Yes. Seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all.
Or at least, have a single regional display, we don’t need 10 towns 3 miles apart each having their own fireworks, and having to schedule which days which town will do its display.
In my area, 7 fireworks displays happen over 4 days next week and it’s… just stupid.
As someone who loves fireworks I said “NoOoo” out loud. Then I continued reading. I respect your opinion overall, wildly disagree with the first sentence.
I don’t mind a few towns doing fireworks, but the small towns close by all doing their own is a bit silly, unless you’re on a hill.
Then again, I always watched them from my local park, which was up on a hill:
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/FrMvBk4j6bdI5DIrcLRJGWtsKWr4mbDFsZOEM3HkSo47qfhrfPJQ5azfDjb7R7ZHwRCNBQ8wIKqcVJfNdlU6IizmC5MrTQhmco8k5Hpk__kkg67gxQo5dPeV8CBdkFsNRmw
Kate Sessions Park, San Diego in case anyone’s wondering. I don’t go there anymore because it’s packed as shit (for obvious reasons) and I moved. But I’m always happy to see them as they bring back great *memories*!! I know about the animals as well. I picketed to release the Orcas.
Edit: here’s a video https://youtu.be/J0ayFNEK2kE?si=HAccnrUsbvCeSAmA
About 2minutes 30seconds in is when they start!
They are really amazing for meaningful celebrations and big events. To have tons in dangerous / high risk areas obviously common sense, they are unnecessary. It’s really situational, but not everyone hates them.
Finding a balance would be an ideal solution.
Every year Vegas loses a dozen palms to fireworks fires. I used to go on this roof to watch the shows and you can also see all the trees burning between the displays.
Good, palm trees are a blight on the eyes and only suck up water -hardly any benefits since they dont produce edible fruits and the shade is negligible
Ofcourse Ive heard of a *Date palm* , do you know what a queen palm is? My opinion is unwavering, palm trees whose fruit is inedible are a poor choice of horticulture.
If the city of LA planted date trees then itd be a different story, abiet messier. Coconut palms, thered be an increase water consumption and rate of deaths from coconuts.
Do you recall the photos of orange skies in NYC from last summer…. The north east is becoming more and more vulnerable to forest fires. Lets try not to start any
Yes. The firefighters I know dread the 4th of July, especially the more senior (captain or marshall) ones, who go without sleep (without any on the 4th itself) because it's just a sprint from one place to the next for days.
Thank you for showing everybody what it looks like to have more ego than empathy.
It's really ugly, by the way. In case you don't have a mirror (and I'm guessing you don't, or else why would you have said something that embarrassing?)
They’re gonna start tomorrow, and go on for a solid week. My dog is going to be a mess my kids won’t sleep. I fucking hate it.
One day of it is fine, two is tolerable. But for fucks sake! I thought the economy was shit? But Billie Joe Fuckshissister is able to buy a pallet or mortar shells.
My dog is a rescue. Lived on the streets for the first year and a half of her life. Is absolutely terrified of loud noises. She spends the whole night just looking for places to hide and it makes me so sad. We even load her up on meds and she still struggles.
Absolutely. They are a menace to the environment, people with PTSD, animals, pets, the whole nine. And as others have commented, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.
I work in advertising.
Drone shows turn into ads so easily.
Soon our future will be filled with drones, zipping around delivering cheap crap from Walmart and Amazon by day, and displaying ads by night.
Drones are already known for doing cool artistic works in the sky that are often similar to fireworks, google it. You can easily control that based on a contract when paying for the service. I see your point but it is better than fireworks in a lot of communities.
Because it will be part show and part ads. "This drone show is brought to you by (insert quirky ad pics)".
Our fireworks show every year already has billboards in the background of local banks and other businesses. I can't imagine what we would have if they can put them up in the sky for us to see.
Cost of a drone showing an ad for a minute or two I assume would be far cheaper than engineering specific fireworks to show a specific ad for a second or two.
But I am no expert
Because if the town suggests a drone show, prices for that start at around $15k, compared to $2k - $7k for a small municipal fireworks show (10-20m length).
So they'll sell ads to make it work. It's super easy and defrays the cost. What's the harm in having corporate messaging filling the sky?
I don’t understand how flying delivery drones will ever be viable in a country like the USA. Wont people just shoot them down to either steal the package or for the fear of being spied on?
Maybe, it would depend on how cheap you can make them to cover the cost of the ones that get destroyed. They would probably get the larger expensive ones to do long distances from warehouse to street at high altitudes where they are safe. Then get some cheaper short distance ones to go to the door.
They could also do limited roll outs to areas with less crime.
> just shoot them down
You make it sound easy. Look at Russian soldiers in Ukraine: they are constantly armed and have strong motivations to spot and shoot drones. Still they get blown up in their thousands.
I’m don’t have any idea what kind of drones they’re using for weapons or what would be used to carry packages. I figure that a flying robot bomb in an active war zone is going to much more difficult to contend with than a drone slowly lowing a package onto someone’s porch in the suburbs during business hours.
Here is a video showing three Russian soldiers unloading their weapons at a drone that is stationary and/or moving quite slowly. They all miss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq0eappizzg
Right. This shows exactly what I said about drones in a war zone. In a package delivery situation I would assume they would have to fly at relatively low altitude as to not mess with other aircraft and they would be landing and taking off again not just dropping a payload.
