting and eventual removal of artificial turf, come with a significant carbon footprint.

Artificial turf is full of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” because they accumulate in the environment and living tissue. The Synthetic Turf Council has noted manufacturers’ efforts to ensure that their products “contain no intentionally-added PFAS constituents.” So what? Tobacco companies don’t intentionally add carcinogens to cigarettes; they’re built into the product. PFAS have been linked to serious health effects, and while artificial turf is by no means the only source of them, it is one we can avoid.

Because artificial turf is a complex product made of multiple types of plastic, it will never be recycled. After its relatively short lifespan of about eight to 15 years, artificial turf ends up in indefinite storage, landfills and incinerators, creating a whole host of additional pollution problems.

Industry reps have seduced school boards and municipalities with promises that artificial turf fields can be used 24/7 and become a source of income as third parties line up to rent them. In reality, well-maintained, natural grass fields are more than sufficient for the limited number of hours in a day when people are available to participate in sports.

Studies show the maintenance costs of artificial turf often exceed those of natural grass. Naturally occurring organisms in soil break down much of what ends up on a grass field, including all kinds of human and animal bodily fluids. When the field is a plastic carpet, those systems can’t work, necessitating regular cleaning with a cleansing agent and a substantial amount of water. The infill component that cushions the turf must be combed, cleaned and replaced regularly as well. As the field ages, this work only increases.

The turf industry counters that grass fields result in the use of costly fertilizers and pesticides, which also become runoff pollution. That is a reasonable concern, but it can be addressed with environmentally responsible pest management and soil amendments. The continuing implementation of statewide food and green waste collection requirements will produce much more compost to cost-effectively maintain natural playing surfaces.

Remarkably, artificial turf doesn’t even save water compared with grass. Industry marketing materials claim that an artificial field can save millions of gallons of water a year and that homeowners who use the product to replace a conventional lawn can reduce their water use by more than half. But artificial turf must be regularly cleaned with water, and in warm climates such as Los Angeles’, artificial fields get so hot that schools must water them down before children play on them.

Industry water reduction promises generally compare artificial turf with the thirstiest sod grasses. But far more drought-tolerant varieties of natural turf grass are available. Residential lawns are indeed a tremendously wasteful use of water, but native plants are a far better solution than artificial turf — and you get butterflies as a bonus.

Even if artificial turf is never watered for cleaning or cooling, it contributes to losses of fresh water that natural surfaces would capture. Los Angeles in particular needs plants and natural surfaces that absorb as much of our precious rain as possible to recharge our groundwater and mitigate flooding. Impervious sheets of plastic cannot provide this service.

The Los Angeles City Council is considering requiring municipal departments to report on the consequences of artificial turf use, which is a good first step. From 2015 until last year, California law considered artificial turf a form of drought-tolerant landscaping that cities and counties could not prohibit. Thanks to a change in the law that excluded artificial turf from that category, Los Angeles has an opportunity to set a precedent by banning new installations of this destructive material.

Any truthful assessment of the financial, environmental and health consequences of artificial turf should lead governments to phase it out. We need to get over the antiquated notion that we can manufacture a better version of nature.

Charles Miller is the chair of the Los Angeles chapter of the Climate Reality Project and its Biodiversity Committee.

The Burning Man festival typically draws a sellout crowd of at least 70,000 revelers. But this year, the sprawling cultural event, which takes place over a week starting in late August, is facing an unusual drop in demand.

For the first time since the festival started selling out in 2011, the organizers are offering tickets to last-minute buyers without requiring preregistration. Also, the resale market is flooded. On sites like StubHub and SeatGeek, customers can currently get their hands on a ticket for less than half of the regular price.

Festival organizers are saying the “spontaneous” ticket offering is intentional.

In an email to NPR, Burning Man spokesperson Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley said the festival came up with the instant gratification option in response to the global trend for last-minute ticket buying, adding that this “encourages immediacy and makes it easy for more people to immerse themselves at the heart of the global Burning Man cultural movement.”

