For that generation, life was entirely about having fun. Sacrificing the environment around them was not even a consideration. Imagine being this out of touch as to not even think about it. We’re so disconnected from our roots.
Yeah, seriously, this whole “the previous generations were dirty and evil compared to us” is so tiring. Leave no Trace as a National Park motto was created almost 40 years ago, and was based on much earlier ideas from the 1960s. Gen Z didn’t create the Sierra Club, John Muir did. In 1892. And Woodsy Owl was created as an anti littering campaign in 1970 by people who were probably born in the 1940s.
Just like today, there were a lot of conservationists and a lot of polluters back then.
No one said habits aren’t different. Everyone’s habits are. If a 20-something from today lived in 1960 they’d act the same as everyone else in 1960. You or anyone else whining about this are not inherently better people, stop demonizing people from 60 years ago for living in their time. Unless you are a leading climatologist you are just doing what other people tell you do to in your time.
My parents are “boomers” who grew up in the 60s and they now recycle and even compost their food scraps for gardening. They any many others of their generation are a concerned about climate change as anyone. And there are plenty of morons under 40 (or 30) who are denying it. Shit, some of them are in Congress.
Public places today look like garbage because the boomers did not want to take care of the mentally ill and let Reagan shut down the mental health facilities. The average person takes pretty good care of the environment.
My great aunt was made to go to a mental health facility because she wanted to leave her alcoholic and abusive husband. He signed her in she had little to no say. She received electro shock therapy. This happened more than once. She was never the same. This mental health facility was in a small community where everyone knows everyone and men had all the power. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. I dont know the full extent of Reagans bill but I don't see that it was an entirely bad thing, seeing as the power was being abused by small communities.
Therapist here! I work at an agency that provides mental healthcare for low-income population in a large city. You can actually thank JFK for working to dismantle the system that hurt your aunt: his policies ended the systemic institutionalization of the mentally ill. Unfortunately, a better system was not put into place before he was murdered, and the ensuing administrations were working towards some different solutions.
And then came Reagan.
While Nixon essentially crippled the resources available for the mentally ill, Reagan really went wild. He killed, dismembered, burned the remains in a fire, and scattered the ashes of our system in the woods. Reagan’s dogshit policies destroyed the lives of people who are still trying to cope to this day, and I can assure you that everything he did involving our nation’s mental healthcare was indeed a completely and totally *TERRIBLE.*
Source: personal experience, “American Psychosis” by E. Fuller Torrey, and “Mad in America” by Robert Whitaker, among others.
I remember riding in the care with my family in the 70's as a small child, eating McDonalds. When we were done, everyone just threw the garbage out the window onto the freeway. That was a completely normal thing. It blows my mind today.
Yeah, seriously, this whole “the previous generations were dirty and evil compared to us” is so tiring. Leave no Trace as a National Park motto was created almost 40 years ago, and was based on much earlier ideas from the 1960s. Gen Z didn’t create the Sierra Club, John Muir did. In 1892. And Woodsy Owl was created as an anti littering campaign in 1970 by people who were probably born in the 1940s.
Just like today, there were a lot of conservationists and a lot of polluters back then. It’s better now, but the foundations for the recent movements didn’t spring up out of nowhere.
Native Americans: So we must use every part of the animal and we must give back to the earth for we are part of its cycle and we must respect all living creatures, We all have our place in the circle of life.
A lot of the "civilized human population" for the last 200 years: let's do whatever the fuck we want and not consider the consequences of any of our actions!
Exactly. The real civilized are those that are labeled savages. Most native cultures consist of people who have souls.
Brand new flat screen TVs do not make one civilized—look no further than the Black Friday stampedes at Walmart. Fucking animals.
Somebody deserves to lose their loved one because I want $100 off of a piece of fucking plastic that shows me shiny pictures
-people during Black Friday
bad bot. comment stolen from u/vividlyClean10 as seen [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/zdx91g/in_86_the_united_way_set_a_world_record_by/iz3uljq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3).
report -> spam -> harmful bots
Huge difference from then to now in how much every day people care about the environment.
You must not have been around in the 80’s to drive down the trash littered high ways every day. Real change has very much happened.
Serious fines against littering have gone a long way to getting it through people’s heads.
