Balloon Release

  Ok, call me a spoil sport or whatever you wish but I am going to flat out say that I do not like balloon releases.  Sorry, folks, those balloons do not help raise awareness of any cause, they do not go to Heaven to let your loved one know you are thinking of them and, no matter what the packaging says, they are not environmentally-friendly.  Yep, releasing a bunch of balloons, whether Mylar, latex or paper, may give you that warm, fuzzy feeling but, in the long run, you are just hurting something else.  The balloons wind up in the Bayou all of the time and it frustrates me to no end.  Why?  Because they do nothing but litter up the place.  The balloons (of all types) become hung up in the marsh and there is literally no way to retrieve them.  It takes latex balloons up to four years to decompose and Mylar ones even longer.  That is far too long and critters do not understand that these things are hazardous.  Let a deflated balloon (which they all do at some point) fall into the water and fish, turtles, birds, dolphins or whatever critter will think it is a bit of food.  Once swallowed, there is not much hope that it will ever pass before killing the critter.  The strings and ribbons attached to the balloon are even a greater risk to the creatures.  Even if the balloon, itself, is swallowed completely, the streamers attached cannot be "pulled" in or cut off.  These strings either choke an animal or entangle it so it cannot move.  Both scenarios kill.  Even the paper "sky lanterns" that claim to be eco-friendly are not.  They are held together with wires that are a snare waiting to happen.  A few years ago, I found a small raccoon so tangled in the wires of a sky lantern that it was literally hog-tied.  The baby raccoon had starved to death before I found it.  It broke my heart. Animals are curious by nature and find things like this fascinating....until they are trapped.  The sky lantern had been released to raise awareness for breast cancer.  Ok, fine.  Raise awareness...noble cause...killing an innocent creature because of it...not so noble.

  Just this week there was another balloon release on the beaches across the Bay.  Well, guess what??  There are now balloons stuck in the marsh of the Bayou.  I cannot retrieve them.  They are too far into the depths of the Bayou to reach by boat and I am sure not traipsing in risking a bite by a cottonmouth.  It is invariable that these will most likely cause problems for some creature.  One of my critter friends will perish because of human stupidity.  It saddens me to think of it.

  Folks, think.  Just think.  Think before acting.  That goes a long way.  There are other methods to raising awareness, honoring someone or celebrating.  There are ways that will not jeopardize wildlife nor cause a major littering problem.  Think....just think.  Please take better care of this earth....its the only one we have.

Greater Awareness

I am all for promoting awareness for different maladies or causes.  More awareness sometimes creates more steps in the right direction towards eliminating problems.  Flyers, banners, campaigns, literature...good..to an extent.  Releasing balloons (even the biodegradable paper ones)..not so good.  While these are released with the best of intentions, without careful planning, they can create problems themselves.  It is quite obvious that the Mylar and latex balloons are not environmentally friendly.  The good thing is that Mylar balloons are rather expensive to be used in a mass release.  Usually if a Mylar balloon is seen floating free, it is more than likely that the attached string slipped from the owner's hand.  It would be rather ridiculous to release several thousand balloons that cost around eight dollars a pop (heehee..pun!).  This fact does not make them any more friendly towards our earth, though, as they are not biodegradable.  On the other hand, latex balloons are biodegradable.  Word is that they will decompose at the same rate as an oak leaf.  This is all well and good as long as some critter does not come along and ingest said balloon.  Trust me..turtles and fish have been known to do this and it is not a pretty sight to see them once they are close to starving  to death because a balloon has caused a blockage.  So please, as innocent as it may seem, do not release either type balloon under any circumstance!

Then we come to the paper "hot-air" type balloon. I found one of these today.  It had obviously been released at a breast cancer awareness event.  While I am all for awareness and possibly a cure for this horrible disease, whoever thought of the sky lantern release did little research of the effects on the environment.  Has it occurred to anyone that defiling the environment might very well be tied in with the rise in cancers?  (Just a personal thought there.)  The balloon hanging in the Muscadine vines was of the hot-air paper type. This seems to be about as innocuous as they come.  The biodegradable paper is attached to a reed circle and usually some heat source is suspended below.  The heat rises and lifts the balloon much like the large hot-air balloons that are a novel means of transportation.  There is one large difference though.  The humongous hot-air balloons meant to transport people are terribly expensive.  This expense insures that the owners will take extremely good care of their balloon.  It is not discarded after just one use contrary to the small sky lanterns that are released by the thousands.  Those have no monetary value and are intended only to be used the once.  They are not attached by line to the ground so they can be retrieved once the heat source is extinguished.  Once the balloon is airborne, it is picked up in the air currents and can travel a good distance.  You might ask why this is such a problem since it is just paper and a natural reed.  I will tell you.  In most of the balloons, the heat source is in a can that is suspended by wires..metal wires..pokey, sharp, bendy, metal wires.  The can usually falls off and winds up adding to the litter that insensitive folks toss on our lovely earth.  The wires, however, remain attached to the balloon.  Even after the balloon falls to the ground, the wind blows it hither and yon.  The wires become twisted.  They wrap around brush, tree limbs or weeds.   Once snagged the balloon does start to deteriorate..the wires do not.  Small critters get hung up in them.  Birds become ensnared.  Large critters can be entangled and nigh on hogtied!  Not to mention the damage to lawn mowers! (We won't even go there other than to say that I have a terrible time keeping a working mower!)  Anyway, the point to all of this ranting..if you would not toss old balloons, sky lanterns and wire on the floor of your home, why in the world would you toss it on Mother Nature's floor?  She keeps a most impeccably clean environment!  It is human intervention that causes the problems. PLUS..would it be too hard to find some biodegradable fiber to suspend the heat source?  Something that would not be everlasting rubbish that could possibly harm critters?  I researched this and sure enough there are companies that make them at the same cost as the wired types.  Why use anything else?

Ok...rant is over!  Please take care of our earth..it is the only one we have!