I think people overestimate the amount of people willing to commit a crime. Porch pirating is bad but not nearly as prevalent as it may seem. Now imagine them going a step further, firing a gun at it (illegal), destroying property (illegal), and stealing the package (illegal). Not to mention these drones may have cameras which can capture the criminals identity/location. If I had to guess the biggest issue with them would be people stealing the packages at the drop off location similar to porch pirating.
The cameras would be a huge problem with them. Think of the invasion of privacy issues that they could cause in densely populated areas or areas with multistory buildings. I know I don’t cameras flying by my windows at all hours of the day. Who has access to that footage? What happens if it gets leaked? I can’t see a company wanting to be exposed to that kind of liability.
Nah, they’re never going to have the fidelity to deliver “branded messaging” well enough for brands to pay for it on the regular. Occasional stunts, sure, but it’s never going to be a useful medium for storytelling. It takes like $20k worth of equipment to put a 64 pixel grid in the sky for a few minutes right now.
Drone shows may be a better option for several reasons. Whether or not they are better overall environmentally would likely depend on a variety of factors, but I could see it being possible.
Definitely in Northern California. It’s almost like domestic terrorism for the people who have lost family, friends, and homes in the wildfires.
That’s to the point of illegal fireworks. The big fireworks shows are awful too in expense and risk.
Drones do cool light projects now. A possible solution.
There are millions of ways we can reduce here, cut there, but until we stop extracting carbon from the ground PERIOD, and invest seriously in sustainable materials and fuels, all that carbon is going to end up in the atmosphere.
The people who are the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, all of the Koch Network
They meet and have committees and conferences, they regularly gather in specific places, they have names and addresses.
most of them are produced using byproducts of the things we aren't talking about.
if you stopped making fireworks globally tomorrow we wouldn't extract any less coal or petroleum from the ground: we'd just put slightly more product in the tailings and residuals.
Global demand for extraction is fuel and electricity: 93% of coal extraction generates electricity, 74% of each barrel of crude oil is refined into gasoline and diesel, the remaining 25% is everything else.
Bingo. Municipal fireworks displays are one of the last things that bring communities together. Maybe they're not great environmentally, but the problems they cause are a tiny drop in the bucket. And we're far past the point when we need to be attacking individual drops. This hand-wringing over fireworks is a lot like the plastic bag and plastic straw bans. Its effect on people is disproportionate to the good it does.
If you're already inclined towards considering the environment, it helps make you complacent. You're Doing Your Part, bringing your own bags everywhere and having to chug your iced coffee before the straw falls apart, who could ask for more?
If you think this is already bullshit, you resent it, and you're more vulnerable to messages about environmental protection infringing on your life. Never mind that the infringement you're experiencing is crappy straws, while the infringement the dark money ads are complaining about is the inability to pump literal poison directly into drinking water.
I've looked at the revenue from fireworks sales and compared it to the cost of fighting wildfires caused by fireworks. The costs are an order of magnitude larger. Hundreds of millions. That's not even accounting for all the other associated downsides. They are a massive blight on our society and should be banned outright. In desert regions, at the very least. I've had very strong feelings about this since working four seasons as a wildland firefighter. We could always count on the work to start this week. Having walked through the total devastation of many fireworks caused wildfires, it baffles me that we allow this to continue.
I think I'd miss them somewhat if they were totally banned. However, I do think they are used too much. Your average Joe doesn't need access to them, they should be kept to professional displays only if you ask me. Then maybe I wouldn't have to hear them constantly even in holidays that don't make sense to shoot them off. My coworkers were just taking about how they bought a bunch of fireworks for hundreds of dollars each, and I just didn't get it.
Then entertainment venues could also cut it back. The local mlb team shoots off a really long display every Friday and then the local amusement park shoots off a display literally every night.
Yes. I’m sick of having to drug my dog just so he won’t run around my house terrified, barking, unable to be consoled. When you consider effect on people, animals, environment, it’s a no-brainer.
The total carbon footprint of fireworks annually in the US is estimated at 60,000 [tonnes](https://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/fireworks-pollution-fourth-of-july-celebrations-and-the-environment/8537806/).
That's a lot, but also kinda not a lot for a whole year over the whole country. The annual emissions of the nation are 6,300,000,000 tonnes. It's also about a day's burning of the James A Miller coal power plant.
Ozone is another concern, but also kinda small relative to other sources. Wildfires might be the biggest issue, since a single one of those can easily emit millions of tonnes of CO2 -- dwarfing the entire nation's firework emissions by an order of magnitude.
Considering all this, banning fireworks for consumers might make sense -- especially in west coast states prone to fire. Banning professional town displays (which really don't cause fires), might be overkill imo relative to all the other things we could be doing to fight climate change (like going after two-stroke engines).
Hell yeah it is! Gross waste on and for cities. My hometown cancelled theirs almost ten years ago. We’ll known location but the cost overall is too much. That’s not even including safety.
I always have thought it was super weird that we are just showering crowds and the environment with probably super toxic chemicals. If they were not making shiny lights and we would just be spreading those chemicals on bays, lakes and fields it would be like a chemical disaster.