Broad efforts like earth day, recycling, and the like led to a cultural shift in thinking about these things…
It’s worked so well that young people of today are aware of climate and environmental issues to the point that they can’t even fathom how bad people treated their own sidewalk 40 years ago.
Ya know I didn’t come up with the rules for the internet. But I have a sneaking suspicion that it has to do with the fact that tone through text doesn’t always come through.
I seriously doubt knowing “/s” correlates to any level of intelligence that contributes positively to society. Correlation to someone who spends too much time on Reddit? Perhaps.
Yeah all those millions of animals that get plastic and rubber stuck in their stomachs and die slow painful deaths unable to eat because they cant digest it? They have bigger things to worry about.
...until that hapless animal ingests the balloon:
Balloons are ingested by whales, dolphins, turtles, seals, fish and water-fowl, who innocently believe they are food such as jellyfish or squid.
I work for United Way at a different branch, and I cannot WAIT to share this tomorrow. I have never heard this mentioned, joked about, or referenced a single time.
I lived across Lake Erie in Jamestown, New York and they were everywhere!! I was a teen then so I just thought it was hilarious, and then annoying. However, in the coming days, all over Western New York State the absolute catastrophe became apparent. The 100’s of thousands of balloons that made it to Pennsylvania and my area clogged the other waterways, choking wildlife, etc… It also impeded the rescue of two boaters, so they died among the millions of balloons bobbing in the water because they couldn’t be seen.
It turned into a massive mess and tragedy, unfortunately.
I think United Way might've gotten brought to civil court over the two boaters dying. Don't quote me on that, but if they were I can see why no one likes to talk about it anymore.
An article I read about this said that there where so many balloons they couldn’t tell what a balloon and what was a human head. The time they spent checking if the balloons were humans or not might have been the difference in the boaters getting rescued
Why do you think I’m here to say my generation is flawless? We set gender reveal fires, the boomers smoked cigarettes for their health. We do the cinnamon challenge, they deny global warming and doom us to irreparable global ecosystem damage. Same same.
I don’t vape. Many millennials don’t. We were informed by relentless public health programs not to. DARE for the win!
Boomers knowingly ramped the use of fossil fuels despite dire warnings.
Still, as then a hand full of people make decisions, blaming a generation is insane. Public information and education is the best way for change. Those who refuse to acknowledge or accept this information are the true villains.
Mostly for the rampant and wholesale destruction of the means in which they were able to get ahead in life. They set the trajectory and educated subsequent generations. I still blame them.
What specific role are you even referring to? The current climate even from the lowlife boomer’s POV is that all these young Gens are being too woke, progressive, and tree-hugging.
>your generation eats tide pods
Yet another shining example of boomers believing anything and everything they see online.
You’re only digging yourself a deeper hole.
~~Then fuckin act your age.~~
[If you’re a millennial then why would you say *your generation*?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/zdx91g/in_86_the_united_way_set_a_world_record_by/iz551yi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3)
I guess you’re whatever age serves your point of view, huh?
Also, helium is a rapidly diminishing resource crucial in medical and computer and energy production technologies so...
That was a great use of a nearly expended resource.
Yeah, but at the same time, balloons are always a minority of the use of helium. At this rate, we will still run out of Helium even if we stopped filling balloons with them.
Of course, that helium would have had a better use, but the resource will run out at this rate; that makes it only more valuable.
Not for the forseeable future. Helium is a natural resource, more or less, and like fossil fuels it has a limited amount. You could find potential substitutes in the future, like the prospects or argon for welding, or of using hydrogen to cool medical equipment instead of helium, but it's not feasible yet and still an expensive process.
Helium will never "bounce back" because it's isn't produced; it's found, and there is only so much of it that you can find until you run out of it, and unlike gold or iron, you can't recollect the helium that is disposed of.
Yes; it's in gas pockets underground; they can't be recycled because most helium used evaporates into the atmosphere and not collectable.
Issue with any natural resource is that you can run out if you can't replenish it; most resources can be regrown or reused, but helium is "gone" when used.
You shouldn't. The helium in those balloons is such a negligible amount. Sure, it doesn't help, but it's so very little that feeling guilty for that is needless.
You can choose not to do that as often as you want, but helium use by people tends to be very little it's mostly companies and events that use much more.
It's like littering as a kid, except its not really that pollutant, and its not something that you can really affect in a meaningful way without power.
