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

We need good alternatives, there aren’t.

Im sure if you put your mind to it you could think of some.

We do a balloon release on every special occasion throughout the year (birthdays, the day they died, Christmas, Halloween, summer festival etc) so our family member is always with us
How does releasing a balloon keep your dead family with you? They are dead. They dont know you've released a load if ruber into the air.
Surely a family picnic, a house party, a sponsored walk for their favourite charity, lighting candles and giving a donation has more meaning than acting like a load of dickheads who only care about themselves.

Plant a tree?
Get a candle and light that, and look at it in front of a photo of the person.
Light a candle in whichever religious place you attend - if any.
Grow butterflies - release them.

Climb a hill, remember them at every step.
Go to their favourite restaurant
Cook their favourite food
Read their favourite book
Watch their favourite film.

Literally so so many better options, that are ACTUALLY doing something that reminds you of that person.

So you blatantly create litter, risk the lives of animals (horses, livestock and wildlife) and risk starting wildfires on a regular basis! People who do this are lacking brain cells! It should be a criminal offence and I don't understand why it isn't already.

Do you disagree about who is coming across worse on this post?!

I'd turn in my grave with embarrassment if my family were thick and disrespectful enough to do this.

Was this your work? . . .

Then the alternative is stop.

I hope your husband is okay. My sister is suffering with her asthma (she's near me) and my poor sister-in-law is heavily pregnant and lives very close to Dovestones.
People just don't think about the impact of their actions.

Based on further research into @BeSunnyLemonSheep posts, I've narrowed it down to two theories:

1. They have absolutely no idea how cancerous balloon memorials are to wildlife and the environment.
2. They're one balloon sale away from Employee of the Month at The Big Balloon Warehouse.

Exactly, imagine people enjoying the shade of your loved one for hundreds of years

(which they will need because everything else will be on fire at that point)

So in order to remember your loved ones you feel the need to risk killing a few sheep or any other creature that might happen upon the balloon litter and eat it.

Yeah, makes perfect sense!

This is one of the thickest responses i've seen on here yet.
Methinks you are being deliberately obtuse cos your unemployed, thus bored 🙄

I lost my DH a few years ago, and my mum three months ago. Both would be horrified if I did something in their name that resulted in, or even risked this. It’s unconscionable.

Could you roll their ashes into a spliff and do twos on with everyone instead?

You don’t care about the environment you and the living members of your family live in? There are lots of ways you can remember your loved ones without risking the lives of animals. Plant trees then you have permanent reminders of them and you’re making a positive contribution to the environment.

We had an Irish music night and lit candles in church 🤷‍♀️

There are plenty of alternatives

Your family member isn't with you when you put a balloon in the air...
Find another way to think about them- maybe a bubble machine that won't kill wildlife

Yeah, there’s an old adage which is apt here. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Christ Almighty!!

You're an environmental pest as well as a danger to animals!!

Showing off on social media, are we?

As previous posters have said, you don’t need to do all this showy shitty crap to remember a lost loved one. There are many lovely ways to do without making yourself a damn nuisance.

Absolute Muppet😡

At least memorial benches are useful. You can sit on them.😀

Yea my lovely neighbours over the road who turn the street into GTA San Andreas when it hits 24 degrees 🤣 although tbf even they know nowadays balloon releases just arent the done thing which is why it is so obvious that poster is just being mischievous.

I completely agree.

We have all lost precious people, theres barely an adult in existence who isn't mourning the loss of someone.

If we all released balloons, every day, how many billions of balloons would be littering the planet.

It's totally unacceptable.

I'm allowed to have an opinon on the matter like everyone else. Do as you please, that's on you not my concern as I don't care about randoms in that respect.
It's true I can't do anything about it, but I am concerned for the younger generations are going to suffer because people now don't care about the environment now.
It's all too easy to say I don't care about the enviroment or I'll be dead anyway, but those people probably have kids or grandkids. They obviously don't care much about them to take that attitude.

The environment in which you and your loved ones here and elsewhere lived? Don't care about it? Glad it's a minority of people who do these forms of memorials.

I’m pretty sure @BeSunnyLemonSheep is just rage baiting, I mean wtf is “summer festival “ anyway? No such thing that I’ve heard of. 🤷‍♀️. May Day? August bank holiday weekend? 😆