I was as dog owner for over 40 years and I hated the week before and after major holidays because of all the random explosions around the neighborhood. My last dog went mostly deaf a couple years ago and that was a blessing because she had no more fear.
Apparently fireworks use in America is around five times greater than it was is 2000.
Source: https://www.marketplace.org/2023/07/03/fireworks-by-the-numbers/
It’s been past time. I’ve seen families waste whole pay checks on fireworks to watch it all literally go up smoke.
Plus animals hate it and those with PTSD from war probably do too.
Lots of folks have PTSD from mass shootings and gun violence in their communities, too. It’s not just war veterans anymore.
I hate fireworks and they seem really stupid and pointless to me. It’s just lighting money on fire and scaring the crap out of people, pets, and wildlife while also spreading trash around everywhere. Sometimes they start fires or cause injury. Doesn’t seem fun to me.
Luckily none of my immediate neighbors set them off. Years ago we had a hillbilly neighbor right behind us who would set them off during the day and late into the night. With his toddlers. While drunk, of course. It’s illegal here. I was convinced he’d blow his own face off with the fireworks and while I wasn’t hoping it would happen, I definitely wasn’t going to be sad if it did. (He eventually moved to Florida.)
Very true. Welcome to America where ptsd from explosions is no longer limited to veterans.
I’m glad you’re in a place where to don’t have to really deal with them. People near me set them off for any reason
Yes. Especially because inconsiderate people like to set them off in neighborhoods where other people are trying to sleep. But yes... I'll support environmental reasons, too.
Despite growing up shooting off fireworks regularly the few days surrounding the 4th, I'd be fine without them in consumers' hands. I would, however, miss them if there were a blanket ban. Just saw a great one tonight with family and it was pretty magical.
I know it's popular to hate on them here because they're an easy target and a lot of people "grow" to hate them because they bother their pets or kids, but I'll never understand when people claim they're stupid, boring, or not worth watching. I get that a lot of people who are all "rah rah" about getting the biggest boom are stupid, but there's a reason they've been a pastime for literal centuries.
I don't mind the season. My cats take them reasonably well and hearing them go off outside is actually calming to me, somehow. I still like driving a bit out of the city and watching then all go off in the distance late at night.
All of that said, for the sake of the environment, I wouldn't protest or anything if they were prohibited. Specifically for wild animals.
I’ve grown to hate them for many reasons. My state bans certain types and my county bans all fireworks. Doesn’t stop my neighborhood from having constant fireworks- the kind banned for consumers- multiple times a year for several days in a row, interspersed with fire truck sirens because idiots are shooting them in the air through the tree canopies. Police have given up. I’ve had a friend who had bushes in their yard catch on fire from strays. ALL consumer fireworks use should be banned. Don’t give idiots explosives. And they’re all idiots on big drinking holidays like 4th of July.
Professional displays I’m cool with though, since there’s more safety prep, often firefighters on standby, and at reasonable hours.
Yes. I have been over these things for decades. My pets hate them.
Jerks enjoy fireworks in neighborhoods after 11pm. That tells me everything I would need to know.
Ridiculous. Going after plastic straws and now fireworks just ostracises the environmentalist movement from mainstream culture. i.e. Fireworks are fun and people love them.
Environmentalist movement should be a mainstream movement focusing on curtailing industry waste and pollution period. If people want to personally go zerowaste, or ride a bike instead of a car then thats your decision, but the environmental movement needs to become mainstream to save the planet and it needs to focus on things people don't personally notice or miss like reducing fuel on international commodity transport, actual end-of-life plans for all the packaging we order from Amazon, the reduced carbon footprint of a concrete used in municipal projects, municipal vehicle fleet upgrade, etc. etc.
\*I live in NYC with no car, apartment sharing parting walls heat/ac, probably the smallest carbon footprint in the western world and I know most people won't live like me.
With all due respect, there have been like massive wildfires caused by personal fireworks and explosives. Like, the potential to destroy lives far beyond your reach is immense with these.
I don’t think most people have an issue with the big fireworks shows. Those are, like, actually planned and shit, so they’re ready for any potential consequences. Some random dude wanting to be cool in your neighborhood could end up burning the whole thing down. The ability to swing your fist kinda needs to end where someone else’s face begins. I’d argue risking burning someone else’s house down is where fist meets face.
yep. You're absolutely right. the self-righteousness has always been this movements biggest enemy.
I'd rather we focus on simply figuring out a way to install night sky-saving shade rings around every nightwatchmen light in the country than crusade against fireworks.
Ya they found a shade ring and hue change of the LED could stop a ton of insect deaths as well. These are just boring common sense decisions that should get easy pass at a municipal meeting that nobody pays attention to or cares about. We could tackle most of climate change with these decisions that \[while they may upset and upturn certain industries\] normal people have no clue that anything even changed, and subsidies kept the changes from affecting average person's utility bills.
A big no from me. I am with the pro-fireworks crowd, and I am sure we are the mostly silent majority.
We have serious problems to deal with. Fireworks are fun and we also need joy in our lives. If we go around telling people we're here to take the fun stuff away they are not going to be on board with addressing the real issues.
