Release of 1000 black balloons from London's Millennium bridge

[Purplepixii]

I have just sent the following email to warner bros along with an leaflet from the RSPCA website attached. I am furious!


Good afternoon

As an avid Harry Potter fan and a wildlife & conservation degree
student I was horrified today to read about the release of 1000
balloons in London by Harry Potter actors to promote a competition.

I respectfully draw your attention to the attached file and url
regarding the impact balloon releases have on our environment and hope
that you will cease to use this irresponsible method in the future.

Marine Conservation Society: Balloon Releases: Pollution Factsheet

Yours sincerely

[loripo]

There must be alternatives - in this case not even all of the balloons carried the 'prize' of an entry to a draw.
There is a leaflet anf poster you can download on:-
don't let go

Let's hope they reply.

[Wild-Woman]

I think this could be regarded as littering - which I believe is breaking the law!

[captain nodge]

Brilliant well done Warner bros should be fined, so should anyone that
releases balloons in a marine enviroment,
we try and keep our river clean here in Rye, and are forever finding remnants
of them,
next time they have a raft race here they are going to have to find an
alternative to balloons filled with flour, and condoms too!!

Nice one keep up the good work,Nodge


ignorance is no excuse!!!!!!!!!!!!

[danthekeeper]

Originally Posted by captain nodge

Brilliant well done Warner bros should be fined, so should anyone that
releases balloons in a marine enviroment,

I agree entirely but I think the mass release of balloons anywhere should be banned, every year I find numerous remnants of balloons on the estate and I hate to think of the impact this has on our environment not to mention live stock

[BloomingMarvellous]

Look what happened to Peppa Pig.



Bet there was tears.

[captain nodge]

In an ideal world all deadly trash should be banned,
we even see the trawler boats chucking latex gloves
overboard, grrrr makes me so mad iwant to take the
paul watson option, sink the b*****ds, but no, more pollution

[Adam Cheeseman]

Can't be as bad as what the Chinese did at New Year! How many balloons?

[captain nodge]

Originally Posted by Adam Cheeseman

Can't be as bad as what the Chinese did at New Year! How many balloons?

wonder if they use the bio degradeable ones, doubt it,
they also had a massive diesel pipeline rupture yesteday
15000 litres was heading for the yellow river,

[danthekeeper]

Originally Posted by captain nodge

In an ideal world all deadly trash should be banned,
we even see the trawler boats chucking latex gloves
overboard, grrrr makes me so mad iwant to take the
paul watson option, sink the b*****ds, but no, more pollution

I totally agree and if people realised how much rubbish is flytipped into our enviroment then the penalties for this idiotic act would be more seriouse.
On that note I found a mazda mx3 burnt out 15 truck tyres and an old lorry sheet dumped in our big wood this morning

I do wonder though if the only person Paul Watson is likely to sink is himself

[Connor7]

Yes my school did something like that last year, released 100's of balloons on a charity event and people were so happy not thinking about where those balloons were going to land

[captain nodge]

Originally Posted by danthekeeper

I totally agree and if people realised how much rubbish is flytipped into our enviroment then the penalties for this idiotic act would be more seriouse.
On that note I found a mazda mx3 burnt out 15 truck tyres and an old lorry sheet dumped in our big wood this morning

I do wonder though if the only person Paul Watson is likely to sink is himself

Wildlife terrorists thats what these people are (if you can call them people)

Havent seen any Whale wars on the goggle box, but have read a old
(1977) whale war book and paul watson quite a reactionist.

Shame they wernt caught on camera dumping all that, some councils
do have hidden cams at fly tip hotspots

[captain nodge]

Originally Posted by Purplepixii

I have just sent the following email to warner bros along with an leaflet from the RSPCA website attached. I am furious!


Good afternoon

As an avid Harry Potter fan and a wildlife & conservation degree
student I was horrified today to read about the release of 1000
balloons in London by Harry Potter actors to promote a competition.

