300 million lbs of fireworks and 2.7 billion dollars gone in a cloud of smoke.

  • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    i am quite certain that people do not emit particles or NOx like this. In particular nobody is just exhaling heavy metals.

    https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240703-how-4-july-fireworks-pollute-the-air-and-might-damage-your-health

    Here is a map for New Years in Germany with a nice slider. Particle concentration increases up to 1000x the base-value of that day (which already includes people setting off fireworks earlier)

    https://gis.uba.de/website/silvester/

    Unless it is normal for people at football games to ignite pyrotechniques, or they all smoke 5 packs of cigarettes each during the game, there is nothing that would make a comparable pollution.

    • nonfuinoncuro@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I think he’s talking about everyone driving to the game and idling in the parking lot in addition to the jets

      • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Again looking at the map of Germany as well as the article from the BBC stating an increase of Microplastic by over 1000% compared to the baseline shows that fireworks are a very strong additional pollutant.

        People in the US drive their cars all the time. During rush hour more cars are emitting in traffic jams than are driving to a football match. Yet we see these huge spikes in pollution when there is fireworks.

        Think about it: Everything form a firewokr that does not turn into CO2 will stay dispersed in the air or fall down as debris. This is most of it, as the op pointed out himself the GHGs to be only a small part. Meanwhile for cars the vast vast vast majority of its emissions in quantitative terms are CO2 emissions, with particles, NOX and Microplastics being much less. They also pose a massive problem, but because of hundreds of millions of cars on the road every day.

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      i am quite certain that people do not emit particles or NOx like this.

      Car tyres, naked flames, trash, waste disposal.

      In particular nobody is just exhaling heavy metals.

      Yeah. I can’t shoehorn heavy metals into this scenario. Soda cans?