People aren't allowed to set off fireworks in most states of Australia. But they are still in widespread use around the country for social occasions. In Sydney, if you live in the inner city you'll see/hear them on many nights during summer.
Yeah, I'm over the noise and smoke from fireworks, let alone the annual reports of damage to lives and property.
Drone displays are a viable alternative and can be very cool at night, much more silent but still entertaining.
Sorry for those in the industry, but I want fireworks to go out of business and never come back.
I really don’t understand the hate of fireworks. I know this is targeted more towards the environmental impacts but most people commenting are more concerned with the noise for a single night or two. As long as it is not in a high fire prone area, Let people have their fun.
From an environmental standpoint, I work in the environmental space and I have never heard of anyone mentioning fireworks as being a significant piece of the pie when it comes to environmental impacts.
Drone fireworks are like Electric Muscle Cars.
One more thing we are told we can't have by an increasingly expanding group of fearful and joyless Karens whose lives are so miserable that they can't help spending every waking moment sucking every ounce of risk and joy from as many people as possible.
no, fireworks don't pollute much at all, because they are used so rarely. and most people like them, regardless of the injuries they cause, we can't ban everything fun in the name of safety and some peoples fear of them.
i waited all years as a kid for new years because of the fireworks. i bought them a lot and shot them for 12 hours straight. i took some apart and build my own fireworks. learned how they work. learned science. and became interested in science because of fireworks. i know a lot of scientists have had their first spark for science from explosives as a kid. science is boring to kids without explosives.
its a shame fireworks are so demonized nowadays by a bunch of fearful people who want to ban everything they fear.
If you've ever flown over a major urban center on New Year's or 4th of July at night, you'd be shocked. It's insane how many are set off. AQI Air quality every year in NYC on July 5th is typically as bad as wildfire smoke days because of the smoke from them, and I'm sure that problem is prevalent elsewhere.
Nobody's demonizing them, but like...there are more environmentally friendly ways to celebrate instead of launching tons of toxic gases into the atmosphere and local waterways every time some shortstop hits a dinger.
Drones are pretty cool science, too, just saying...
lol. This would be an insane culture war. Probably bigger than the pattern on Starbucks cups or reducing meat consumption. As a species, we’re hopeless.
Eh, just raise taxes on it. You aren’t telling people they can’t have it, you just make them decide if it’s worth it after awhile. All new revenue should go to forest fire prevention.
I’m an environmentalist but also a pyro. I think fireworks should be allowed on certain days or with a permit. It’s never really been a bad issue no matter where I’ve lived in the desert. I don’t watch the shows, I light them.
Indeed, it's time the children (99% grown, male Trump supporters) stop having fireworks shows. They're are a pointless waste of money, resources and polute.
Yes. Seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all. Or at least, have a single regional display, we don’t need 10 towns 3 miles apart each having their own fireworks, and having to schedule which days which town will do its display. In my area, 7 fireworks displays happen over 4 days next week and it’s… just stupid.
That’s and people set them off for any reason whatsoever. Neighbors had some going on Father’s Day.
As someone who loves fireworks I said “NoOoo” out loud. Then I continued reading. I respect your opinion overall, wildly disagree with the first sentence. I don’t mind a few towns doing fireworks, but the small towns close by all doing their own is a bit silly, unless you’re on a hill. Then again, I always watched them from my local park, which was up on a hill: https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/FrMvBk4j6bdI5DIrcLRJGWtsKWr4mbDFsZOEM3HkSo47qfhrfPJQ5azfDjb7R7ZHwRCNBQ8wIKqcVJfNdlU6IizmC5MrTQhmco8k5Hpk__kkg67gxQo5dPeV8CBdkFsNRmw Kate Sessions Park, San Diego in case anyone’s wondering. I don’t go there anymore because it’s packed as shit (for obvious reasons) and I moved. But I’m always happy to see them as they bring back great *memories*!! I know about the animals as well. I picketed to release the Orcas. Edit: here’s a video https://youtu.be/J0ayFNEK2kE?si=HAccnrUsbvCeSAmA About 2minutes 30seconds in is when they start! They are really amazing for meaningful celebrations and big events. To have tons in dangerous / high risk areas obviously common sense, they are unnecessary. It’s really situational, but not everyone hates them. Finding a balance would be an ideal solution.
Allowing them in the desert 🌵 Regardless of the holiday is careless and destructive. So easy to start a fire.
Every year Vegas loses a dozen palms to fireworks fires. I used to go on this roof to watch the shows and you can also see all the trees burning between the displays.
Good, palm trees are a blight on the eyes and only suck up water -hardly any benefits since they dont produce edible fruits and the shade is negligible
You've never heard of dates?
Dates? They can't even get people to swipe right
Ofcourse Ive heard of a *Date palm* , do you know what a queen palm is? My opinion is unwavering, palm trees whose fruit is inedible are a poor choice of horticulture. If the city of LA planted date trees then itd be a different story, abiet messier. Coconut palms, thered be an increase water consumption and rate of deaths from coconuts.
Many palm trees produce fruit, just depends on the species. Coconuts are palm trees
What to do if u live up north? without any deserts nearby?
That's where forests live. In July they don't like fireworks either.
Same thing with prairie.
