Hi All! We're coming up for our second national Day Of Action, Wed. June 19th. I'm looking forward to it - hoping we get good weather. Also, June 21 there will be a demonstration at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, by Don't Punish Pain. Support this if you can.
Blue Balloon is now on twitter @blueballooncampaign. We are getting lots of good interactions there.
I've been contacted by a few people who claim that balloon releases are bad for the environment and/or wildlife, or that releasing balloons is littering. This website's environmental suggestions page has a link to a report on extensive studies on latex balloons in the environment, which I found quite impressive (It's a scientific paper, but not a difficult read, and there are photos). Also, I have an observation of my own. A couple of weeks ago, I inflated some balloons for photos I might use on this website. Some I blew up with air, some I filled with helium. After photographing them, I left them in the living room inflated, in case the cat wanted to play with them. Anyway, I was tidying up and popped the balloons in preparation for composting them. These balloons were already degrading. A few were briefly exposed to the sun, none were exposed to high altitudes (where latex balloons become brittle and shatter into tiny pieces) and none had been exposed to moisture. They felt different from balloons straight out of the bag, and I could tear them into pieces with my bare hands. The color (nontoxic organic) came off on my hands, and washed off my hands with ordinary hand soap. Anyway, I put some in my compost, and some in other parts of the yard, and photographed them there. It will be interesting to see the decomposition process. Call it the balloon body farm.
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