300 million lbs of fireworks and 2.7 billion dollars gone in a cloud of smoke.

    • @person420@lemmynsfw.com
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      226 months ago

      My uncle came back from Vietnam with really bad PTSD (among other problems like alcoholism). Every fourth he would spend the whole day/night in the basement with the curtains drawn (to block out the flashes) and headphones on with the sound turned all the way up (to block out the sounds).

      He would also take my cousins to buy fireworks every year.

      I don’t mean to minimize your struggle, I just thought the juxtaposition was interesting.

      I hope you could work through your struggles. I’m happy to say he was able to. He was able to quit drinking and minimize the effects of his PTSD. By the end of his life he was out there watching us shoot off the fireworks.

    • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Were you drafted?

      edit: by the time I got to this comment, I was thinking of this thread as being about “Should fireworks be banned?”

      I’d be very opposed to a volunteer soldier arguing people’s freedoms should be taken away on account of their PTSD. I’m not sorry about that.

      But I am sorry that I didn’t read this carefully enough to notice this person wasn’t arguing for a ban at all. Just saying their opinion on fireworks.

      • GrayoxOP
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        136 months ago

        The military is the only form of upward mobility for large swaths of the population, they are chewed up and spit out by the machine, after being indoctrinated in nationalist propaganda from the time they were able to form memories. Veterans are members of the Prolitariat and should be educated about the system that abused them, not mocked and rediculed for being a victim of it. Yes America has committed mass atrocities, but almost every service member who signed up was completely unaware of that at the time of their enlistment.

        • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          It’s not about atrocities at all. It’s a question of whether kids understand that they are signing up for a job that involves using explosives to kill people. It’s kinda hard ignore that aspect of what the military is, no matter how sheltered or propagandized one is. As the propaganda has grown, so has the ability of literally any child to google “what do militaries do?”

          Being aware of the atrocities might require someone to have been paying attention at some point in school, but knowing that you’re gonna face bombs and killing in the military, that takes even less awareness.

          • @Ergo42@discuss.online
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            36 months ago

            The human brain is really good at keeping two conflicting ideals “harmonized”. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to fall to the romanization of the military while also recognizing the killing part of it.

            It’s easy to fall to propaganda. Is it the recipients fault? Is it the sender of propagandas fault?

            I would argue both to some degree, but mostly I will blame the sender because they are generally older and better at rational thinking when compared to younger people. (I’m grossly generalizing here. I know younger people who can think more critically than some older generations).

            Summary: by the time they realize they don’t want to be part of it, it’s too late and they have to serve their time.

              • @Ergo42@discuss.online
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                16 months ago

                No. I don’t that would be a good solution. Maybe create a law that the military has to give informed information. The intention would be to prevent propaganda in the first place. Then age or wisdom would be less impactful because education on the horrors of war would be more universal.

          • @JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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            -36 months ago

            Dude have you seen an American public education?

            America is the hero throughout all of history class.

          • LeadersAtWork
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            86 months ago

            Gotta tell ya: The atrocities and stress of war doesn’t really seem real until you’re hunkered down in a cab because the truck in front of you took an IED, to use just one scenario. I could throw a few more your way if you like.

            Having said that, and here’s the irony, not everyone in the military is “gonna face bombs and killing”. There are huge swaths whose job it is to do anything under the sun that doesn’t involve firing any form of weaponry. Chances are you’d have had to been paying attention at some point in school to know this, or something.

            War is shit. The military has good and bad people, and often shit practices. For some people it’s one of the only ways, in the U.S. at least, to stand even a fleeting chance of doing more than becoming a low-rung manager at Walmart.

            • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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              06 months ago

              Do people get to choose whether they face “bombs and shit” in the military? Like can a person say “I don’t want a position where I can get PTSD”?

              Having said that, and here’s the irony, not everyone in the military is “gonna face bombs and killing”. There are huge swaths whose job it is to do anything under the sun that doesn’t involve firing any form of weaponry. Chances are you’d have had to been paying attention at some point in school to know this, or something.

              Or, I’d have to be aware people can’t just check “No PTSD-inducing positions please”. Or if they can, they are signing up just as equally at the moment they either check or don’t check the box. My point stands. You get PTSD from military service, you signed up for it unless you were drafted.

