Public Service Announcement - Fireworks

No, not the dead graphics software, and not as humorous as a couple of previous Public Service Announcements here, with an added gentle, yes, I think 'gentle rant' attached!

DeBrett's Peerage 1886

I love fireworks, don't ever think I don't, I have loved them all my life, and have let-off more than I care to remember, but as the planet burns and we quietly go extinct due to our own complacency in Capital's rape of that same planet, it is imperative we learn to ask (of every existing human 'thing' and every new innovation); "Just because we can, does it mean we should?"

Every firework heats up the planet just a little bit more, every sparkler, every wick/squib, every struck-match or flicked-lighter, every accompanying bonfire or BBQ. And anyone who's retained the lessons of the 'energy cycle' rules from their school days (E=MC² and all that!) knows that that heat remains where it is until it is turned into something else.

But then there is the pollution? The above graphic (which has been around for a few years and may-well have been rendered in Fireworks!) gives some idea of the damage coming from fireworks, and as we all learn to wheeze and cough from traffic pollution (way over published limits) at this damp, still, time of year, we don't need to be adding to that invisible cloud with even more toxic gasses and particles. Some UN figures put air-pollution as main culprit in 2-million* deaths a year.

* Sorry - 4.2-million deaths: https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution

Another pollutant these days are all the plastic elements of modern fireworks, all the features and effects used to be achieved with card tubes, card and paper pistons, paper wraps and cotton, wool, hair or kapok wadding, and that was still the case, for most fireworks, only ten or twenty years ago.

But now it's all done with low-grade plastics (frangible polystyrenes and crumbly polyethylenes) which rain down, hundreds of yards from the firing point, or which get fired through/over the boundary into neighbouring properties where they join fast-food wrappers, shopping-bags, vehicle parts, old clothing, condoms and helium balloons in laying-down a new geology; the 'Anthropocene' sedimentary (or 'discardery') layer.

Pets and wildlife also suffer from our conceited desire to entertain ourselves with frivolous high-explosives - for many years I had a cat (Munchkin) who could handle 'Guy Fawkes', as the local yobbo's would always provide a week or two of build-up, so she'd get acclimatized, but midnight on the 31st December/1st of January always saw her piss the carpet and/or my lap and disappear under to wardrobe for a few hours in abject terror.

Now, I've been planning this post for a few years but never got round to doing it, partially because the timing's never right; if you do it in the summer everyone's forgotten by now, if you do it now, it's probably too late! So I'll try to repeat it regularly as we have to change the way we live, the way we organise our societies and the way we interact with everything else. If we don't we may be going extinct as soon as 2055?

But in the meantime, there are quiet alternatives which tend toward the 'traffic-light', 'golden rain' or 'silver fountain' type, which will still generate the heat/particulate/chemical pollution, but do - at least - minimise both noise and the distribution of crumbly, recycled/raw plastic widgets.

Some of the small 'family' packs will give a very pretty show with minimal 'collateral' damage and simplified woosh- or wheeish-rockets without crappy plastic-parts .

But remember, it's not just dogs, cats or damaged veterans that might suffer, all pets are in the firing line, hedgehogs are only now going to sleep for four months, birds (who lose enough sleep to street-lights as it is?) moths, bats . . . it's just not our right to disturb, frighten, injure or kill them and still call ourselves 'sapiens'.

https://scarfolk.blogspot.com/

And congratulations to Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer who have started to get some momentum behind the inevitable phaseing-out of fireworks by not selling or stocking them this year. While Co-Op haven't been selling them for five years, Sainsbury's joining that stance in 2019. Tesco, Aldi and ASDA are offering low-noise ranges.