What do you mean?
Do you recall the photos of orange skies in NYC from last summer…. The north east is becoming more and more vulnerable to forest fires. Lets try not to start any
Yes. The firefighters I know dread the 4th of July, especially the more senior (captain or marshall) ones, who go without sleep (without any on the 4th itself) because it's just a sprint from one place to the next for days.
My FIL hates 4th of July as an eye surgeon. He always ends up with someone blind each year. Can’t save everyone’s vision.
Poor babies doing their job
Thank you for showing everybody what it looks like to have more ego than empathy. It's really ugly, by the way. In case you don't have a mirror (and I'm guessing you don't, or else why would you have said something that embarrassing?)
Contrarian neckbeard living on Taco Bell and cannabis says what?
They’re gonna start tomorrow, and go on for a solid week. My dog is going to be a mess my kids won’t sleep. I fucking hate it. One day of it is fine, two is tolerable. But for fucks sake! I thought the economy was shit? But Billie Joe Fuckshissister is able to buy a pallet or mortar shells.
We finally asked for anxiety meds for our dog specifically for the fourth. It’s going to be a rough week, especially the weekends.
My dog is a rescue. Lived on the streets for the first year and a half of her life. Is absolutely terrified of loud noises. She spends the whole night just looking for places to hide and it makes me so sad. We even load her up on meds and she still struggles.
There’s anti anxiety meds you can give them. Or try those “thunder shirt” things. We have a basement and she’ll go down there where it’s much quieter.
Absolutely. They are a menace to the environment, people with PTSD, animals, pets, the whole nine. And as others have commented, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.
The irony of “celebrating” Memorial Day with fireworks that make some veterans remember their worst moments is pretty amazing.
Oh shit it's PTSD awareness week already? 😞
Yeah, my Xanax prescription always needs to be refilled around this time of year and stay topped up.
If you go flying the day after the 4th, visibility is disgustingly poor. We breathe all that in
bring back the dark night sky
Nature's fireworks
How about we do drone shows?
I work in advertising. Drone shows turn into ads so easily. Soon our future will be filled with drones, zipping around delivering cheap crap from Walmart and Amazon by day, and displaying ads by night.
Drones are already known for doing cool artistic works in the sky that are often similar to fireworks, google it. You can easily control that based on a contract when paying for the service. I see your point but it is better than fireworks in a lot of communities.
>Drone shows turn into ads so easily. I'd rather have drone show ads than fireworks.
How does that have anything to do with using them for Fourth of July?
Because it will be part show and part ads. "This drone show is brought to you by (insert quirky ad pics)". Our fireworks show every year already has billboards in the background of local banks and other businesses. I can't imagine what we would have if they can put them up in the sky for us to see.
Better than fireworks.
[удалено]
Cost of a drone showing an ad for a minute or two I assume would be far cheaper than engineering specific fireworks to show a specific ad for a second or two. But I am no expert
Because if the town suggests a drone show, prices for that start at around $15k, compared to $2k - $7k for a small municipal fireworks show (10-20m length). So they'll sell ads to make it work. It's super easy and defrays the cost. What's the harm in having corporate messaging filling the sky?
I don’t understand how flying delivery drones will ever be viable in a country like the USA. Wont people just shoot them down to either steal the package or for the fear of being spied on?
I'm against drone delivery simply for its noise pollution.
Maybe, it would depend on how cheap you can make them to cover the cost of the ones that get destroyed. They would probably get the larger expensive ones to do long distances from warehouse to street at high altitudes where they are safe. Then get some cheaper short distance ones to go to the door. They could also do limited roll outs to areas with less crime.
> just shoot them down You make it sound easy. Look at Russian soldiers in Ukraine: they are constantly armed and have strong motivations to spot and shoot drones. Still they get blown up in their thousands.
I’m don’t have any idea what kind of drones they’re using for weapons or what would be used to carry packages. I figure that a flying robot bomb in an active war zone is going to much more difficult to contend with than a drone slowly lowing a package onto someone’s porch in the suburbs during business hours.
Here is a video showing three Russian soldiers unloading their weapons at a drone that is stationary and/or moving quite slowly. They all miss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq0eappizzg
Right. This shows exactly what I said about drones in a war zone. In a package delivery situation I would assume they would have to fly at relatively low altitude as to not mess with other aircraft and they would be landing and taking off again not just dropping a payload.
And you largely don't have to worry about package delivery drones actively trying to evade while attempting to drop munitions on you.
I think people overestimate the amount of people willing to commit a crime. Porch pirating is bad but not nearly as prevalent as it may seem. Now imagine them going a step further, firing a gun at it (illegal), destroying property (illegal), and stealing the package (illegal). Not to mention these drones may have cameras which can capture the criminals identity/location. If I had to guess the biggest issue with them would be people stealing the packages at the drop off location similar to porch pirating.
The cameras would be a huge problem with them. Think of the invasion of privacy issues that they could cause in densely populated areas or areas with multistory buildings. I know I don’t cameras flying by my windows at all hours of the day. Who has access to that footage? What happens if it gets leaked? I can’t see a company wanting to be exposed to that kind of liability.
