
The after-party balloon effect - sohkamyung
https://envirobites.org/2019/05/28/the-after-party-balloon-effect-disastrous-consequences-of-balloon-releases/
======
vosper
Releasing these balloons is littering. It's _exactly_ the same as throwing the
empty balloon into someones garden or into a river. Get people to perceive it
as littering and most will stop releasing balloons, or will no longer perceive
it as cool or pretty. Make it seem gross. Shame any events that do this on
instagram - that's probably a good start.

Then maybe we can get started on cigarette butts, the one thing that is
bizarrely socially acceptable to litter anywhere - even in places with a
strong social stigma for other littering.

~~~
fragsworth
I thought it was obvious to everyone that this is littering, but I forgot how
stupid people are.

~~~
dgzl
That's pretty harsh and really incorrect. Some people didn't have great role
models growing up to teach them these things and have to learn them themselves
later on.

~~~
DuskStar
The average person is probably less intelligent than the people surrounding
you at home and work. Don't underestimate idiocy - though it's probably a
combination of both.

~~~
Stratoscope
Well of course the average person is less intelligent than the rest of us.

After all, 90% of drivers have above average skill!

------
kjhughes
See also _The Balloonfest That Went Horribly Wrong_

[https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/562556/cleveland-
bal...](https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/562556/cleveland-balloonfest/)

~~~
tdonovic
The video is like it came from some alternate reality
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0CT8zrw6lw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0CT8zrw6lw)

~~~
worldsayshi
"No one's quite sure where they went but at least they are both longer posing
a threat to fish and wildlife."

Goodie, I guess they went outside the environment then. /s

It's like no one of those who collaborated thought of the consequences past
the first ten minutes of release and even days later people still fail to see
past what's immediately perceptible.

~~~
Stratoscope
For anyone unfamiliar with the reference, here is Senator Bob Collins of
Australia explaining what happens when a tanker ship is towed beyond the
environment:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM)

~~~
taejo
It seems like you might have eaten the onion, I'm afraid: that's not senator
Bob Collins, it's satirist John Clarke.

~~~
deadbunny
It seems you might not understand context.

------
Theodores
I normally see balloons and think of the wasted helium, which is a bit of a
nerd response. We in tech worry about the loss of helium on these petty
applications but lose this battle.

The damage to wildlife from ingested balloons and how they are more toxic than
previously imagined is something I will be astro-turfing from now on. I care
about the birds a lot more than the helium.

------
rkagerer
Are biodegradable alternatives to latex available?

e.g. Could you make balloons out of something like polyvinyl alcohol (think
dishwasher pods) so that they dissolve in the rain?

~~~
majos
Weren't the original balloons animal bladders, which seem gross but certainly
biodegradable?

~~~
benj111
Why is it gross? Sausage skins are still commonly made out of pig guts.

The vegetables you eat are probably covered in insect poo, even more so for
the expensive organic stuff.

Those leather shoes on your feet are the skins of dead animals.

Even plastic is made out of dead rotted dinosaur.

~~~
sohkamyung
> Even plastic is made out of dead rotted dinosaur.

Not true. Oil (from which most plastic is derived) is formed by bacteria [1].

[1] [https://www.thoughtco.com/does-oil-come-from-
dinosaurs-10920...](https://www.thoughtco.com/does-oil-come-from-
dinosaurs-1092003)

------
latchkey
Like the war on plastic straws, this is such a small part of the problem. Come
visit Cambodia or Vietnam and see the coastline. I've driven almost the entire
coast of both countries and there isn't a single beach that isn't literally
covered in heaps of trash.

~~~
p1necone
Well yeah, each individual type of thing is going to be a small part of the
overall problem. But if it's the most effective way to get people to care then
I don't have a problem with singling out plastic straws, or balloons or
whatever.

Straws are a good one to single out too because a vast number of them come
from just a few major fast food chains, so if you get them to care you get rid
of them relatively easily.

This strikes me as another form of whataboutism, like "oh you're only dealing
with such a small part of the problem, what about all this other stuff you're
not doing, obviously you you shouldn't even bother". If noone ever bothers
with the individual parts then the whole problem is never going to stop.

~~~
Falling3
Except straws make up less than a percent of ocean plastic, while almost half
is fishing gear. Fishing is destroying the ocean for that and several other
reasons. Even if we're wildly successful and completely outlaw straws and a
dozen other things, the impact of the real problems is going to outweigh all
of the former victories.

~~~
p1necone
That might be _true_ , but bringing it up in a conversation about a different
solution to a different problem in a tone that suggests that people shouldn't
be trying to use less plastic straws (especially when most of them have no
connection to the fishing industry) isn't _helpful_.

If you care about it, talk about it in the context of fishing, don't just
bring it up as a way to snarkily shut down people doing something _good_ , no
matter how small.

This is exactly the kind of "plausible deniability" tactics that people who
actively push to disregard all environmental concerns use.

~~~
DuskStar
But for any sort of rational cost/benefit analysis, _the plastic straw wins_.
Lower energy cost than a disposable paper straw, it works better, feels
better, and (while I'm not positive of this) lower monetary cost too. And when
you consider how few straws make it into the oceans _from California_ , there
are _far_ more worthy targets. Or, to put it another way - banning plastic
straws is a passable way to reduce the number of _straws_ added to the ocean.
It's a really shitty way to reduce _plastic_.

It's things like this (and opposition to nuclear, and refusal to consider
geoengineering) that make people skeptical of the general environmental
movement. After all, if this was such a huge problem... People would be trying
to _actually solve it_ instead of virtue signalling.

~~~
dTal
Not all plastic pollution is created equal. Plastic straws are especially
dangerous for sea turtles, in the same way that balloons are dangerous for sea
birds and 6-pack rings are dangerous to both. People didn't single out plastic
straws to "virtue signal".

As for 'the plastic straw wins', I'm unconvinced. The energy cost might be
lower, but none of your other reasons factor in environmental cost at all. I
don't think any amount of 'feels good' is worth any amount of environmental
damage.

Lastly, even if it were entirely symbolic (which it isn't) there's still value
in that.

~~~
p1necone
The "you're just virtue signalling" bullshit is infuriating. People need to
consider the possibility that some other human beings actually have empathy,
or different values to their own.