Blame the weather and the economy

Members of the Burning Man community said the slowdown is happening for a couple of reasons, including severe and unpredictable weather.

Hudson Valley, New York-based Burner Jaky Levy blames the record-breaking heat of 2022 followed by the mud-bath-inducing rains of 2023 for putting people off in 2024.

“It takes so much work to already get there, that after all your things get drenched and ruined, a lot of people just don’t want to put themselves through that again,” Levy told NPR.

Other festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza have also been struggling with ticket sales lately. One of the main reasons could be the economy. And Burning Man’s sluggish sales may equally be a result of potential attendees feeling like they can’t afford to attend.

Attendees look at a rainbow over flooding on a desert plain on Sept. 1, 2023, after heavy rains turned the annual Burning Man festival site in Nevada’s Black Rock desert into a mud pit.

Julie Jammot/AFP via Getty Images

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Julie Jammot/AFP via Getty Images

Festival demographic data shows a big increase over the past decade in attendees with personal incomes of $100,000 to $300,000, and a steep decrease in those who earn less than $50,000. Many of those high-earning Burners work in tech — an industry which has been beset with layoffs lately, which could partly explain the drop in ticket sales.

The event is expensive: A standard ticket in 2024 costs $575. And there are plenty of additional expenses, ranging from parking and camp fees to RV rental and flights. A 2023 BBC report included attendees who said they spent up to $8,000 to attend Burning Man.

A changing culture

The Burning Man festival has evolved a great deal since its scrappy beginnings in San Francisco in the 1980s.

Beyond the escalating costs and bad weather, longtime attendees said the vibe of the event has changed over the past decade or so — and not necessarily for the better.

“We’ve definitely seen a tendency toward these huge expensive camps, almost concierge camping — what are called ‘plug-and-plays’ — where people pay to attend,” said Marisa Lenhart of Alameda, Calif., who has been a festival attendee since 1999.

Instead of contributing a skill, service or product to Burning Man’s community-minded gift economy, Lenhart said the plug-and-players are paying others to haul in their lavish accommodations and clean up after them. Even though the festival organizers have been trying to tamp down this behavior, it’s causing some die-hard Burners to stay away.

Vehicles seen departing the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nev., in September 2023.

Matt Mills McKnight/Reuters

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Vehicles seen departing the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nev., in September 2023.

Matt Mills McKnight/Reuters

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Lenhart herself isn’t among them, though. She said she still plans to lead Death Guild Thunderdome, the big camp she’s been running at Burning Man for years.

“What keeps me going back is Thunderdome,” she said. “The community around this group of people who are my absolute friends and family in every way that matters.”

Though, Lenhart added, her group will have fewer members this year.

A silver lining?

The slump in ticket sales isn’t all bad news for those who return year after year.

Oakland, Calif.-based Burning Man attendee and artist Tim Bremner said it might signal an end to the jet-setting plug-and-play crowd.

“With this turn of maybe not selling out, I think people are hoping, like, ‘Oh, they got bored of it,’ ” he said.

Bremner added the instant gratification ticket sales also potentially mean an influx of new people who might otherwise not be able to go. He said buying a last-minute ticket was what made it possible for him to attend his first Burn, back in 2001. (The festival stopped allowing people to buy tickets without preregistering when the event started to sell out in 2011.)

“They’ll probably get a new generation of interested folks, which is pretty cool,” Bremner said.

Members of this “new generation” have been posting comments and questions on the Burning Man 2024 Facebook group about the upcoming event. Some shared their excitement.

“I’m a newbie,” posted Katie Kritzell. “Happy to share laughs, great vibes, the cost of gas, and snackaroonies!”

Other self-described first-timers, like Mike Morrow, took a more cynical approach, prompting questions from members of the community about whether Morrow was indeed a Burning Man virgin.

“Looking at the mild weather forecast and the high probability of a low turnout with shorter lines, smaller crowds, and maybe even a decent exodus,” Morrow wrote, “I’m wondering if I should skip this year and try again another year when the weather or crowds might be bad so I can get the ‘true’ Burner experience.”