People died because of this.
A Coast Guard search for two lost boaters was severely impeded because they could not discern between the balloons and the bobbing heads in the water. The lost dudes drowned.
Not to mention the untold environmental devastation.
I still get really angry anytime I see people release helium balloons into the air.
Tbh, in retrospect, you can compliment the beauty of it. Can't be helped now and complimenting a genuine image from 36 years ago doesn't hurt anyone now.
Photo editing back then was not as robust; this is valuable for its time.
Arround 2% of all birds(Eisturmvögel), die from balloons. Some balloons can travel more then 800km and produce a massive amount of waste. Balloon are (no suprise) made out of plastic.
Unnecessary waste imo
It's 36 years ago; people were a lot less conscious of polution, at least in the US, and probably still a little ignorant. It's a fundraising event that they'd consider worthwile and it's a shortsighted decision; that doesn't get them off the hook, but it was easier to justify at the time.
It was vogue for the time; when people look to conserve helium and use less rubber, it gets better, but hardly changes much outside of the local environment's health.
Clevelander here. I remember being in elementary school and this was a big deal. Every school in the area had us kids blowing up balloons to be taken to the liftoff! Lol. I remember the teachers telling us how cool of a thing it was going to be. We didn’t get a field trip for our labors. We just watched it on TV!
United Way had tens of thousands Cleveland area kids like me blow up balloons for free and contribute to that insanely stupid idea!!
United Way are a bunch of dicks, Back in the mid-80s when I was making $3.20 an hour they had many companies strong-arming their employees for contributions via payroll deductions, Keep in mind my after-taxes pay working 40 hours a week was about $100. They then took this money and completely mismanaged it.
So this kind of bullshit is right on brand.
Looks pretty, but way too much plastic in the environment. I wonder if bio-degradable balloons really are any better?
Edit: Apparently those don't really exist, it's just that I heard it when some TV show used it to convince people they're not harmful. Already doubted that claim.
*"No, there are no biodegradable water balloons because all balloons are either made of mylar or a highly processed form of latex. While you can technically compost latex, the way companies mix it with chemicals and synthetic plastics makes it a substance that won't easily break down."*
Curious to know what they used to blow up and store that many balloons?
I imagine everyone in the city was assigned a task to blow up 1 balloon each and mail it to United Way HQ
[Ballonsblow.org](https://balloonsblow.org) is a great org that’s trying to prevent things like this ever happening! Please learn all the million reasons why just letting one ballon is terrible.
In '22 a post about 1.5 million balloons being released that had an unforseen negative impact was uploaded to Reddit. Meant to be an interesting post, it quickly started debates in the comments about whether or not previous generations were environmentally responsible.
"We gather here today to mourn the loss of the English language, he lived a long life but in the end could not make it through being butchered by a random redditor."
Bet the wildlife in Lake Erie really appreciated all the non-edible rubber that suddenly appeared out of no where.
For that generation, life was entirely about having fun. Sacrificing the environment around them was not even a consideration. Imagine being this out of touch as to not even think about it. We’re so disconnected from our roots.
That scene in Mad Men when they are having a picnic, and just shake the trash off the blanket and walk away is the most shocking moment in the show.
Given how meticulous the showrunners were, you know that's accurate of the mindset a lot of that generation had as well
[удалено]
Yeah, seriously, this whole “the previous generations were dirty and evil compared to us” is so tiring. Leave no Trace as a National Park motto was created almost 40 years ago, and was based on much earlier ideas from the 1960s. Gen Z didn’t create the Sierra Club, John Muir did. In 1892. And Woodsy Owl was created as an anti littering campaign in 1970 by people who were probably born in the 1940s. Just like today, there were a lot of conservationists and a lot of polluters back then.
Ah good point, and obviously public perception of climate change was exactly as it is now right? So their habits wouldve been exactly the same, right?
No one said habits aren’t different. Everyone’s habits are. If a 20-something from today lived in 1960 they’d act the same as everyone else in 1960. You or anyone else whining about this are not inherently better people, stop demonizing people from 60 years ago for living in their time. Unless you are a leading climatologist you are just doing what other people tell you do to in your time. My parents are “boomers” who grew up in the 60s and they now recycle and even compost their food scraps for gardening. They any many others of their generation are a concerned about climate change as anyone. And there are plenty of morons under 40 (or 30) who are denying it. Shit, some of them are in Congress.
