AIBU to object to balloon and lantern memorial releases for environmental reasons ?

[Ihsk]

I do wish people would stop releasing balloons in tribute to lost loved ones.

Balloons don’t up to heaven. They travel a few miles and usually land in a farmer’s field. Where animals eat the balloon and get very ill or die.

This method is a cruel and other creatures can die.

Also still can get Chinese lanterns online. Anyone setting these off now are idiots. Forest fires

Sometimes these are the only reasons people do what they do.

Look at it as calling a spade a spade (or a cunt a cunt if you prefer)

I lost my dad suddenly. He wasn't ill, wasn't even old! He went to bed and never woke up. My family were hard broken. But even in our bereaved state we weren't stupid cunts who release balloons. I very much doubt there's a person on this thread "banging on" who hasnt been bereaved. It's just the majority know the balloons don't go to heaven.

I think it should be opposed but sensitively. Calling people cunts and morons isn't helpful.

Did people release balloons for late ones 20 odd years ago? No
It's for social media showing off

You're just saying this for attention.

Go back to your homework.

Well, we released a few balloons when our first baby died 21 years ago. Wouldn't do it now for environmental reasons. Didn't take photos. Don't think social media existed.

But okay then, I'm a stupid cunt if it makes anyone feel better.

You aren’t stupid, @Shinyredbicycle - times have changed, we know more now than we did then, and you have changed your opinion on balloon releases.

I am sorry for the loss of your son.

Why on earth do you do it? why is that a memorial to your loved ones? Apart from anything it is as tacky as hell.

I crossed the Pennines by train today and when the doors opened at Stalybridge the smell of smoke was really strong.

We did, i was in primary school so a good 35 years ago. It must have been when it was a new thing, I remember thinking it was a bit strange. I was probably 10 and wondering where the balloons would end up. I remember thinking they’d go to children in other countries…not in end up in horses mouths and the sea 😥

Good idea!

Perhaps the rage-baiting “Sunny Lemon Sheep” idiot poster can go first?

Ironically has ‘Sheep’ in her MNet user name…

You’re disgustingly inconsiderate and selfish.

There are other ways to honour your family member that aren’t destructive.

And the time you posted says it all

Is this a good legacy to leave a loved one.

Would they have wanted an animal to suffocate slowly & painfully in their 'memory' if they did want that then I assume they were an unpleasant individual to begin with

When I die I want to have my remains scattered over Disney Land.

I’m not being cremated.

If the "I don't care about the environment" posters are genuine, which I doubt as I think they are just trying to get a rise out of us, I wonder if they ever went to school. They seem incredibly lacking in social awareness and critical thinking. That is if they are capable of any kind of thinking at all.

It gets worse. This has just come through on my Facebook feed:

Just a reminder, for anybody who may be feeling sorry for the idiots that set Dovestone ablaze… zero remorse, out setting off more fireworks, threatening to go back and light it up…they’re not remotely arsed. Balloon release on Saturday, because they haven’t caused enough damage yet, apparently.

Quite

Are you serious? So, you know the consequences, yet you're going to do it more and more because people object - indeed for these consequences.

insane.

and indeed the environment isn't potentially harmed.

So, sending up paper lanterns with live flames in them. Who ever thought that that was a good idea? Has anyone else here been in a forest fire? I have. It's terrifying.

And, back to the environment, this is our home. We don't have any alternative.

@BeSunnyLemonSheep please, that’s not a reasonable response. There are many ways to celebrate family members that don’t involve releasing balloons or Chinese lanterns.

You must be able to come up with a different way that is personal to your loved one to celebrate them that doesn’t involve littering the countryside.

How does this mean your family member is with you? Did they like killing animals or something?

Surely you could achieve exactly the same by something that doesn't kill animals?

Plant a tree.
Bubbles.
A gathering at a favourite place, eg at a beach but without plastic tat release
Plant a rose bush, butterfly bush etc.

Just a few options

That's an awful way to remember a loved one ....... a dead dear, once beautiful and alive, killed by idiots and their crap.

This calf will have suffocated slowly & painfully to death whilst being watched by its mum.

All in someone's 'memory'