Won't all burnt out roaches, ziplock bags and empty beer cans cancel out the Green?

Sweet f*#*g baby Jesus! How about we all take a little risk this 4th of July and just blow something up that's non-human for a change. I'm pretty sure all the ordnance that's been detonated over, on and in Iraq for the past five years cancels out several centuries of Independence Day celebrations.

Rowland Smith

Environmentalist

Non-FrigTard

This sounds like a big number, but when put into perspective, it's pretty insignificant. Given that, according to Wikipedia, there are more than 243,023,485 passenger cars in the US, the emissions of fireworks amount to 5 THOUSANDTHS OF A PERCENT of the emissions of automobiles. Improving the average car's mileage by a tenth of a mile per gallon would have a FAR greater effect on CO2 emissions than eliminating fireworks.

Ironic how we celebrate our Independence Day with a Chinese invention.

You mean to say that all those explosions on the Fourth of July are not killing the enemies of the homeland?

Where is the fun in that?

How can that be patriotic?

The liberals have to be behind the waste of precious explosives.

So the entire fireworks output, of the entire Earth, equals 12,000 cars? And you think it's a swell idea to go to a laser show instead?

Penny wise and pound foolish, you are. What we need to do is to get the internal combustion engine off the road. To refuse to go to a fireworks show because of the tiny amount of carbon emitted is just ridiculous.

We need to force our government to comply with our demands. We need to get in their face, and raise hell until we have a viable alternative to burning fossil fuels. There are a LOT of alternatives out there. We're facing a crisis of epic proportions, and boycotting a fireworks show is not going to help even a little tiny bit. Your boycott is not going to stop the fireworks show from happening. Ever. It might make you feel good, but it won't address the problem.

We're going to be fucking extinct, unless we take drastic action. We need to take climate change as seriously as we did the moon landing. We need bold vision, and fearless leadership. We need to be willing to sacrifice a LOT. We need to be willing to take the bus. We need to build rails. We need to harness the energy of the sun, and the wind, and the sea.

Feel-good solutions will not solve the problem. Meaningless, symbolic boycotts will not solve the problem. Leadership, and a worldwide call to action is our only hope!

Shows that you'd rarely if ever see in a commercial setting, shows that would likely run into the six-figure range if they were put on commercially. And some commercial shows that were in that range.

There's nothing quite like a good fireworks show. And it's not loud unless you can feel your clothing move.

Go find the best show you can in your area, and appreciate it for the artistry it contains.

Seems another way to clean up the mess is to purchase offsets. At $10/ton, the 60,000 ton fireworks mess could be offset by $600,000: less than a percent of the cost of the fireworks themselves.

Offsets seem so easy and cheap! Kind of like those guilt-free potato chips. In fact, they seem a bit too easy and cheap. If total carbon emissions/year for the entire planet are about two billion metric tons, would spending $20 billion/year on offsets really.. offset everything?

Oh - about that laser show: better if it's nearby. The 60,000 tons of carbon from fireworks is about 6% of 1,000,000 tons generated by cars that day, so canceling fireworks in favor of lasers (electricity aside) would be offset if everyone had to drive an additional mile to get to the show.

additional calculations

On average, Americans drive 60,000,000 cars for 12K miles/year at 20MPG.

CO2 weights 20 pounds a gallon, and there are 2,000 pounds in a ton.

60,000,000 x 12,000 / 20 = 36 million gallons

36,000,000 x 20 / 2,000 = 360,000 tons of CO2

360,000 tons is about equal to 320,000 metric tons

- - -

320,000 metric tons is...

~ 5,000x firework emissions

~ half total US emissions

~ a quarter of total global emissions

. . . with Doctor Dave and the Renegade Iconoclast. This is such a minute amount of CO2 injected into the atmosphere that is is not worth talking about. And to be honest, this is the sort of thing that gives the Global Climate Change deniers amo.

CO2 is not evil. We can not, nor should we really attempt to, eliminate all CO2 production.

What we need is a coordinated effort to substantively reduce the amount of CO2 produced as a by product of transportation/energy.

Seriously, in terms of impact this is up there with telling Girl Scouts they can't make a campfire.

If you must make your decision about going to see fireworks vs a laser show an environmental one, then a much more effective choice would be to go to which ever one is closer.

But the line "perform Darwin's work" was gratuitous and offensive.

To steven47:

The line about Darwin's work was the best part of the article.

Pablo -

I checked your reference at the APA web site, this links to a CPSC 2006 Fireworks Annual Report where injury statistics are compared to total weight of firework consumption. I believe this is where you obtained the weight of 272.1 million pounds of fireworks.

The error you make is in the assumption that this is 272.1 million pounds of total combustion. This is the total weight of all fireworks products, not the net weight of composition that is burned. Larger professional (class B) fireworks have a very high burnable composition to weight ratio, but the opposite is true with consumer class C "safe and sane" fireworks. Per your article only 9.5% of total firework weight is used in commercial shows - - you have made the mistake of "mixing apples and oranges" in your analysis.

Bottom line: Fireworks discharged in the US emit FAR LESS greenhouse gas than your 12,000 cars per year and 115,000 light bulb example, and are therefore an insignificant contributer to climate change.

Do not feel guilty about celebrating a traditional US 4th of July!

Pyro Guy