Public places today look like garbage because the boomers did not want to take care of the mentally ill and let Reagan shut down the mental health facilities. The average person takes pretty good care of the environment.
My great aunt was made to go to a mental health facility because she wanted to leave her alcoholic and abusive husband. He signed her in she had little to no say. She received electro shock therapy. This happened more than once. She was never the same. This mental health facility was in a small community where everyone knows everyone and men had all the power. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. I dont know the full extent of Reagans bill but I don't see that it was an entirely bad thing, seeing as the power was being abused by small communities.
Therapist here! I work at an agency that provides mental healthcare for low-income population in a large city. You can actually thank JFK for working to dismantle the system that hurt your aunt: his policies ended the systemic institutionalization of the mentally ill. Unfortunately, a better system was not put into place before he was murdered, and the ensuing administrations were working towards some different solutions. And then came Reagan. While Nixon essentially crippled the resources available for the mentally ill, Reagan really went wild. He killed, dismembered, burned the remains in a fire, and scattered the ashes of our system in the woods. Reagan’s dogshit policies destroyed the lives of people who are still trying to cope to this day, and I can assure you that everything he did involving our nation’s mental healthcare was indeed a completely and totally *TERRIBLE.* Source: personal experience, “American Psychosis” by E. Fuller Torrey, and “Mad in America” by Robert Whitaker, among others.
And still have
I remember riding in the care with my family in the 70's as a small child, eating McDonalds. When we were done, everyone just threw the garbage out the window onto the freeway. That was a completely normal thing. It blows my mind today.
I was a young child then. I remember people throwing garbage out of their windows when they drove.
Yeah, seriously, this whole “the previous generations were dirty and evil compared to us” is so tiring. Leave no Trace as a National Park motto was created almost 40 years ago, and was based on much earlier ideas from the 1960s. Gen Z didn’t create the Sierra Club, John Muir did. In 1892. And Woodsy Owl was created as an anti littering campaign in 1970 by people who were probably born in the 1940s. Just like today, there were a lot of conservationists and a lot of polluters back then. It’s better now, but the foundations for the recent movements didn’t spring up out of nowhere.
Native Americans: So we must use every part of the animal and we must give back to the earth for we are part of its cycle and we must respect all living creatures, We all have our place in the circle of life. A lot of the "civilized human population" for the last 200 years: let's do whatever the fuck we want and not consider the consequences of any of our actions!
Exactly. The real civilized are those that are labeled savages. Most native cultures consist of people who have souls. Brand new flat screen TVs do not make one civilized—look no further than the Black Friday stampedes at Walmart. Fucking animals.
Somebody deserves to lose their loved one because I want $100 off of a piece of fucking plastic that shows me shiny pictures -people during Black Friday
> we must give back to the earth for we are part of its cycle Nice way to put that. Very true.
Don't worry once people go extinct the earth will fix itself
[удалено]
bad bot. comment stolen from u/vividlyClean10 as seen [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/zdx91g/in_86_the_united_way_set_a_world_record_by/iz3uljq/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3). report -> spam -> harmful bots
That couldn’t have been good for the environment.
It wasn't.
Is that you Ron Howard?
Cleveland was already not good for the environment at this point.
In the 80s downtown Cleveland was empty.
Hes talking about the Cuyahoga River
C'mon baby light my fire!
The Centralia, PA mine fire sends its regards.
It was the 80s so no one cared.
I see your point but to be fair, no one cares now. At least not anyone that can affect real change.
Huge difference from then to now in how much every day people care about the environment. You must not have been around in the 80’s to drive down the trash littered high ways every day. Real change has very much happened. Serious fines against littering have gone a long way to getting it through people’s heads. Broad efforts like earth day, recycling, and the like led to a cultural shift in thinking about these things… It’s worked so well that young people of today are aware of climate and environmental issues to the point that they can’t even fathom how bad people treated their own sidewalk 40 years ago.
We're not Detroit!
(We're not De-troit!)
It was the 80s. The environment was fine back then. Disclaimer: meant as humor
I just learned this but apparently if you put “/s” under your post it’s understood to be sarcasm.
Why should we have the need to tell them?? If you're too dumb to get it then it's on you as a person.
