Less of a post, more of a rant today. Whilst visiting a site which might potentially become a Local Nature Reserve, I came across one of these:
It's a sky lantern - a paper hot-air balloon with a wire frame which supports a tea-light candle. To give you an idea of scale my dog, Jake, is about the size of a labrador. Orginally an Asian idea, they have become popular over here in the last couple of years, as a alternative to fireworks at weddings and parties. Admittedly they do look great if you send off a bunch of them into the night sky, but then the debris eventually comes back down to earth, possibly many miles away from their release point.
The paper probably degrades fairly quickly, but the wire frame could be a hazard to animals, or get shredded by mowing machinery - they could even end up in hay bales - potentially fatal for livestock. They must also be a fire risk in a dry summer. Apparently they have been banned in parts of Germany, and restrictions placed on their use in their area of origin, Vietnam and Thailand. So at the risk of being a kill-joy, I think we should ban them, or at least outlaw the ones with wire frames. This one ended up in the bin.
I agree. With the option of wire free sky lanterns being so available (http://www.eco-sky-lanterns.co.uk/) it is beyond me why people cannot see the impacts of littering wire across the countryside.
ReplyDeleteA ban on wire based sky lanterns would be nothing but beneficial to nature.
A woodern frame would be so much better as at least it would rot! Our poor woodlands are full of litter as it is without adding to it.
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