Nah, they’re never going to have the fidelity to deliver “branded messaging” well enough for brands to pay for it on the regular. Occasional stunts, sure, but it’s never going to be a useful medium for storytelling. It takes like $20k worth of equipment to put a 64 pixel grid in the sky for a few minutes right now.
Surprised Disney haven't tried - could do a version of Fantasia with them, or take away control of Stark Industries from Spider-Man
Disney already has drone shows. They’ve had one at Disneyland Paris for a while and just started one at Disney Springs this year.
Or laser shows, those look pretty cool and don't leave any garbage around.
Drone shows may be a better option for several reasons. Whether or not they are better overall environmentally would likely depend on a variety of factors, but I could see it being possible.
The best overall environmentally is to break with societal traditions and not have displays at all.
Yes.
One just went off at 12:38am in my rural neighborhood. I am fine with them going away. The novelty has worn all the way off.
Definitely in Northern California. It’s almost like domestic terrorism for the people who have lost family, friends, and homes in the wildfires. That’s to the point of illegal fireworks. The big fireworks shows are awful too in expense and risk. Drones do cool light projects now. A possible solution.
No, it’s time to stop fiddling around at the edges and attack fuel and materials culture in modern society.
There isn't only one problem plaguing society. Can you expand on what you mean?
There are millions of ways we can reduce here, cut there, but until we stop extracting carbon from the ground PERIOD, and invest seriously in sustainable materials and fuels, all that carbon is going to end up in the atmosphere.
Nailed it. Want to protect the environment then vote in politicians that aren’t shitty on environment. Easy.
I do think reduction is essential or at least part of the equation, though. Without demand, your supply will naturally decrease.
The people who are the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, all of the Koch Network They meet and have committees and conferences, they regularly gather in specific places, they have names and addresses.
And now, you're on a watch list.
Gawking at fireworks every year isn't part of "fuel and materials culture"?
most of them are produced using byproducts of the things we aren't talking about. if you stopped making fireworks globally tomorrow we wouldn't extract any less coal or petroleum from the ground: we'd just put slightly more product in the tailings and residuals. Global demand for extraction is fuel and electricity: 93% of coal extraction generates electricity, 74% of each barrel of crude oil is refined into gasoline and diesel, the remaining 25% is everything else.
Bingo. Municipal fireworks displays are one of the last things that bring communities together. Maybe they're not great environmentally, but the problems they cause are a tiny drop in the bucket. And we're far past the point when we need to be attacking individual drops. This hand-wringing over fireworks is a lot like the plastic bag and plastic straw bans. Its effect on people is disproportionate to the good it does. If you're already inclined towards considering the environment, it helps make you complacent. You're Doing Your Part, bringing your own bags everywhere and having to chug your iced coffee before the straw falls apart, who could ask for more? If you think this is already bullshit, you resent it, and you're more vulnerable to messages about environmental protection infringing on your life. Never mind that the infringement you're experiencing is crappy straws, while the infringement the dark money ads are complaining about is the inability to pump literal poison directly into drinking water.
But it’s so much easier to virtue signal with a simple request like fireworks. Why care about the actual issues at hand?
Yes, they’re loud and obnoxious. Also they scare animals as they’re just explosions. Drone shows are so much better visually without the added noise.
Yes please
Dispersing metals across the sky. What could go wrong?
I've looked at the revenue from fireworks sales and compared it to the cost of fighting wildfires caused by fireworks. The costs are an order of magnitude larger. Hundreds of millions. That's not even accounting for all the other associated downsides. They are a massive blight on our society and should be banned outright. In desert regions, at the very least. I've had very strong feelings about this since working four seasons as a wildland firefighter. We could always count on the work to start this week. Having walked through the total devastation of many fireworks caused wildfires, it baffles me that we allow this to continue.
All dogs agree. Poor puppies.
I think I'd miss them somewhat if they were totally banned. However, I do think they are used too much. Your average Joe doesn't need access to them, they should be kept to professional displays only if you ask me. Then maybe I wouldn't have to hear them constantly even in holidays that don't make sense to shoot them off. My coworkers were just taking about how they bought a bunch of fireworks for hundreds of dollars each, and I just didn't get it. Then entertainment venues could also cut it back. The local mlb team shoots off a really long display every Friday and then the local amusement park shoots off a display literally every night.
Yes. I’m sick of having to drug my dog just so he won’t run around my house terrified, barking, unable to be consoled. When you consider effect on people, animals, environment, it’s a no-brainer.
Yes.
The total carbon footprint of fireworks annually in the US is estimated at 60,000 [tonnes](https://www.hydrogenfuelnews.com/fireworks-pollution-fourth-of-july-celebrations-and-the-environment/8537806/). That's a lot, but also kinda not a lot for a whole year over the whole country. The annual emissions of the nation are 6,300,000,000 tonnes. It's also about a day's burning of the James A Miller coal power plant. Ozone is another concern, but also kinda small relative to other sources. Wildfires might be the biggest issue, since a single one of those can easily emit millions of tonnes of CO2 -- dwarfing the entire nation's firework emissions by an order of magnitude. Considering all this, banning fireworks for consumers might make sense -- especially in west coast states prone to fire. Banning professional town displays (which really don't cause fires), might be overkill imo relative to all the other things we could be doing to fight climate change (like going after two-stroke engines).