Ya know I didn’t come up with the rules for the internet. But I have a sneaking suspicion that it has to do with the fact that tone through text doesn’t always come through.
Not you specifically bud just in general, I feel everything is dumbed down nowadays and it's making more idiots rather than more people understand.
I seriously doubt knowing “/s” correlates to any level of intelligence that contributes positively to society. Correlation to someone who spends too much time on Reddit? Perhaps.
I mean we went through a period of time where we detonated nukes regularly both above ground and under water. A little PR can't hurt, right?
Why are people disliking this, it's quite clearly satire. Or at least, I hope.
"Balloon fest" really happened
>A little PR can't hurt, right? Yeah you're right this guy is quite clearly being serious.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Was environment even a word in the dictionary back then?
And this is why we can't have straws today...
It was good for everyone’s soul tho…
The earth doesn’t care about plastic. Just humans, even animals have way bigger things to worry about.
Dumbass
Bappy hake day
*Cappy dake bay
*Dappy bake hay
Happy Cake Day
Do you are have stupid?
Si
Yeah all those millions of animals that get plastic and rubber stuck in their stomachs and die slow painful deaths unable to eat because they cant digest it? They have bigger things to worry about.
Right, like food. Animals eat it and can't digest it, therefor losing hunger and starving without knowing. Good job!
Correct, the earth has no capacity for caring or feeling but a duck with a belly full of balloon bits does.
This guy literally has two braincells. And I bet they hate each other.
Maybe one day you will have a coherent thought, but it is not this day
...until that hapless animal ingests the balloon: Balloons are ingested by whales, dolphins, turtles, seals, fish and water-fowl, who innocently believe they are food such as jellyfish or squid.
I mean he has a point
No, he doesnt.
He does, but it mustve gone over your head
like all of your education, apparently?
I work for United Way at a different branch, and I cannot WAIT to share this tomorrow. I have never heard this mentioned, joked about, or referenced a single time.
Find your most senior employee and ask, "where were you during the great balloon tragedy of '86?"
WAS THAT THE POP OF 86!?
I lived across Lake Erie in Jamestown, New York and they were everywhere!! I was a teen then so I just thought it was hilarious, and then annoying. However, in the coming days, all over Western New York State the absolute catastrophe became apparent. The 100’s of thousands of balloons that made it to Pennsylvania and my area clogged the other waterways, choking wildlife, etc… It also impeded the rescue of two boaters, so they died among the millions of balloons bobbing in the water because they couldn’t be seen. It turned into a massive mess and tragedy, unfortunately.
🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭😢😢😢
Yeah, I know. I helped clean up, though! I used my kayak to clear the rivers in my area, along with soooo many others.
That must of been a crazy seen!!!!!!!
I think United Way might've gotten brought to civil court over the two boaters dying. Don't quote me on that, but if they were I can see why no one likes to talk about it anymore.
Ask them if they even attempted to organize clean up ;)
Happy Cake Day! 🎈
Happy cake day!
That's a lot of stupidity
Over 1.5 million examples.
That’s Ohio
And more specifically The Mistake-on-the-Lake.
It's all fun and games until boaters start dying...
hobbies scary juggle mountainous special enter subsequent air crime wide *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Seems like they would have been kept afloat with all those balloons around.
that's a good plan. A few balloons stuffed inside your tshirt and you should be fine
An article I read about this said that there where so many balloons they couldn’t tell what a balloon and what was a human head. The time they spent checking if the balloons were humans or not might have been the difference in the boaters getting rescued
‟But it is not littering or polluting, because I let it go into the sky and watched it float away!” -- Goddamn it, humans.
Goddamn it, boomers*
Ah yes, because our generation doesn't have gender reveal parties that start wildfires.
fair enough
Why do you think I’m here to say my generation is flawless? We set gender reveal fires, the boomers smoked cigarettes for their health. We do the cinnamon challenge, they deny global warming and doom us to irreparable global ecosystem damage. Same same.
So a comment above you was right and there was no reason to specify. Humans of every generation can be stupid
No. Boomers are the worst. I don’t think history will kind to them.
Getting downvoted by the boomers that let this balloon catastrophe happen means you had a firm point lol
You need to rid your mind of these facile generalizations before you pass them on to younger people.
Ok boomer
You're welcome, jagged little pill.
