那些年飛走的氣球

在一個陽光明媚的日子里，你釋放了一個氦氣球，并看著它神奇地漂浮在天空中。我敢肯定，這時的你會感到一絲興奮與驚喜，還有對自由的渴望。這就像觀看21響禮炮一樣，只是更安靜。這也像中國人放飛孔明燈一樣，只是在白天而已。在美國，人們?yōu)榧o(jì)念儀式、盛大開幕式、生日聚會和游行釋放了大量的氣球。雖然這只是美國人做的一件有趣的小事，但是這對環(huán)境來說真的非常糟糕。

When a balloon ascends into the heavens, it doesn't end up on Jupiter. You know this. Although a helium balloon can rise to altitudes of five miles (8 kilometers) into Earth's atmosphere, it's got to come back down eventually, and when it does, it wreaks some havoc. That colorful little scrap of latex may end up living in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It could get tangled up in the flippers of a sea turtle or be eaten by one who mistakes it for a jellyfish. Or a bighorn sheep could mistake it for forage, or it might land in some farmer's pasture, where a cow chokes on the string. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, animals of the land, sea and air are equally susceptible to mistaking deflated balloons for food, or, arguably worse, getting tangled up and strangled by the ribbon attached to it.

即使氦氣球一直向上升，它最終也不會落到木星上去。盡管氦氣球可以升到距地面8千米的高度，但它最終還是會回來的，一旦它降落了，就會造成一些破壞。那些五顏六色的乳膠碎片最終可能會掉在北太平洋環(huán)流中，它們可能會纏住海龜?shù)啮挔钪?，或者被一只把它們?dāng)成水母的海龜吃掉。當(dāng)它們落在陸地上時，一只大角羊可能會把它們誤認(rèn)為是飼料。當(dāng)它們落在農(nóng)民的牧場時，氣球上的絲帶很可能會勒死一頭牛。美國魚類和野生動物管理局的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，陸地、海洋和空中的動物都很容易把氣球誤認(rèn)為是食物，更糟糕的是，它們都有可能被氣球上的絲帶纏住并勒死。

And it's true, some balloons do break down eventually. A big part of the reason releasing balloons is permitted in so many places is that latex balloons are technically biodegradable — it takes one between six months and four years to break down completely, though they deteriorate in seawater more slowly than they do on land. Mylar balloons, on the other hand, are made out of NASA-grade nylon and are not biodegradable, so they can hang out in the environment indefinitely.

上述內(nèi)容都是真的，氣球的確會破裂并帶來很大的危害。許多地方之所以允許放飛氣球，很大程度上是因為乳膠氣球在技術(shù)上是可生物降解的。但是它們也需要長達(dá)6個月到4年的時間才能完全分解，而且它們在海水中的降解速度比在陸地上要慢很多。還有一種邁拉氣球是由NASA級別的尼龍制成的，不能生物降解，因此它們會一直存在于自然界中。

So, if balloons in the environment are so bad, why isn't releasing them outlawed? Well, in many states and municipalities, it is. And a few places in the U.K. and Australia have banned the release of balloons of all kinds. In the U.S., California, Connecticut, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia and some cities like Louisville, Kentucky, and Huntsville, Alabama have put the kibosh on balloon releases. But the thing about helium balloons is they don't care about our random geographic boundaries. They land wherever they want to land.

如果環(huán)境中的氣球是如此的糟糕，為什么釋放它們不是違法的呢?其實在許多地方，釋放它們都是違法的。英國和澳大利亞的一些地方已經(jīng)禁止了各種氣球的釋放。在美國，加利福尼亞、康涅狄格、佛羅里達(dá)、田納西和弗吉尼亞，氣球的釋放都讓人感到不安。

Hundreds of balloons drifting slowly into the wild blue yonder might give you the feels, but is a brief display of color and zero confetti cleanup at your party worth a bunch of dead birds and turtles and many beaches full of trash? Absolutely not. But, on a related note, the world may be running out of helium soon anyway — giving the turtles and the birds a reason to throw their own great big party, sans balloons.

看著數(shù)以百計的氣球慢慢地飄向遠(yuǎn)處的海洋可能會讓你思緒萬千，但是你的派對真的值得讓一群鳥兒和烏龜來用生命買單嗎?絕對不行。而且，再這樣下去，這個世界可能很快就會耗盡氦氣。請讓海龜和鳥兒可以舉辦它們自己的派對，沒有氣球的那種。