to have sent this email to school/PTA?

[QueenOfF1amingEverything]

They want to have a balloon release for the Jubilee with a cash prize for the 'winner'...

"Having just read through the minutes of the PTA meeting, I'm afraid I have an objection to the proposed ballon launch. We are lucky enough to live in an AONB, on the banks of a beautiful and relatively unpolluted river, and near more than one SSSI, and therefore I think it would be particularly irresponsible to release balloons. Balloons do not biodegrade and are extremely dangerous to animals who may ingest them, which will often be fatal.

The environmental impact of releasing balloons needs to be considered as effectively it is no different to throwing litter, and I really disagree with the idea of a £50 cash prize for the person whose litter travels the furthest.
Please see this link for further information - www.ukrivers.net/balloon_fact.html

Thanks, QOFE"

Yanbu - well done for bringing it up. Bit at your email being sent out with your name and email address for everyone to see.

YANBU
But wouldnt be unreasonable if you lived in a dirty old part of town like I do.

It makes no difference if its outstandingly beautiful or not.

Bad is bad.

But I am a hypocrite. I let off two ballons a year. One on DD's birthday and one on her anniversary.

I dont do the lanterns thought. They terrify me.

Once the PTA recognise that there are working parents at the school and some evening meetings may be good then I will be quite happy to be a random parent and attend.

Well done Queen, balloon races and those Chinese lanterns are seriously not good.

an afterschool disco is ususally the best thing to do and cheap.

afternoon tea, cake decorating compatition, faté, fun day

I wouldn't want our PTA to organise a "spread litter hazardous to wildlife for several months" event.

Then again, we're some sort of Eco-school, so one hopes something as anti-social and anti-environment wouldn't ever see light of day.

The hard slog and generally thankless nature of being on the PTA is not an adequate justification for eg dead swans.

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere i think there is a huge diffrence between 2 balloons a year to hundreds at once.

It would of course be unreasonable anywhere, not just in the countryside. Its just that school themselves make a big deal of the location - they pride themselves on being in such a lovely area and on having the wildlife/riverbanks/woods etc on the doorstep. So you'd think someone might have thought this through a bit.

Outraged - because their idea is lazy and polluting. Giving a prize to the person who can get some litter to travel the furthest? Might as well get the children to chuck named coke cans in the river and see whose makes it into the sea first

meditrina - it is an Eco School as well, I only just remembered that

I know but its still a bit hypocritical. Even one might choke a sparrow or something

But mine go up to heaven so the probably dont

Can you get bio ballons, I would use them if they came in pink

I completely agree that the ballon release is a shit idea. I just don't think I could bring myself to tell them it was shit if I wasn't prepared to help do something else.

They might decide to stick with the ballon race despite your objection, but they wouldbe a lot less likely to if you offered to help. It's all very well saying that you care about the environment, but if you don't care enough to help do something else then your opinion isn't worth what it should be.

I never knew that chinese lanterns were so bad, I will not be sending anymore of those up in the air.

I am fully with the op and as an Eco School it is particularly mindless. If I were the OP i would seriously complain that her email was sent out, spiteful and a terrible breach of privacy.

Good for you!

I like your bulb planting idea Ivananap.

also there is a helium shortage

www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20120323/helium-gas-shortage-mri-120324/

People might dope their birds with laxatives to win!

an alternative,if sense of gambling has to be included,

you use a portable electric fence, make a paddock on the playing field, mark it out in a grid , use the ABCD, 1234 system to mark it, sell the squares, when all the squares are sold, add one animal, cow, donkey, goat ,horse, sheep,cows work best,

which ever square gets hit with the first pat, gets the prize.

with so many vital things depending on helium, if we use it in balloons, when it runs out, we will end up having interesting conversations with our children when they don't have access to helium and various lifesaving functions that are dependant on it when they are grown up.

they might get annoyed and put us all in terrible home.

They are hopeless with confidentiality anyway - its a teeny tiny school so they are just really lax about that sort of thing. I suspect everyone would've guessed it was me anyway

YANBU on the AONB point, but otherwise it's a bit spoil-sportish. Almost every other child in England will be doing it, is it fair for them to miss out because of a few balloons? Surely they have to be found to know how far they fly, why not have people clear them up at the same time?

I remember doing this once at school (but just for fun). Some balloons flew miles before landing, so would that even affect the AONB enough to be worrying this much? If it wont, then YABU.

It all depends though :)

But the balloons will still be landing somewhere SandraSue. You can't have people clearing them up if they travel miles before landing. Most will probably never be found and just be litter.

Fair point. I was thinking specifically from the AONB point of view. If they landed in my area they'd probably make the place look better :o

Released latex balloons are as biodegradable as an oak leaf (source: www.balloonhq.com/faq/deco_releases/release_study.html) it's the string that's not.

And one about the biodegradability of rubber balloons: www.balloonhq.com/faq/deco_releases/degradability.html

While we do know that animals occasionally eat soft slivers of rubber that have fallen to earth after the balloon popping, the evidence indicates the pieces ultimately pass through the digestive system without harming the animal.
Although many stories have been repeated about sea creatures dying from balloons, extensive research by the industry and reporters has yet to verify one such story.

(source: www.balloonlink.com/environment.htm)

The point I was trying to make without having to argue, was that the OP, and anyone who agrees with her, is being a spoil-sport.
Cars are bad for the environment and deplete natural resources, but I bet none of you would run around saying everyone should stop using cars, because then you would lose out yourself. Let the kids play ffs

Released latex balloons are as biodegradable as an oak leaf - that is still 6 moths of harm they could be causing to animals, IF they are using biodegradable balloons.
Cars are a necessary evil but what good does releasing balloons do to anybody? Kids can have fun without them.