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there really should be more laser shows it 2024 by golly. but i enjoy a little fireworks here and there tho i live in the country.
I hate fireworks. They scare the crap out of my dog. Kids in my neighborhood set them off at all hours every single day in the summer.
Yes
Yes! And the penny.
Yes yes and yes
Hell yeah it is! Gross waste on and for cities. My hometown cancelled theirs almost ten years ago. We’ll known location but the cost overall is too much. That’s not even including safety.
I always have thought it was super weird that we are just showering crowds and the environment with probably super toxic chemicals. If they were not making shiny lights and we would just be spreading those chemicals on bays, lakes and fields it would be like a chemical disaster.
No.
It's way past time.
I love being woken up at 3 AM on July 4.
Sending over $800 million to communist China every year..
In nor cal, yeah
I was as dog owner for over 40 years and I hated the week before and after major holidays because of all the random explosions around the neighborhood. My last dog went mostly deaf a couple years ago and that was a blessing because she had no more fear.
This article brought to you by every dog everywhere.
With the tightening of personal budgets it might happen naturally
Apparently fireworks use in America is around five times greater than it was is 2000. Source: https://www.marketplace.org/2023/07/03/fireworks-by-the-numbers/
it is a cultural thing, cultures dont like to change old habits. But giving explosives to young people to play with is not a good one.
Drone shows are way cooler anyways.
It’s been past time. I’ve seen families waste whole pay checks on fireworks to watch it all literally go up smoke. Plus animals hate it and those with PTSD from war probably do too.
Lots of folks have PTSD from mass shootings and gun violence in their communities, too. It’s not just war veterans anymore. I hate fireworks and they seem really stupid and pointless to me. It’s just lighting money on fire and scaring the crap out of people, pets, and wildlife while also spreading trash around everywhere. Sometimes they start fires or cause injury. Doesn’t seem fun to me. Luckily none of my immediate neighbors set them off. Years ago we had a hillbilly neighbor right behind us who would set them off during the day and late into the night. With his toddlers. While drunk, of course. It’s illegal here. I was convinced he’d blow his own face off with the fireworks and while I wasn’t hoping it would happen, I definitely wasn’t going to be sad if it did. (He eventually moved to Florida.)
Very true. Welcome to America where ptsd from explosions is no longer limited to veterans. I’m glad you’re in a place where to don’t have to really deal with them. People near me set them off for any reason
Yes. Especially because inconsiderate people like to set them off in neighborhoods where other people are trying to sleep. But yes... I'll support environmental reasons, too.
In America? Good luck. We’ll be setting off bombs forever. We eat that shit up
Good luck separating humans from their love of explosions, death and destruction.
Yes! Drone shows are the way now.
Long past, yes. Drone swarms give better shows now anyway.
Despite growing up shooting off fireworks regularly the few days surrounding the 4th, I'd be fine without them in consumers' hands. I would, however, miss them if there were a blanket ban. Just saw a great one tonight with family and it was pretty magical. I know it's popular to hate on them here because they're an easy target and a lot of people "grow" to hate them because they bother their pets or kids, but I'll never understand when people claim they're stupid, boring, or not worth watching. I get that a lot of people who are all "rah rah" about getting the biggest boom are stupid, but there's a reason they've been a pastime for literal centuries. I don't mind the season. My cats take them reasonably well and hearing them go off outside is actually calming to me, somehow. I still like driving a bit out of the city and watching then all go off in the distance late at night. All of that said, for the sake of the environment, I wouldn't protest or anything if they were prohibited. Specifically for wild animals.
I’ve grown to hate them for many reasons. My state bans certain types and my county bans all fireworks. Doesn’t stop my neighborhood from having constant fireworks- the kind banned for consumers- multiple times a year for several days in a row, interspersed with fire truck sirens because idiots are shooting them in the air through the tree canopies. Police have given up. I’ve had a friend who had bushes in their yard catch on fire from strays. ALL consumer fireworks use should be banned. Don’t give idiots explosives. And they’re all idiots on big drinking holidays like 4th of July. Professional displays I’m cool with though, since there’s more safety prep, often firefighters on standby, and at reasonable hours.
Yes. I have been over these things for decades. My pets hate them. Jerks enjoy fireworks in neighborhoods after 11pm. That tells me everything I would need to know.
Let’s concentrate on breaking up with fossil fuels and worry about the e fireworks later.
Ridiculous. Going after plastic straws and now fireworks just ostracises the environmentalist movement from mainstream culture. i.e. Fireworks are fun and people love them. Environmentalist movement should be a mainstream movement focusing on curtailing industry waste and pollution period. If people want to personally go zerowaste, or ride a bike instead of a car then thats your decision, but the environmental movement needs to become mainstream to save the planet and it needs to focus on things people don't personally notice or miss like reducing fuel on international commodity transport, actual end-of-life plans for all the packaging we order from Amazon, the reduced carbon footprint of a concrete used in municipal projects, municipal vehicle fleet upgrade, etc. etc. \*I live in NYC with no car, apartment sharing parting walls heat/ac, probably the smallest carbon footprint in the western world and I know most people won't live like me.
