[neldadog]

Phew I thought that comment would cause a stir. Just trying to play Devil’s Advocate!

I don’t particularly agree with the releasing of those balloons, and indeed the first thing I thought of when I saw lanterns floating across my house at New Year was the environmental impact and the poor cows ingesting them once they had fallen from the heavens.

However, I then thought of the amount me and my family had gorged on over the Christmas period, which would have probably had a wider environmental impact than the release of the lanterns. That is even without gorging on cows, turkeys, sheep etc as we are all vegetarian. I looked at the smiling face on my little son watching the lanterns and my wife and decided not to say anything!

I don’t think the marketing team at Warner Brothers had any consideration of the environmental impact of releasing those balloons because they are not educated with regards to such environmental issues, as we are.

I think, however, that the e-mail sent was too much of a rant and did not express the issues at hand in a detailed and articulate manner.

After several years working within the ecology sector, trying to persuade companies with little regard for environmental policy to try to do something constructive, you need to be much more diplomatic. It may have been more prudent to suggest alternative ways in the future to market such as promotion, such as the use a bio-degradable lanterns now widely available.

The environmental impact in making any Harry Potter film would be adverse, extensive and widespread. By any one person or persons going to watch it, they are creating the demand for further films to be made and hence further adverse environmental impacts to be made. Warner Brothers are a company with very suspect environmental and ethical morals so you could argue, I suppose, that no one with such morals should watch anything they produce or sell full stop.

However, we look over environmental/ethical issues such as these for the sake of a bit of fun and entertainment. Who wants to sacrifice that? How many people who have commented on this thread will admit to going to a firework show last year? What about the mess created after that? Imagine all those poor cows munching on discarded fireworks!

I agree the releasing of the balloons was irresponsible and will cause a localised minor impact. However I am certainly not ‘horrified’ by it and I can’t get that angry about it. I sometimes feel that we can often loose a bit of perspective when it comes to environmental issues. I would certainly confess to doing this, particularly when I was a student and doing an environmental degree.

I am sorry, but it is all a far cry from some idiot dumping a load of fridges in the countryside – however again this all comes down to EDUCATION EDUCATION EDUCATION!