300 million lbs of fireworks and 2.7 billion dollars gone in a cloud of smoke.
Yup, that could also be said about music, cinema and any other form of art/entertainment/distraction. It doesn’t produce anything “useful”, but again, what is “useful” varies from one person to another. Some would say the waste of money is the point. You blow fireworks because you can.
Ultimately nothing matters because there is no true meaning of life, so anything that pulls you away from the dark nothingness of existence is good to take.
I can’t think of other art forms that blow off the hands of so many people, wake up my daughter in terror at 11PM, and make both dogs and veterans suffer for an extended period of time. I’m fine with the large group spectacle that is planned and controlled. What I can’t stand is the widespread uncontrollable nonsense of just anyone buying them and setting them off at any hour on the 4th. Law enforcement can do absolutely nothing about it. I’m just gonna have to deal with it. I’m just surprised we haven’t collectively shifted to something less harmful.
Not just dogs or other pets, but also farm and wild animals. And it may not only lead to suffering, but also lead to their deaths.
Really?
Yep. With wild animals it may result in the running away in fear without thought and get lost or injured which may result in their death. This technically applies to all animals.
Another aspect which affects all is heart attack from the shock.
I guess ban vehicles of any sort, then. I’d imagine animals dying from fireworks are nearly 0. I’d imagine ones dead from traveling are a thousand an hour in the US.
As a veteran with PTSD, I agree
Love them. There are tons on unnecessary things we do.
Exactly. Movies, the Internet, traveling.
As a life form, the 4 key aspects of life are:
1). Eat 2). Sleep 3). Defecate 4). Reproduce
Literally everything else you do is irrelevant or secondary to the core mission of life.
Reproduction is not nor has it ever been proven as a core mission of life and shouldn’t exist in that list. It has nothing to do with your core basis of life. It’s only to continue a life line or a cell decision reliant on environment. But it is not a core requirement in life.
It may be continuing a line but it is not proven as a core ‘mission’ of anything. It’s a bias decision and much of that relies on environment in which the cell lives in. It’s as much a ‘core mission’ as the effort of immortality should an environmental condition not be met. Some species continue their strain of life by cloning and some if even just one has achieved immortality and has no necessary core mission to reproduce.
They seem very backwards when there are drone displays and other forms of entertainment. Humans cling on to things way too long.
I think a big part of it is that they’re dangerous. It’s fun to experience just a tinge of fear from how big they sound, or even just from being near the little street versions. It’s a (relatively) safe way for us to experience something that would otherwise be terror inducing explosives.
I mean, safe aside from all the accidents that happen every year. Like kids blowing off fingers or what have you. I mean I get it, but having any random Joe be able to buy a ton of explosives then go home, drink, and play with them seems needlessly risky. Especially in dry areas where fires can start or around large groups of people.
Yes. Fireworks are not as safe as pillows. They’re … relatively safe.
That’s a false equivalency.
They are explosives. They are less safe than most sports, movies, video games, concerts, tons of things. This is like saying “yes, doing knife throwing tricks at people is less safe than pillows”. Of course it is, what bar are you setting. Come on, fireworks are literally playing with explosives. Children and drunk people alike.
They’re safe relative to other explosives like bombs.
And way less safe than not playing with explosives at all.
You gain brief enjoyment at the risk of fires and injuries. This makes no sense.
It’s almost like our collective experience is so boring and gloomy and so stressful for our little bodies and brains that we as a species are prone to mercurial outbursts where we act recklessly as a way to prove our existence to ourselves
Fireworks are like. 000000000000001% of a concern for GHG.
You shut down a coal plant for 1 days because you switched to solar temporarily and you probably offset the output.
The impact on nature goes beyond climate gases. At least here in Germany fireworks produce 1% of the yearly pm10 particulates. That’s not nothing.
It’s not nothing, but 1% goes to show just how much is no5 made by the giant 1 day full of sky explosions, and how likely 70-80% is from transport and energy sector.
Eliminating all fireworks from earth and banning them tomorrow would have a near 0 impact on anything, and be completely erased if a coal plant runs an extra day or two.
Heya, saw this and thought of our conversation.
Good catch. And yea, at a local level this Wilhelm not exacerbate things.
The crisis begins with the emanation of farm fires in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, where farmers set fire to hundreds of square kilometres of paddy fields after harvesting them to clear them of residue, causing a smog jacket to form over northern India, particularly Delhi.
Banning firecrackers to not make the problem worse makes sense, given how absolutely bad it will be due to the slash and burn farming practices. But the firecrackers alone (while not good for the atmosphere) aren’t like a global warming factor. But for your on-the-ground air quality doesn’t help at all.
Nothing good about 'em!
Fireworks are a celebration of peace. They’re made from the same ingredients as bullets but they make something beautiful instead of death. I’ve always found this a profoundly meaningful thing.