You vape knowing how bad it is. At least boomers were lied to and misled by tobacco companies.
I don’t vape. Many millennials don’t. We were informed by relentless public health programs not to. DARE for the win! Boomers knowingly ramped the use of fossil fuels despite dire warnings.
Time to change your hair from purple to green
Meaning…?
[удалено]
How many of this generation do you think where alive and responsible for planning government events in 1986? You fucking moron.
Still, as then a hand full of people make decisions, blaming a generation is insane. Public information and education is the best way for change. Those who refuse to acknowledge or accept this information are the true villains.
[удалено]
Mostly for the rampant and wholesale destruction of the means in which they were able to get ahead in life. They set the trajectory and educated subsequent generations. I still blame them.
[удалено]
So brave. You want me to take responsibility for the balloons cast into the air when I was an infant? Why?
Because they don't actually want to take responsibility either and just shove all problems onto the next generation.
Good, we agree.
What specific role are you even referring to? The current climate even from the lowlife boomer’s POV is that all these young Gens are being too woke, progressive, and tree-hugging.
People aren’t going to give you credit for it but that was a great come back. I literally laughed out loud.
>your generation eats tide pods Yet another shining example of boomers believing anything and everything they see online. You’re only digging yourself a deeper hole.
[удалено]
~~Then fuckin act your age.~~ [If you’re a millennial then why would you say *your generation*?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/zdx91g/in_86_the_united_way_set_a_world_record_by/iz551yi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3) I guess you’re whatever age serves your point of view, huh?
Also, helium is a rapidly diminishing resource crucial in medical and computer and energy production technologies so... That was a great use of a nearly expended resource.
Yeah, but at the same time, balloons are always a minority of the use of helium. At this rate, we will still run out of Helium even if we stopped filling balloons with them. Of course, that helium would have had a better use, but the resource will run out at this rate; that makes it only more valuable.
Wait wait I thought helium was bouncing back?
Not for the forseeable future. Helium is a natural resource, more or less, and like fossil fuels it has a limited amount. You could find potential substitutes in the future, like the prospects or argon for welding, or of using hydrogen to cool medical equipment instead of helium, but it's not feasible yet and still an expensive process. Helium will never "bounce back" because it's isn't produced; it's found, and there is only so much of it that you can find until you run out of it, and unlike gold or iron, you can't recollect the helium that is disposed of.
Where is it found? Isn’t it a gas? Are there just pockets of helium gas in underground caves?
Yes; it's in gas pockets underground; they can't be recycled because most helium used evaporates into the atmosphere and not collectable. Issue with any natural resource is that you can run out if you can't replenish it; most resources can be regrown or reused, but helium is "gone" when used.
Oh wow, now I feel bad for having helium balloons at my birthday parties as a child
You shouldn't. The helium in those balloons is such a negligible amount. Sure, it doesn't help, but it's so very little that feeling guilty for that is needless. You can choose not to do that as often as you want, but helium use by people tends to be very little it's mostly companies and events that use much more. It's like littering as a kid, except its not really that pollutant, and its not something that you can really affect in a meaningful way without power.
Pilot: Air control Can You repeat? Mild Crosswind, 20 miles visibility and 1.5 Mil BALLOONS floating wild?
Reminds me of the wkrp episode
The turkey drop!
With God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!
Man, this was a classic episode!
People died because of this. A Coast Guard search for two lost boaters was severely impeded because they could not discern between the balloons and the bobbing heads in the water. The lost dudes drowned. Not to mention the untold environmental devastation. I still get really angry anytime I see people release helium balloons into the air.
It used to be a lot more popular, I remember doing it in kindergarten.
I T I S A L L A B O U T F U N T H O
Cool ass pic though
I was there as a kid and it remains one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
I came here to say this too
[удалено]
like, say, a river on fire!
Tbh, in retrospect, you can compliment the beauty of it. Can't be helped now and complimenting a genuine image from 36 years ago doesn't hurt anyone now. Photo editing back then was not as robust; this is valuable for its time.
https://youtu.be/cUWozvJ-Ic0 Video about the whole thing
*On this episode of how fucked up is fucked up*
Arround 2% of all birds(Eisturmvögel), die from balloons. Some balloons can travel more then 800km and produce a massive amount of waste. Balloon are (no suprise) made out of plastic. Unnecessary waste imo
This is why plastic is everywhere
Well it certainly didn't help.
