FFS if you want to commemorate something don't be a dick and release HELIUM flipping BALLOONS!

[flashbac]

No matter how sad the occasion is or how tragic the story. Releasing helium balloons into the atmosphere is a really dickish thing to do.

[quote Fet2021duejuly2022]@Nanny0gg polluting the environment with plastics or gasses is terrible. I hate balloon releases, it kills animals etc but so do cars and they’re bloody awful for the environment. You’re all massive hypocrites driving your kiddies to school .[/quote]
CNt walk to my DGC school and there's no buses

@TuftyMarmoset it’s so funny how all reply’s have been I don’t drive 🤣 🐟

@flashbac

Sorry. I should have phrased my post better, it's insensitive. I saw it on the news and saw red. to anyone who is suffering from a tragic event. Please don't mark it with helium baloons though.

I also saw this and thought exactly the same as you.

@MrsLargeEmbodied

i dont spose those who released the balloons knew about the dangers

You'd have to live under a bloody rock to not know how stupid it is to take part in a balloon release. The problem is people know and they don't care because they want people to think they are so fabulous and doing something so nobel and virtuous.

@Nanny0gg let me guess you live too far away to walk

Littering/plastic waste/putting animals at risk is a completely different issue to climate change. You could be a full on anthropogenic global warming denier and still very keen on Keeping Britain Tidy - that's not in the least hypocritical.

As it happens I care about both - and no as a Londoner obviously I don't drive my children to school, that would be mad.

@Fet2021duejuly2022 not really. Threads like this are likely to attract posters who are already eco conscious and don’t drive.

@AnyFucker

Yeah, it makes me uncomfortable to see this too

I actually cannot get all that exercised about the climate effects (am nearly a denier, tbh) but I just see it as utterly pointless

How does this help that little boy now ? How does it help those left behind ? How does it prevent the same things happening in the future ?

Campaign. Be better. Don’t look the other way when you have safeguarding concerns. Don’t avoid the children and families that seem a bit different. Ask questions and don’t leave it to someone else.

This is not about the climate though, it’s about local environments.

It’s one thing to think “well I can’t see that me flying in a plane/eating meat/driving a people carrier/having a dog/having baby number 3 will impact the environment so much that I shouldn’t do it” but you can very easily see the impact of doing a ballon release. It’s plastic rubbish caught in hedges and dead animals.

@PassingByAndThoughtIdDropIn

Littering/plastic waste/putting animals at risk is a completely different issue to climate change. You could be a full on anthropogenic global warming denier and still very keen on Keeping Britain Tidy - that's not in the least hypocritical.

As it happens I care about both - and no as a Londoner obviously I don't drive my children to school, that would be mad.

True...

A horse near here was found dead in the field. A post mortem found a helium balloon in its stomach.

Littering isn't the most pressing concern in climate change, obviously. You'd have to be hard of thinking not to understand that.

They are different issues but both are concerned with respecting the world we all live in - even if we are mentally pretty detached from that.

@purpleneon

Imo there are worse things that we do as a society to destroy the environment than release some helium balloons.

Not ideal but if that's how someone chooses to commemorate a loved one I don't really mind!

I could say don't be a dick and go abroad every year on a plane, but many of us do more than once per year even...

'You don't mind' ?!? What a silly thing to say. The point is it's incredibly bad for animals and the environment - why don't you mind about that?

It is a really difficult topic to discuss because when someone does a balloon release to mark a sad or upsetting event, obviously that is not a time to intervene and try to change the plans.

But hopefully over time this will become a rarer practice, hopefully something less damaging can fulfill the same emotional need.

@coronabeer

I would ban balloons completely, if it were up to me.

I agree with this, I believe it’s the only way to solve the problem.

I saw a old helium balloon today stuck in some fencing, luckily it wasn’t in a field with animals, quite often they get consumed by cattle or horses or other small animals get caught up in them 😢.

I don't understand at all why this is thought of as a nice way to commemorate someone. You wouldn't go and dump a load of rubbish in the middle of your local beauty spot in commemoration, so why is releasing balloons thought of differently? Have a service, gather together with candles, anything collective really is an act of commemoration. Why is littering commemorative? I just don't get it.

even if the people who released the balloons didn't know about the dangers to animals, what a waste of money that could have gone to NSPCC or Barnardo's and achieved something useful

[quote Fet2021duejuly2022]@TuftyMarmoset it’s so funny how all reply’s have been I don’t drive 🤣 🐟[/quote]
I'll have you in stitches then - I don't drive and I've never owned a mobile phone. Bet you didn't even know that was possible.

Just read today of a three month old donkey foal that choked to deqath on the remains of a balloon that landed in its field. It's high time these balloons were banned. And the lanterns with candles in to- they are even worse- they can set fire to hay and straw and thatched buildings, and the remaining wires land in fields and get eaten by animals as they graze, who can die horribly.

@A580Hojas

Littering isn't the most pressing concern in climate change, obviously. You'd have to be hard of thinking not to understand that.

I understand what you mean, but I'm not sure I'd agree, with that statement any more.
In the Pacific Ocean, there's a giant mass of rubbish, that is something like 3 times the size of Texas and in just a few short years, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

I think are definitely at a stage where littering is pretty dangerous. It's just really hard to comprehend because we don't see it before our eyes.

@ParkheadParadise

Every year on my dd's birthday I take balloons to the cemetery. I tie them onto the shepherd's hook that holds a lantern. Sometimes they blow away Sometimes people will take them I don't give a fuck what anyone thinks about it. 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈

Did your daughter, if she was old enough, like horses, and/or other animals? Little donkeys, like the three-month old donkey foal here?

"She choked to death on a balloon. The string was all the down into her stomach but the bulk of the balloon was stuck in her throat. I wish people wouldn’t release balloons. They end up in places that they shouldn’t and donkeys will eat anything. My little Ninnie died over a memorial balloon someone let go! It was not a very big balloon but rather a small rubber one. "

@Fet2021duejuly2022

I love how people use the (stupid) word whatsbouts when they have no argument 😂

But where does it stop?

I use balloons but they drive
I drive but they take flights
I take flights but they have loads of kids
I have loads of kids but they don't recycle

And nothing ever gats done because people think it's other people's job.

I know @MattDillonsEyebrows. But not everyone can grasp it so you need to make it simple for them. It's a pressing concern of course it is ... but watch this thread disappear because it has offended someone who is grieving who doesn't agree.

I agree OP. Completely. there's other ways to commemorate the loss of a loved one than damaging/killing wildlife.

We are running out of Helium, I don’t understand why we are still wasting it.