              Now whether an 18 year old is wise enough to be capable of making that decision is one and the same as their being capable of making the decision to join up. If you think an 18 year old is not old enough to sacrifice his mental health for his country, then why not argue to raise the recruiting age?

              A low-rung manager at wal-mart

              I’ve never held a managerial position. I don’t see myself as entitled to any particular level in the managerial command structure. I don’t think my rights are being violated without any kind of guaranteed path up to there.

              I dunno man. I’ve got nothing but compassion and gratitude for vets. But you don’t get to claim the shit is something that just happens to people. Adults join up, take an oath, stone cold sober.

              Again, if you think those people aren’t old enough, I’d probably agree with you. I’d be all for raising the age to 30, if you wanted to push for that.

              But for whatever age it is, that’s the age because ir’s the age at which it’s no longer a thing happening to someone.

              Like if it was “military or die”, that’s a different thing. But if it’s “military or no upper management jobs for you” it just doesn’t move me.

              And that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing we have a volunteer army. It’s good for everybody.

      • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        26 months ago

        As a middle path I propose we let people buy fireworks on a free market. That way they’re there, but nobody is forced to set them off.

        • @BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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          16 months ago

          And this “everyone” thing is a straw man.

          If everyone in my neighborhood alone set them off, it would be thousands of people doing this in an area about 0.5 Sq mile/1.29 Sq km/129 ha.

          As is, it’s about 20. And even that is quite entertaining.

  • Of course they are a waste of money, and the plastic packaging is incredibly bad for the environment. And they are fun and I will buy them again next year.

  • Novamdomum
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    196 months ago

    Fireworks are a funny one because you’re completely right and also not completely right I think. It’s one of those unresolvable dichotomies of life where two opposing ideas are both true at the same time. I’ve often thought fireworks were the most obvious way to set fire to a lot of money that could be better used somewhere else. However, what is also true is that humans have a deep need to celebrate and to come together in large groups and have shared experiences. Fireworks are perfect for that. You can put a million people together and launch a massive firework display and they will all immediately connect with each other through the shared experience of going “Oooooohh” and “Aaaaaaahh” :) Fireworks are awesome and also, personally I feel they remind me that there are bigger things out there than the daily grind of existence.

    • @NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      76 months ago

      humans have a deep need to celebrate and to come together in large groups and have shared experiences

      Isn’t that what parades are for?

      personally I feel they remind me that there are bigger things out there than the daily grind of existence

      There are other ways to get that. The universe is huge, look up on a quiet night with little light pollution.

      • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        46 months ago

        Isn’t that what parades are for?

        Kinda. Parades are also for showing off nuclear warheads and how precisely your soldiers can march.

        Fireworks are a more non centralized version of it. Everyone can participate in the fireworks, not just stand there and watch.

        Also they burst in air, giving them better visibility than something that just flows down the street in front of you.

        • @NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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          26 months ago

          Everyone can participate in the fireworks, not just stand there and watch.

          Don’t we just stand there when we watch fireworks too 🤣

      • @aidan@lemmy.world
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        26 months ago

        Isn’t that what parades are for?

        But parades are boring

        There are other ways to get that. The universe is huge, look up on a quiet night with little light pollution.

        People need novelty in life, if it’s there every day it’s not special.

        • @NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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          26 months ago

          That’s fair, I just think there are ways to get that besides blowing things up once a year, especially given that fireworks produce a lot of unnecessary waste and pollution in the environment.

          • @aidan@lemmy.world
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            26 months ago

            I just think there are ways to get that besides blowing things up once a year

            I mean, I think it’s good that people get to safely experience explosions, something most people probably wouldn’t experience in their lives otherwise.

    • @thisfro@slrpnk.net
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      26 months ago

      Fair enough, but why does every single person need their own firework? That connection is conpletely lost then

      • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        46 months ago

        Every single person needs the opportunity to get their own firework and contribute. We’ve never had a rule like “everyone needs their own firework”.

        Everyone needs the option. That is important. It’s not important that everyone takes it, but it’s important everyone is given the option.

