to think that you don't let off a load of helium balloons, whatever the cause?

[SignoraStronza]

Found this morning in the hedgerow of a cattle field, a memorial balloon with accompanying length of ribbon and plastic wrapped message. Thankfully I found it before our friend's beasts did.

While I have every sympathy (well, mostly but that's another thread) with the cause that the message was promoting and the bereavement the organisers suffer, AIBU to think that the damage this could have potentially caused to the environment is akin to those sky lanterns that people are finally beginning to get the message about?

There is a request to email with the location it was found - am not sure whether/what I should write. Prepared to be told In a grumpy arse.

They cause fires. Very dangerous to thatched houses particularly.

'My relative died so to commorate them we send a piece of litter in the sky which with any luck will also kill some wildlife'

commemorate*

YANBU - it should be possible to gently mention the dangers in your reply without being snotty. I once witnessed one of these releases by a group who professed interest in the environment/ ecosystems - wasn't in a position to say anything (was my boss, I was at work, it was to promote the organisation, with a group of clients) but wondered what on earth they were thinking.

This is a very sad thread '

I would email back and say sorry for your loss, the balloon was found near xxxx in a field of cows, next to a waterway with birds and other animals living on it.

I think that says it all without being snotty.

Shiney

Shiney

I'm pretty sure the big mouths wouldn't dare say it to anyone's face. Just do whatever helps your dc.

'My relative died so to commorate them we send a piece of litter in the sky which with any luck will also kill some wildlife'

Bog off

For fuck sake. I genuinely believe there are worse things in the world than releasing balloons or lanterns. Yes MAYBE humans are being selfish but if you can get more worked up about this than the death of a child then I despair!

But what is the point in compounding your loss by causing another? I know I couldn't do it

Dear God, may those of you giving grief stricken mums on those thread the stick never know the loss of child..shame on you.

Maybe some do...

People who are passionate about this, rather than coming on a forum and insulting half a dozen grieving mothers/daughters/sisters etc, why not use that energy to actually try and make a difference - lobby the right groups, speak to your MP, call for a ban on the commercial sale of helium. It's easy to start a change.org petition and no doubt there'll be senior HCPs queueing at your door to support this. Rather than going the easy route of berating consumers, many of whom are none the wiser to the dangers.

My relative died so to commorate them we send a piece of litter in the sky which with any luck will also kill some wildlife

you're hilarious. Do you think people actually are letting the balloons off thinking "as an added bonus I get to kill a badger, yay me" or maybe their mind is preoccupied with the purpose of doing something they believe is meaningful.

I'm sure you all think by coming on here and asserting your deluded sense of superiority and smugness that you know a bit more about a subject than some other people, makes you feel very noble indeed - but knock off the L and E to see what it really makes you.

Maybe, just maybe, this thread might help some people who are 'none the wiser' to see the damage these things cause. I hope so

It may costa and some posters have actually posted helpful and informative comments rather than Lecturing people. I still think the energy could be better used though putting the effort to make bigger more meaningful changes

his is a thread - which invites in the title, and which states outright in the opening post - for discussing the harm that helium balloons do, and will do, as long as we continue to use them. I, like others, have noted that this is now at the point that they will make a current hugely important medical diagnostic tool impossible to use, unless we stop.

I've been sworn at and accused of lacking in compassion by someone I have never interacted with, just for stating the truth on this post - that wasting helium now will harm people in the very near future.

I have not attacked anyone and will not attack anyone. I don't think anyone here, whatever their feelings on helium balloons, would ever wade into a memorial and tell the mourners what no-good-bad people they were for wasting helium like this. It would be incredibly cruel and it would be counter-productive. But if we can't calmly discuss it on a thread which signals from the start that this is the subject under discussion, when can we? When all the helium is gone and it's too late?

Many people on mumsnet have lost people dear to them - parents, children, siblings, partners - in circumstances which cause them enduring grief. Nobody would tell them how to cope (or nobody should). But grieving doesn't make everything you do immune from analysis, and saying "helium balloons aren't a good idea and here's why" on a thread dedicated to discussing the harm that helium balloons do (not on a mourning thread) doesn't make you a terrible person who doesn't care about others' grief or want them to give comfort to your children. My bereavements don't give me carte blanche to harm others. Human beings have mourned and remembered lost beloveds for millennia without the use of helium balloons, and it is way, way overdue that we find a way to do so again, without damaging people in the future.

Just for the record, I do campaign on a macro scale about this - I suggest alternatives to the charities I work with, and so on. But campaigning on a macro scale can only happen if individuals know about it, and we should be allowed to talk about it here without being accused of being evil.

I know it's for a bereavement, but I don't think that a bereavement gives people carte blanche to do what the heck they like.

I mean, what if someone decided that chucking broken glass about was their way of remembering a loved one--where would we decide to draw the line?

I think people need to find ways of remembering people that don't involve throwing rubbish around. Because that is basically what this is.

I'm truly sorry for the people who have been bereaved.... but surely, knowing that releasing balloons has such a potentially negative impact, it would be better to find another way?

It's a tricky one Tough.... of course I care that someone has lost their child and wants to commemorate them, I'm not a bloody ogre.
But. If something is wrong and harmful, it's wrong and harmful. Our wildlife is battling through a sea of discarded junk. We should be trying to minimise this in every way possible, as the suffering is immense.

I love the idea of petals or leaves in a stream. Maybe tiny rush boats with a message onboard.

That's it, Tough. I used to love helium balloons. I stopped buying them when somebody explained to me how harmful they are (and then I went away and looked up the primary sources). Nothing ever changes unless people share information - but if you cannot talk about it on a thread dedicated to talking about it, when can you?

I really struggle to understand why, when you know what harm they cause, you'd choose to remember someone you loved like this.