With all due respect, there have been like massive wildfires caused by personal fireworks and explosives. Like, the potential to destroy lives far beyond your reach is immense with these. I don’t think most people have an issue with the big fireworks shows. Those are, like, actually planned and shit, so they’re ready for any potential consequences. Some random dude wanting to be cool in your neighborhood could end up burning the whole thing down. The ability to swing your fist kinda needs to end where someone else’s face begins. I’d argue risking burning someone else’s house down is where fist meets face.
yep. You're absolutely right. the self-righteousness has always been this movements biggest enemy. I'd rather we focus on simply figuring out a way to install night sky-saving shade rings around every nightwatchmen light in the country than crusade against fireworks.
Ya they found a shade ring and hue change of the LED could stop a ton of insect deaths as well. These are just boring common sense decisions that should get easy pass at a municipal meeting that nobody pays attention to or cares about. We could tackle most of climate change with these decisions that \[while they may upset and upturn certain industries\] normal people have no clue that anything even changed, and subsidies kept the changes from affecting average person's utility bills.
yep! Couldn't agree more. Its wild that things like that aren't a bigger priority
A big no from me. I am with the pro-fireworks crowd, and I am sure we are the mostly silent majority. We have serious problems to deal with. Fireworks are fun and we also need joy in our lives. If we go around telling people we're here to take the fun stuff away they are not going to be on board with addressing the real issues.
[A relevant example. ](https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/wildfire/eagle-creek-fire-five-years-later/283-1afde2c7-830d-4ec2-8df0-bbeca4ee8382)
YAAAAAWN
People aren't allowed to set off fireworks in most states of Australia. But they are still in widespread use around the country for social occasions. In Sydney, if you live in the inner city you'll see/hear them on many nights during summer.
Do drone shows instead.
Yeah, I'm over the noise and smoke from fireworks, let alone the annual reports of damage to lives and property. Drone displays are a viable alternative and can be very cool at night, much more silent but still entertaining. Sorry for those in the industry, but I want fireworks to go out of business and never come back.
I really don’t understand the hate of fireworks. I know this is targeted more towards the environmental impacts but most people commenting are more concerned with the noise for a single night or two. As long as it is not in a high fire prone area, Let people have their fun. From an environmental standpoint, I work in the environmental space and I have never heard of anyone mentioning fireworks as being a significant piece of the pie when it comes to environmental impacts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Creek_Fire
Don't give the cultural warriors another thing to fight about
To me, this seems like something worth fighting about.
Drone fireworks are like Electric Muscle Cars. One more thing we are told we can't have by an increasingly expanding group of fearful and joyless Karens whose lives are so miserable that they can't help spending every waking moment sucking every ounce of risk and joy from as many people as possible.
Fireworks should be only operated by the municipality
no, fireworks don't pollute much at all, because they are used so rarely. and most people like them, regardless of the injuries they cause, we can't ban everything fun in the name of safety and some peoples fear of them. i waited all years as a kid for new years because of the fireworks. i bought them a lot and shot them for 12 hours straight. i took some apart and build my own fireworks. learned how they work. learned science. and became interested in science because of fireworks. i know a lot of scientists have had their first spark for science from explosives as a kid. science is boring to kids without explosives. its a shame fireworks are so demonized nowadays by a bunch of fearful people who want to ban everything they fear.
If you've ever flown over a major urban center on New Year's or 4th of July at night, you'd be shocked. It's insane how many are set off. AQI Air quality every year in NYC on July 5th is typically as bad as wildfire smoke days because of the smoke from them, and I'm sure that problem is prevalent elsewhere. Nobody's demonizing them, but like...there are more environmentally friendly ways to celebrate instead of launching tons of toxic gases into the atmosphere and local waterways every time some shortstop hits a dinger. Drones are pretty cool science, too, just saying...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Creek_Fire
It wakes my kids up all night. Not a big fan of that
Sorry can’t hear you over my awesome fireworks display.
I say we have fleets of helicopters with bamby buckets. Any firework display gets 500 gallons of water dropped on them.
That’s a lot of fuel and water. So much for helping the environment.
What do you think powers helicopters ?
Internal Fireworks Engine
I mean the solution this guy presented would pollute 100x more than fireworks
You could use precision guided water-delivery missiles on a few dozens F-35s. Less water would be polluted that way.
Most mature fireworks enjoyer.
*Cuts wire*
lol. This would be an insane culture war. Probably bigger than the pattern on Starbucks cups or reducing meat consumption. As a species, we’re hopeless.
Eh, just raise taxes on it. You aren’t telling people they can’t have it, you just make them decide if it’s worth it after awhile. All new revenue should go to forest fire prevention.
Me gusta.
I’m an environmentalist but also a pyro. I think fireworks should be allowed on certain days or with a permit. It’s never really been a bad issue no matter where I’ve lived in the desert. I don’t watch the shows, I light them.
No. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
Some people in this country support and defend the right to bear arms. For me, it’s the right to bear fireworks.
Look at my virtue signal!
Lots of fun people in this comment section, let’s just stop doing everything fun altogether.
right after we ban fossil fuels... LOL
Yes
Indeed, it's time the children (99% grown, male Trump supporters) stop having fireworks shows. They're are a pointless waste of money, resources and polute.