        • @NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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          16 months ago

          I just don’t get it. It terrifies people’s pets, and the wildlife outside, it’s incredibly noisy (meaning you can’t get away from it if you live near someone doing it), and it produces tons of waste and pollution. Can’t we just have a big BBQ like we do the rest of the year when we celebrate stuff?

      • @protist@mander.xyz
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        66 months ago

        I obviously can’t speak for everyone, but whenever we do fireworks on the 4th or New Year’s, it’s with a group of a solid 15-30 people. I don’t think we’d ever set off fireworks by ourselves

  • Boozilla
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    66 months ago

    They seem very backwards when there are drone displays and other forms of entertainment. Humans cling on to things way too long.

    • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      46 months ago

      And you’re in your 60s or something, wise with age and experience? You’ve at least got half a century under your belt I hope, to criticize the concept of traditions generally?

    • @ChexMax@lemmy.world
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      76 months ago

      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.

      • Lightor
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        06 months ago

        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.

          • Lightor
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            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.

              • Lightor
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                16 months ago

                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.

                • @ChexMax@lemmy.world
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                  16 months ago

                  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

    • JackGreenEarth
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      36 months ago

      In many fireworks displays such as the London new year ones there are drone displays incorporated.

  • @Xantar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    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.

    • GrayoxOP
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      156 months ago

      Yeah but none of them are anywhere near as ephemeral as a firework display.

      • @Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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        66 months ago

        Something like a sunset, a blizzard, or a thunderstorm are the more closely comparable natural equivalent. They’re special because they’re short-lived or rare.

      • @howrar@lemmy.ca
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        36 months ago

        A theater performance is equally ephemeral. Or a concert. Or meeting your favorite celebrity. Or a good meal.

      • @Xantar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        That doesn’t make them more/less worth it.

        If your criteria for worthiness is persistence then is a nice looking meal as worth it as equally nutritious goop ?

    • @mecfs@lemmy.world
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      16 months ago

      Eh. Half of that 2.7 billion being put into research into a disease like Myalgic Enceph. (ME) could probably significantly improve the quality of life of 80 million people who have one of the worlds most disabling diseases.

    • @rodbiren@midwest.social
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      1306 months ago

      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.

      • @Xantar@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        06 months ago

        You make a good point. Which can also be made about any form of freedom as soon as it encroaches on someone else’s comfort.

        Ignoring the obvious nuance, a loud concert or a horror movie are also not something law enforcement will do anything against but it could terrorize people as well.

        • Odigo2020
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          146 months ago

          If a loud concert or horror movie popped up next door and rattled the houses of an entire neighborhood from 10pm to 2am, I’m pretty sure law enforcement would do something about it.

            • Tarquinn2049
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              46 months ago

              Then what value does the comparison have if you nullify the main point of comparing them?

          • @Mac@mander.xyz
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            16 months ago

            it would bother you that much even only being once a year? really?

            that’s wild

            • Odigo2020
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              If only it were once a year. This year, people started on the 28th of fucking June, and didn’t stop until the goddamn 6th.

              If it actually was contained to the 4th, I would be fine with it, but getting woken up by an explosion every night at 1:30am for a week straight, it gets real old, real fast.

              • @Mac@mander.xyz
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                16 months ago

                Ah. In my area it was like 3 days but I also don’t get woken up by them so i can’t really understand.

      • @A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
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        That’s what I’m saying. One day we’ll look back in amazement that we let the public buy fireworks willy-nilly. Even the “it was good enough for me!” crowd of angry old-timers will have to go “Well, yeah, people blowed they hands off. And it bothered my vet’ren son and the neighbor’s dogs somethin fierce. They’re alright. It’s prolly fer the best.”

        Now, I fully admit later today I will be running around in a country field with my friends shooting bottle rockets at each other. But we won’t be bothering SOMEONE ELSE, and that’s my thing.

        • @ramble81@lemm.ee
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          126 months ago

          Except fireworks has literally been a part of civilization for 1,000 plus years, so I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

        • @Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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          56 months ago

          As someone who generally is in favor of regulating dangerous things, fireworks are fine as-is. They’re basically limited to one night a year, the damage is not very extreme, and the people getting hurt are by and large the people choosing to endanger themselves.

        • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          86 months ago

          One day we’ll look back in amazement that we let people have sex willy nilly and bond with whomever they like on a whim, forming friendships and families without central oversight.

          But that doesn’t mean that future we’ll be looking back from in amazement won’t be a dystopian nightmare, or that our perspective won’t be warped by even more decades of infantilization.

      • @illi@lemm.ee
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        546 months ago

        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.

        • @nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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          16 months ago

          A local icecream place that also had goats and ducks was fucking setting them off right over the goat pen. They were sprinting from shelter to shelter inbetween explosions.

          I don’t plan on going back there now. It’s a shame because it’s one of the better shops nearby.

          • @illi@lemm.ee
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            106 months ago

            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.

            • @ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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              -126 months ago

              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.

              • @illi@lemm.ee
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                56 months ago

                Great whataboutism. I assume you mean roadkill? That makes one relatively small chance of directly affecting (not necessarily killing) one animal in wider area. One firework has pretty much guaranteed chance of affecting all animals in wide area.

                The utility of the firework is also zero compared to a vehicle. In a vehicle you have a chancenof affecting the outcome of potential collision. You can drive more safely when the chance of encountering animals is higher.

                And about the nearly 0 chance of death - I don’tbhave statistics but have some examples of pets dying due to shock. There was this village where fireworks got banned because every year a couple of horses died on New Years. A couple of years back there was really eye opening picture (I think from Rome) where a whole square was littered by dead pigeons morning after New Years.

                And less not forgey the stress and suffering caused to countless others that don’t die. Discounting them is like saying tortuting is ok because people usually survive it.

                And if you don’t care about animals, think about the PTSD of war veterans or other people living through war. Plus the polution and smoke is not good for the health, not mentioning the lost fingers that strain health care for that day.

                Is a few pretty explosions really worth others suffering (especially when there are now ways to have light shows without or with considerably less negative effects)?

      • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        66 months ago

        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.

        Do you understand why this is our way of celebrating Independence Day? Fireworks are a loud, visible, symbol and example of freedom from authority.

        • @rodbiren@midwest.social
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          36 months ago

          We also have the freedom to self govern. Laws are on the books to prevent firework usage in my state, it is simply ignored one night a year because it turns out mass lawbreaking is hard to handle. I don’t have the right to conduct a parade in the middle of whichever street I want whenever I want. I participate in the social contract of sacrificing absolute freedom for mutual gain because I live in a country and am not a sovereign citizen claiming complete supremacy over all others. My taxes pay for a small and well moderated fireworks show at a designated location conducted by a local government for which I had a hand in voting for. My freedom is louder, collective, voted for, and more sensible. Not all freedom must be focused soley on the individual.

  • @FellowEnt@sh.itjust.works
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    316 months ago

    I think they’re amazing. The chemistry of colored flame has fascinated me since I was young, and there’s nothing quite like being close to explosions. If I had more time and lived in the US I’d be a hobby pyrotechnician.

  • @souperk@reddthat.com
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    136 months ago

    They also scare the crap out of my dog, and cause a lot of accidents. Though, they can be beautiful…

  • @JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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    116 months ago

    For pollution, at least CO2, 300M lb is 136k metric tons. I didn’t know the water to CO2 ratio for solid rocket motors, but I’d guess maybe half is CO2. Cars produce 1.5B tons of CO2 per year in the US, so the CO2 would be about equivalent to about 24 min of driving cars. That doesn’t seem too unreasonable.

    But maybe you were taking about the metals? I don’t know how much of an issue those are.

    • @Bertuccio@lemmy.world
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      The particulate matter, specifically heavy metals, go through the roof.

      There’s also a bunch of paperwork involved in removing those measurements from the pollution data sets with a rule that gives a pass for fireworks.

    • Tarquinn2049
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      16 months ago

      Sorry, completely off-topic, but your name keeps reminding me of rock-a-doodle. I know his name is completely different, but it has the same flow and a really similar sound. Chanticleer. Prounounced Chant Eclair, a french pun for “sing loud and clear”.

    • @JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works
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      16 months ago

      Personally I think it’s important to understand Co2 emissions aren’t the only factors in the pollution of air quality. Like you mentioned, heavy metals are a big factor in climate (for example how private jets still use leaded fuel).

