RE: Fireworks are a lot of fun, but it’s not so great for the environment, the wildlife or for pets
Hi Valth. With this post you got me thinking about environmental ethics and consequentialism (see here for a webpage explaining consequentialism ). I think actually something like fireworks which is centrally planned and managed is a perfect activity that consequentialism can be applied to, as so often real life is so messy and chaotic consequentialism cannot practically be applied... but fireworks are calmly organised months and months in advance by a single organising body. It would be interesting to have like a public court or something to publicly debate the various drawbacks and advantages of them. I am sure many people would argue that the hedonistic pleasure that they supply to so many people outweigh the negative consequences. Of course environmentalists would be confident of blowing those arguments out of the water with the battalion of arguments against them. It would be an interesting excercise that could potentially pave the way for application of environmental ethics to other circumstances.
As a side, I see that there are some "green" fireworks that cut down on the harmful chemicals but they are not seen as cost-effective or viable!
That's a good point, @kate-m.
I'm not sure I get what you're saying by fireworks being calmly planned months in advance. Here in Norway, and I think also for the United States, we have to buy our own fireworks and launch it ourselves. I know some countries have public fireworks by the government, which is a lot better for the environment, because they can plan for things like breeding sites for birds, groundwater supplies etc., while regular people won't research this stuff.
Anyway, what you say about a public court to debate things like this by applying consequentalism sounds like an improvement for society, and I really think there are lots of traditions and "universally accepted practices" that should be debated and potentially reevaluated.
It's too bad that green fireworks is still unviable, but hopefully it will become more cost-effective in the future. I think at one point we humans need to face the fact that we do need to pay a little extra in order to take better care of the environment, but sadly most people seem to prefer to do what is cheapest and let other people take care of the consequences.
Ah yeah, I was thinking specifically of public firework displays!
It's not that green fireworks aren't viable, it's just that people aren't willing to pay the difference when standard fireworks are so cheap in comparison!
So it pretty much has the same issues most other green products have then. Hopefully it is something that people will start to care about in the future, or even better have the government enforce it.