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

As for a memorial, I think living & behaving kindly in a way in which they would be proud is the finest of tributes.

That poster probably wants her surviving relatives to go one better and memorialise her with a wildfire.

You don’t care about animals ingesting balloons? You don’t care about causing unnecessary suffering and the possible deaths of farm animals or the veterinarian costs incurred by farmers? You don’t care that the balloons can cause power outages if they get caught in power lines or substations? You don’t care about the marine and ecological al damage being done to the land and seas?

There are so many other options as other posters have highlighted that would serve the same purpose but have a positive effect on the environment which wouldn’t inconvenience you and your family.

I don’t get the selfish /don’t give a damn attitude. You are doing this for yourself and using poor dead granny to justify your selfishness. Help me out here, why do you care so little?

Balloon releases make me wince, we know the negative environmental impact of them so I don't know why they still happen.

If it's essential for your grieving to send something into the air for a loved one, have children blow bubbles. Write messages on kites or on ribbons on kites and go to a field or a beach to fly them up high. (and then take the kites home again)

Balloons will pop, the latex gets into waterways, the sea, farmland, hedges, streets, beaches, it is littering and dangerous to wildlife, sealife etc.

We planted a tree for my friend, we shared stories, sang songs, tied a ribbon.

You're not unreasonable at all.

I'm sure that what other posters have suggested is true, i.e. that the reason why some people still do this sort of thing is so that they can video it and upload it to social media.

How many people do things like releasing balloons or releasing Chinese lanterns without taking photos or videos and uploading them to social media? I suspect, none.

There's a family in our village who let off fireworks/balloons/lanterns on an alarmingly regular basis. Sometimes it's celebratory, sometimes linked to bereavement. It's at least 10 times a year. They're rather obsessed with balloons in general actually. Their house is perpetually decorated in hundreds of balloons and accompanying lurid banners, the birthday/anniversary/birth changing accordingly.

People post about it on our village page regularly. Sometimes one of the farmers who's had to pay for treatment of an animal or a pet owner whose dog has been terrified by the fireworks. The response is always the same. Usually "fuck off," a mention of their culture and a commitment to doing it even more.

I despair.

I jave a Burger Burberry coat, but not a cap. I've also never set off a balloon, lantern or otherwise.

I think most that do it don’t realise.

I also think most that do realise and judge do hundreds of bad things for the environment all the time but it’s easy to judge the act you yourself aren’t intrested in doing.

I actually think that every single person that has ever lost someone should do what@BeSunnyLemonSheep does, and I mean EVERYONE, so all day every day, there will be balloons, lanterns and fireworks at all hours.
I'll even go one step further and have the government help pay for those who can't afford it, because everyone loses someone , after all.

Yes 🤔, I think this would be healthy for society.

Plant a tree? Or a rosebush? Create a little memorial area in your garden? Donate to a charity?
I planted rose trees for my dead daughter and dead brother - had never grown anything in my life before but they're flourishing and I love it when I get a new rose on them.

Which culture is this?

Not doing it is an excellent alternative.

Only total twats/people with very low intelligence/both release balloons and lanterns.

I like benches as I like reading the plaques and they are often in rural places where there’s no other place to sit near us. The seafront near my mum is a long row of benches but they are used.

Was your lost loved one also a selfish tit who didn’t care about others? If yes, this is a perfect way to remember them. If not then maybe find a way to honour their memory that doesn’t actually dishonour their memory.

Wow. Just wow.

I do often think about starting a post like this every time I see someone do it, but then I feel a bit wrong to do so off the back of someone's grief, however I'm in full agreement with you.

I think in part, because I'm not sentimental in that way. Like you said, the balloons don't go to heaven. It's just a huge waste and a danger to wildlife. There have to be better ways to commemorate someone's life.

How selfish and stupid,I hope you can live with yourself with the trauma this causes to animals, cows,sheep,horses eat them and die,they alo flee in panic and get injured. If you saw a photo of the injured animals from your stupid balloons that do not go to heaven would you have no compassion?
Selfish entitlement at its best

Paper boats floated down a river.

You should spend some time with farmers and horse owners who have lost their beloved animals due to this.

It needs to be banned, I don’t know why it isn’t. It’s so damaging. I have seen a wild bird entangled in balloon string, dead. That is not a good representation of a loved one who has passed. Mad to think that someone’s dead horse is a good way for you to remember someone (although the fact you said you do it at Halloween makes me think you may be fibbing somewhat….)

@BeSunnyLemonSheep what a silly outlook - I'm glad you are concerned about sheep / deer / foxes or something live chewing down on "your special memory" balloon. Absolutely ridiculous.

Ego-centric to place a piece of furniture in a public space, and ensure every single person who passes sees the life dates of a dead person they never knew. I just wanna do park run.

Parks have benches. If you're doing park run, you're surely not stopping to look at each one and read the memorial plate, if any, so how can you tell whether it's in memory of someone, and see their life and death dates?

I hate these things too - it's so selfish and entitled. That's part of the problem though - so many people ARE selfish and entitled these days.
Right now, our town and many other areas are covered in a stinking cloud of smoke and have been for days now because some braindead idiots thought it would be a good idea to let off fireworks to remember a dead friend who died in a lake (where there are clear signs not to swim) on the bone-dry moors during a heatwave.
We're about 17 miles away from Dovestones and the smoke has literally created a smog, people with severe asthma and COPD are being warned to keep doors and windows closed and used air purifiers, ash is all over our cars and outdoor furniture and even with everything closed all you can smell is smoke - all because someone wanted to let off fireworks (would have been the same result if it had been a Chinese Lantern).
As annoying as the above things are, what upsets me most is the devastation to the wildlife and knowing that not all of them will have survived and that some will have suffered agonising burns.

One of the idiots responsible has appeared in court and been named by the media but others were gloating on social media saying that people were "only complaining because they can't put their washing out".

I've named a star after my beloved Nanna, I've created a memorial "garden" for another loved one, I planted rose bushes for my daughter and my brother. None of these things have impacted on anyone or anything else and whenever I get a new rose (I wasn't even a gardener and had never planted anything before), it makes me smile and I think of my loved ones,

There have been petitions over the years with thousands of signatures but for some reason the government have never intervened with this and I don’t know why.

We seem to think the environment is something we can use and abuse on a regular basis and that it will always be fine. As we sit in a serious heatwave. People need to wake up and realise that we are killing ourselves. I swam at the beach in Spain some years back when I lived there. I swam alongside litter. It was awful. This is what we are giving to our children when we send bits of shiny string up into the atmosphere. It’s awful.

I remember randomers organising mass balloon releases for Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans and others.

very much “our need to demonstrate our grief overrides your concerns”

I have noticed locally a few planned releases people have been able to raise objections without being aggressively shut down for daring to raise it with grieving families so maybe there is hope.

Same here - Dovestones is on fire and I'm around 17 miles away and it's all we can smell and even taste and there's a "smog" here today.
What upsets me most is the wildlife and potentially livestock who have been harmed.