    • BarqsHasBite
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      86 months ago

      Unfortunately this isn’t complete combustion. There’s a shit ton of PM and everything else. Ever go to a big show? They have to take pauses for the smoke to clear so that you can see the next batch.

            • BarqsHasBite
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              Acid rain ain’t no problem huh.

              Post said “unnecessary pollution”.

              • @JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works
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                16 months ago

                That depends on a lot more factors for how dilute it gets. I didn’t know how likely it is for the air currents to dilute the aluminum exhaust over a large enough area before it rains. Maybe someone could do some analysis, but I don’t know how.

              • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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                16 months ago

                Everything is unnecessary. We could just off ourselves and there’d be no more pollution. The only reason our existence matter is the way we feel about it. Which is the same reason fireworks matter.

          • @MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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            36 months ago

            It’s not worse, it’s different. CO2 kills everything on earth but that takes a lot of it. The toxins you listed can give a community long term health issues without that much exposure. It’s a local problem vs a global problem.

  • @RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    446 months ago

    Waste of money? No more so than any other form of entertainment that is temporary.

    Environmentally, yeah…they’re pretty bad. Air pollution is a big issue. Some birds get killed when they run into things because they can’t see very well after being scared off by the fireworks. Any large human event is environmentally bad, like a sporting event.

    We generate literal tons of plastic and other human waste when we gather for mass entertainment.

    • Lightor
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      26 months ago

      Yeah but at the end of the day we’re handing out explosives for people to play with, even kids. Just feels like it’s not the best form of celebration.

        • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          46 months ago

          We already know sterile environments make people allergic.

          I am actually concerned about what kind of behavioral “allergies” will arise from a society with no danger. It is not a natural state and it is not something we should be experimenting with lightly.

          • @Smoogs@lemmy.world
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            16 months ago

            sterile environments make people allergic.

            Where’s your science in this?

            No allergist or dermatologist I ever met would ever make that claim.

            The results are from patient to patient. There’s a whole subset of sensitivities to chemical makeup of the food and another set of sensitivities to the environment the food was grown in. Food and products have dramatically changed and this also creates a lot of reactions. Mass production of food introduced a lot of irritants which we notice now. Then you have a subset of sensitivities that are entirely based on changes in the body with hormone. And then there’s family history.

            There isn’t a standard answer with allergies.

          • @RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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            We already know what happens.

            Anti-vax

            Pro-war

            Pro-authoritarianism

            Anti-education

            Etc.

            Once you’ve divorced yourself completely from the dangers of watching family and people around you die from preventable diseases all the time, the horrors of actually having to live through your city destroyed and people you know be devastated by war, the crushing oppression and greed of authoritarian regimes, your education controlled specifically to prevent you from you getting any ideas about real freedoms, that’s what you get when you remove real danger from society.

            But I think you probably meant something more mundane like kids will start making graffiti or something.

            • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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              Well, I meant more like the dangers of nature.

              Having your whole city get destroyed is an unnatural thing that comes with advanced civilization and armies. I’m totally fine with eliminating that kind of “danger” from the world.

              But the danger of riding a motorcycle, or lighting firecrackers, climbing a tree, fighting a beaver, whatever, those are dangers on the level that we evolved to deal with.

              Just like in the analogy with sterility, I’m fine with making environments free of bio weapons and meat industry goop full of mega bacteria and the kinds of biological threats that civilization itself creates. But getting rid of the base load of strange micro critters, that yes do pose some danger of sickness and even death, turns out to be taking it too far because it makes people more likely to have allergies and autoimmune problems.

              Explosives are actually predictable. Way more predictable than people or animals, for instance. A person can protect themselves when handling explosives by being careful.

              But these are just my theories about what the mechanism might be. At the higher level, by analogy it’s just there’s a system we have, that has evolved to protect us, but it’s evolved to learn from encounters with the thing it’s designed to protect us from. If you give ir no encounters, it goes haywire.

              I don’t know what the mechanism might be exactly, but I worry our ability to navigate danger might itself be a system that can go haywire.