I respectfully draw your attention to the attached file and url
regarding the impact balloon releases have on our environment and hope
that you will cease to use this irresponsible method in the future.

Marine Conservation Society: Balloon Releases: Pollution Factsheet

Yours sincerely

Brill thanks for posting the above link, just what we:ve been looking for,
as we have a group here in Rye dedicated to keeping our tidal river free of
trash that would be taken out into the channel

[captain nodge]

Originally Posted by Connor7

Yes my school did something like that last year, released 100's of balloons on a charity event and people were so happy not thinking about where those balloons were going to land

At least knowing what you know now, you will be able to educate the
school, maybe they were latex supposibly eco~freindly, but they still
hang around long enough to be eaten by wildlife,have to find out more
information

[neldadog]

I agree entirely but I think the mass release of balloons anywhere should be banned, every year I find numerous remnants of balloons on the estate and I hate to think of the impact this has on our environment not to mention live stock

Why not ban bonfire night and all?

All seems like a bit of an over reaction to me ....

[danthekeeper]

I guess you have never found any animals that have died from ingesting one of these balloons! Cows particularly like eating them.

Also it is not just balloons I have a problem with it is also all the other rubbish people leave/dump into the country with scant regard for peoples property or the cost to you a tax payer when I yet again have to get the council to come and clean up.

What has bonfire night got to do with the mass release of balloons??

[Highland Damsel]

I completely agree fly tipping is rife at certain sites, we have to fence places easy to tip. The bit that gets me is the people that tip on any accessible ground outside their garden large ammounts of garden waste, cuttings, cut down trees... even worse accepted communal dumps with no permission and then we as the landowner have to deal with the repercussions such as Japanese knotweed on steep slopes for years after Grrrrrrr. Community composting schemes a niche bussiness perhaps.....

[captain nodge]

I again also very much agrree, balloons and the other myriad of plastic ; lets have a bit of fun xexexexe; are just the tip of the iceberg, peoples attitudes need to change.
all those folk that say its a bit over the top are not the ones that go out there
and bag it all up and therefore dont see the extent of it,

ignorance is no excuse

[earthdragon64]

Originally Posted by neldadog

Why not ban bonfire night and all?

All seems like a bit of an over reaction to me ....

I'd love it if bonfire night was banned. Actually, I could just about put up with bonfire night if it was just one night a year. Unfortunately it often ends up as November 5th, and the Saturday before, and the Saturday after. Not to mention Hallowe'en, oh and New Years Eve, anyones wedding/21st/anniversary/2nd cousin's chicken laid an egg...........etc.

[Purplepixii]

I spent new years eve round a friend's house and at midnight loads of neighbours down her road came outside and lit lanterns which flew off into the night. The sight was amazing but at the same time I was wondering about the ecological fall-out.

I found a site this morning that sells fully biodegradeable lanterns - they have got to be the way forward!!
Eco Lanterns - No Wire! - Chinese Lanterns - Night Sky Lanterns

Fingers crossed these replace balloons and SOON!

Purplepixii

[captain nodge]

So,did you ever get a reply from Warners, regarding your e~mail

[Purplepixii]

Originally Posted by captain nodge

So,did you ever get a reply from Warners, regarding your e~mail

"Suprisingly" no I did not get a reply...
What I did get though was my email address added to some list of theirs which I certainly did not ask for! To say I was furious would be an under-statement! :mad:

[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!

[danthekeeper]

I agree with some of your post neldadog but I just can't see how some one who intentionally releases 1000's of balloons into our environment is any different from some one who dumps a fridge,etc into the countryside.

I am angered by anyone who litters our planet I guess you would not be upset by someone who throws a drinks bottle from a car as long as they enjoyed the drink

[captain nodge]

At the end of the day we can argue,(debate yes i know thats what forums are for)
till the cows come home(hopefully) the btm line is humans are allways going to be
messy you know whats, some worse than others and others worse than some,
so we all like s good moan, but as usual action speaks more than words so we just go out there and pick it up, and reap the benifit of fresh air with a purpose,!!!!!!