To think mass balloon releases are selfish and should be banned?

[QuestionableMouse]

I've just heard about a mass balloon release in memory of some teens who were killed in a car accident. I hate them and think they're selfish; they're so damaging to the environment (ingesting balloons or the string can lead to a horrible death for both farm and wild animals, including marine life.)

The emoting behind them is lovely, but I hate the fact that they're essentially delayed littering. Releasing bubbles or seeds can do the same thing but without killing wildlife!

You can hatch butterflies out any time at home but releasing them at this time of year would be cruel. They wouldn’t last long enough to fuck up the ecosystem.

Sod the ecosystem I was thinking about the butterflies

Well yes, except that religions in which people believe in souls and have notions of them living perpetually and going somewhere skywards don't seem to do this. So is it meaningful to people who have those beliefs but haven't found a home for them within a religion?

I don't have those beliefs, so my commemoration is about me remembering, where I am, where I can remember them, at their grave, in a tranquil place, in a photo album, in a family tradition, an activity, a piece of music, or in my head.

The practice of balloon releases is more prevalent as a 'wedding extra' than as anything else, so the prevalent symbolism seems to be 'declaration'. Which I can see works as commemoration but it also seems borrowed from a very recent, very commercial practice, which is not a tradition.

My friends thatched house was burned to the ground because of a Chinese lantered she very nearly did not get out in time.

So someones greif says they should be able to potentally kill people as well as wild life because they are greving?

PlAant a tree get a bench do anything as long as you dont endanger other people or animals...

There is a limited amount of helium left on our planet. Using loads of this precious resource to release balloons is incredibly selfish when helium is essential in other ways. MRI scans for example. No helium means no MRI scans. Plus the mess they leave. The effect on birds and small mammals etc.
I understand people who are grieving need a way to mark that, but there are ways that are not nearly so environmentally unsound.
askzephyr.com/15-uses-for-helium-you-never-knew/

I have a friend that released some balloons when her sister died , my friends little girl ( about 8 or 9 ) was very close to her aunt and enjoyed watching her 'aunt' been set free to live forever.
About a month later the little girl found a balloon stuck in a tree and was heart broken because she thought it was someones 'release' balloon that had got gone to live forever and kept asking what if aunty did not make it. Very hard to explain to a child.

As a child a friend of mine died so a few of us wrote a letter to our friend and put them in envelopes with sand and pebbles to weigh them down and threw them of Blackpool pier.
I can still remember 30+ years ago what i wrote.

The environmental impact of a single release of balloons does not register at all when compared to the lost 60-70 years x4.

Allow them to express their grief.

RIP

How exactly is the world running out of helium?

Hmmm. Let me google that for you.

I've heard of releases of thousands of balloons so I don't believe that @craftygin. There are other much better ways to express grief than a balloon release. The cumulative effect is terrible.

Allow them to express their grief.

In any way that doesn’t harm wildlife and the environment - of course.

YANBU. It should be banned.

YANBU. It was a tragedy but littering, potentially dangerous balloon releases are not compulsory to demonstrate grief in these situations. Candlelit vigils are lovely (I could - but won't bore everyone - get into the most environmentally friendly way of doing these). Plastic flowers at accident sites and scattering ashes wherever you like also totally inappropriate (but for another thread).

What did google tell you?

I always find it interesting when people quote parts of your post.
My post:
I get the whole environment aspect. But last month I watch a 3 year old, 8 year old and a 14 year old mark the first anniversary of their mothers death with ballons. Their idea and it was beautiful.
These events usually make deaths/ anniversarys and if it helps a grieving person, then I think it's cruel to take that away.
I do get your point though. The company's must be forced to do more.

Ie. A grieving person should be able to do this because the a company who is making profit from the sale of the item should be made to make sure the balloons are biodegradable. It's like those stupid loom bands. They will never break down. They are still in every shop and no one cares about them anymore.

Seriously, QM?

These young men had 60+ years of life snuffed out.

All the food they were going to eat, heating fuel, transport fuel no longer need to be spent. A few balloons is surely trivial.

It’s not my way of commemorating life and death, but if it brings comfort to others, why not?

Keep coming back to this one, sorry. It's interesting because it juxtaposes two pretty solid social assumptions: that bereaved people, particularly parents, should be allowed to grieve in any way they choose, and that reducing the plastics littering the environment is an urgent priority.

I think it would have gone better if the thread title hadn't used the word "selfish". I think mass balloon releases should be banned, as part of a broader ban on the environmental double-whammy of helium-filled balloons. But was it necessary to attack the motives of people who do this? I know it's not exclusively used as commemoration by bereaved people, but it very often is, and is associated with that scenario. Calling those people selfish was unnecessary, imo.

Interesting article about the science, economics and technological applications of helium.

www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-the-world-is-running-out-of-helium-2059357.html

Basically, there's only two ways helium is made - nuclear fusion in the sun (bit too hot to go and collect) and the geologically slow radioactive decay of rocks (we haven't got a billion years to wait for the next batch to form). All that is released on earth is so light, it simply floats up into space beyond the atmosphere, so we can't harvest it from the air either.

This accident happened a few miles away from me and 24 hrs later you feel the need to post this. Let's hope none of their relatives are reading.

I attend a memorial service every year to remember neonatal deaths. There is a balloon release held afterwards. My son thinks the balloon is going to heaven to his sister. His school held a balloon release for a murdered pupil last year. The children thought the balloons were going to a much loved friend.

I suppose if you consider the environmental damage these children would have caused by being alive vs balloon releases, I'm sure the balloon releases must be less harmful. Think of the cars they won't drive, the plastic toys they won't play with, the plane journeys to holidays with their families they will never take etc.

I do question the motives.

I have tried to (gently) suggest alternatives, or explain why I can’t in good conscience take part. I try not to say anything to newly bereaved, but to people who commemorate anniversaries etc.

Often the response is not that they didn’t realise how harmful this is, and maybe there are better ways to remember great aunt nellie’s 20th anniversary. It is usually more along the lines that they are commemorating a death and if they want to release balloons then they will.

Almost as if their desire to do a ballon release outweighs any impact they have on others. Not their problem if a balloon kills little johns pet dog, it makes them feel better that great aunt nellie gets some balloons in some hypothetical heaven they probably don’t believe in.

I think it will probably have to come from a government ban. The industry won’t self regulate, and people seem to think their need for symbolism trumps any subsequent effect.

BH, I don’t think helium balloons are significantly accelerating the atmospheric release of helium. Their overall volume is trivial.

The helium comes from cryogenic distillation of air (also recovering oxygen and nitrogen) and governed by market economics.

The sale of helium for such waste needs to stop!

I had no idea helium was a finite resource.

It’s not my way of commemorating life and death, but if it brings comfort to others, why not?

What, you’ve read the whole thread about the devastation ballons cause to wildlife and the environment and you still don’t get why not?

It’s interesting comparing this to how we condemn other people’s for the ecologically disastrous things they do in pursuit of trying to save loved ones . Slaughter of rhinos for horn, tigers for trad medecines etc.

OP you really shouldn't have mentioned the particulars of the incident. It looks like you are picking on grieving families for not being environmentally friendly. You are essentially making yourself look like a massive cockdangle.

I don't like balloon releases for some of the reasons pointed out above. I think that it's important to raise awareness about how harmful/generally rude and inconsiderate releasing balloons is. Notice how I at no point made reference to how selfish people who release balloons when mourning are hence avoided looking unkind or inconsiderate myself.