              • Ok, I follow. I think we’re already there. Plenty of people are doing stupid things that are dangerous, either out of ignorance, lack of forethought, or nowadays for clout on social media. Pretty sure people have been doing dumb things for a long time, but they were more lethal in the past.

          • Lightor
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            16 months ago

            Not a natural state? Lots of things humans do aren’t natural. Hell you could say playing with explosives is not a natural state. Danger in the wild makes you survive and balance needs vs risk. There is no need to play with explosives and if you need to see a kid lose a few fingers to know that then you’ll face many problems in life. I mean should we let kids play in traffic to learn about danger?

    • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      26 months ago

      Okay so we generate literal tons of waste. There are also literally hundreds of millions of us, so “tons of waste” would happen if we gathered to eat brownies distributed on napkins.

  • @blazera@lemmy.world
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    1116 months ago

    Fireworks are a cool spectacle, imagine never seeing a fireworks show. Also the money isnt gone, its just changed hands.

    They probably shouldnt be how they are now though, where every individual family wants to fire their own, thats a waste and really obnoxious when its in the middle of neighborhoods. Keep it to one centralized show, away from residential areas, and everyone gets to watch a bigger show.

    • @masterspace@lemmy.ca
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      6 months ago

      Fireworks are a cool spectacle, imagine never seeing a fireworks show.

      Completely agree!

      Also the money isnt gone, its just changed hands.

      Not with this though. A portion of the money has changed hands, the portion that goes to paying workers and investors. Another portion of the money was used to extract, refine, and process something that just burned up and no longer exists.

      While money as an abstraction is made up, what it represents, the underlying value of society’s resources, is not, and that is unfortunately finite. So it’s also important to consider opportunity cost. That money could have been spent on other things, when you spend it on something wasteful and unnecessary that means it can’t be spent on more useful or productive things.

      All that being said, I still think fireworks are rad and worth it, but they are a waste.

        • @masterspace@lemmy.ca
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          -16 months ago

          Money was literally invented to be an abstraction of resources. When people talk about money they usually mean resources.

      • @ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        16 months ago

        That’s like saying vacations or going to the movies are a waste. It’s entertainment and it stays in part as a memory. By your argument the only thing you should purchase is a large decorative rock for the front yard, because it will last longer than you do.

      • @blazera@lemmy.world
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        156 months ago

        Money was used to pay workers to extract, refine, and process resources. Absolutely none of the money is gone.

        • @masterspace@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          The money itself? Sure. But that’s not what people talk about when they talk about money, they are usually referring to what the money represents, i.e. resources, which were all burnt up and used to create that fire work when they could have gone to something else.

          i.e. if we spent some huge proportion of our money on fireworks every year, we would still have the same amount of money on paper in the economy, but absolutely everything else would cost far more. From our actual lived perspective we would be poorer.

          • @blazera@lemmy.world
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            06 months ago

            Thats just not how money works. We did spend a huge amount of our money on fireworks, things didnt become more expensive.

            • @masterspace@lemmy.ca
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              6 months ago

              That is absolutely just how money works, if that same money had gone to say, healthcare companies instead of fireworks companies, we would have the same amount of paper money, and we wouldn’t have fireworks, but we’d have lower healthcare costs since we already paid some of them.

              • @blazera@lemmy.world
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                06 months ago

                You’re bringing up a lot of examples that literally happen in reality and do not have the results you are claiming. Healthcare companies have been both steadily receiving more money and increasing their prices.

                • @masterspace@lemmy.ca
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                  16 months ago

                  Assuming you’re talking about American healthcare companies, thats because you have a broken nonsensical healthcare system filled with middlemen who will suck up profits.

                  That has nothing to do with the concept of opportunity cost. Pick a different industry, like agriculture / food then. If you spend $20 on food every month instead of fireworks, then feeding yourself the rest of the food you need is $20 cheaper.

  • @pugsnroses77@sh.itjust.works
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    36 months ago

    here and there are fine, I think sometimes they have their place but I’m really not a fan. the noise bothers me and I hate that people shoot them off to celebrate the same veterans that suffer ptsd during firework shows. I hope some communities start to move to drone shows in the future. https://youtu.be/pZ-zJ0Vq0FU Much quieter and leaves way more room to switch it up year to year.