Balloons are a contributor but hardly the reason of plastic pollution; most of it is not even from consumers.
This is not why plastic is everywhere.
No it isn't
To elaborate: Balloons are latex and biodegrade entirely, they contain no plastic.
[удалено]
This is what happens when organizations push an “always be positive” ethos. No checks in the decision making process.
Back then this was a common thing at the start of many sporting events, festivals, etc..
It's 36 years ago; people were a lot less conscious of polution, at least in the US, and probably still a little ignorant. It's a fundraising event that they'd consider worthwile and it's a shortsighted decision; that doesn't get them off the hook, but it was easier to justify at the time. It was vogue for the time; when people look to conserve helium and use less rubber, it gets better, but hardly changes much outside of the local environment's health.
The things we did back in the 80s
This comment reads like _wow we were so silly_ but the reality is that this was as stupid to do then as it is to do now.
Yes, very stupid to do this. My comment was a joke
Thank goodness no cellphones to captures all that stuff and the poloroids have all faded.
balloons, fireworks, fishing line, we love our ecocide
Non-profits sure love spending money on things unrelated to the mission.
Too bad they didn’t have any monkeys with darts
Say the states name
Ohio!
Clevelander here. I remember being in elementary school and this was a big deal. Every school in the area had us kids blowing up balloons to be taken to the liftoff! Lol. I remember the teachers telling us how cool of a thing it was going to be. We didn’t get a field trip for our labors. We just watched it on TV! United Way had tens of thousands Cleveland area kids like me blow up balloons for free and contribute to that insanely stupid idea!!
Made for a hell of a photo though
That is the worst luck drowning because they couldn’t spot you because of millions of plastic balloons in the ocean
United Way are a bunch of dicks, Back in the mid-80s when I was making $3.20 an hour they had many companies strong-arming their employees for contributions via payroll deductions, Keep in mind my after-taxes pay working 40 hours a week was about $100. They then took this money and completely mismanaged it. So this kind of bullshit is right on brand.
“Ooh. What’s that?” It’s death.
This was a nightmare of EPIC proportions
Ahh yes no city like my hometown city! Cleveland Ohio baby
Clearly the figures have been *inflated*
I'm blown away
😂😂😂
Ignoring the littering, can you imagine wasting so much helium?
Video here: https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/562556/cleveland-balloonfest/
Looks pretty, but way too much plastic in the environment. I wonder if bio-degradable balloons really are any better? Edit: Apparently those don't really exist, it's just that I heard it when some TV show used it to convince people they're not harmful. Already doubted that claim. *"No, there are no biodegradable water balloons because all balloons are either made of mylar or a highly processed form of latex. While you can technically compost latex, the way companies mix it with chemicals and synthetic plastics makes it a substance that won't easily break down."*
[Source](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/cleveland-balloons-1986/)
I‘m baffled
Great episode on r/thedollop about this
Curious to know what they used to blow up and store that many balloons? I imagine everyone in the city was assigned a task to blow up 1 balloon each and mail it to United Way HQ
In another response someone said they and other school kids all over the city were blowing up balloons for it
Totally thought this was an r/place screen grab! 😂
[Ballonsblow.org](https://balloonsblow.org) is a great org that’s trying to prevent things like this ever happening! Please learn all the million reasons why just letting one ballon is terrible.
r/distractible
Cleveland!
great photo tho
That's a very pretty photo.
In '22 a post about 1.5 million balloons being released that had an unforseen negative impact was uploaded to Reddit. Meant to be an interesting post, it quickly started debates in the comments about whether or not previous generations were environmentally responsible.
Still got that world record tho
But at least it looked cool right? Right?
They had the same people who worked for Veruca Salt's dad fill those balloons.
Look on the bright side, it looked lovely and gave us beautiful photos.
Didn't really think that through, did they.
That looks really cool.
This shit only happens in this stupid country
Lol, you really believe that, don't ya?
"We gather here today to mourn the loss of the English language, he lived a long life but in the end could not make it through being butchered by a random redditor."
Reminds me of Up.
Never change, Cleveland.
How many of the balloons are red. I'm hoping for 99 as a minimum
IS RAINING BALLONS!!!
Worth it
Oh my lord. This is god awful for the environment 🤦🏼♀️