www.fox13news.com/news/desantis-signs-bill-banning-intentional-releases-balloons-florida
DeSantis signs bill banning intentional releases of balloons in Florida
Yeah, this is a very useful law. The question is, why is it on this sub when it’s just regular news?
1) it's DeSantis
2) it's also kind of random. I wanna see how often it actually gets enforced lol
It'll be one of those things that get enforced by tickets and warrant checks and pat downs in certain neighborhoods and by verbal warnings in others, just like everything else.
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11d
Some group of libs did a Biden balloon release or something so now it’s illegal.
I can't find anything like this? Maybe? The bill was sponsored by someone from a coastal district, passed, and DeSantis didn't veto it. Credit where credit's due, he's consistently pushed to help the environment (in the short term)
Florida is super dependent on tourism, and if the beaches are polluted nobody will visit them. Offshore oil drilling is banned in Florida for the same reason (as are offshore wind farms). It's all about keeping the beaches pretty for the tourists.
Hear me out: glitter-encrusted wind turbines!
This is brilliant. The light reflected from the glitter can be shone onto solar panels, giving us a 2 in 1!
That's okay, Florida will be under water by 2100 and then it'll be all offshore wind farms.
It seems like this was one of the rare good results of lobbying.
Some eco group called Oceana was pushing this bill hard and found some sponsors in coastal districts:
https://usa.oceana.org/press-releases/florida-bans-intentional-balloon-releases/
It passed 102-9 so there wasn't really much pushback at all.
Sometimes even Republicans can support a decent bill
He passed a bill to allow radioactive materials to be used in roads, allowing that material to leach kn the environment. Florida has a problem where we have a type of radioactive material as a byproduct of something that we try to store and contain, but a lot of times it leaks out and causes a lot of damage. Its also not easy to store. So ppl are trying to discard of it in other ways, and they came up with using it in road construction, and it was formed into a bill and passed by Desantis. That means it can potentially leak into waterways and harm the environment. It's now up to the EPA to either refuse it or allow it or something. So Desantis hasn't always pushed for the environment
Then why did he do this? This heavily outweighs the balloon thing lmao
Oh for the culture war points. But he's also done a decent bit to try and protect the Everglades and fight the red tide blooms.
I've heard this described as "green vs grey" environmentalism. "Green" environmentalism is largely about preserving green spaces, including (though certainly not limited to) superficial green spaces. "Grey" environmentalism is about making structural changes that actually address humanity's impact on the earth. These include things like mixed-use zoning, higher density housing options, investment in mass transit, etc. Green environmentalism is never a bad thing, unless it conflicts with grey environmentalism--for example, building high-density housing near transit stations. Sure, building that apartment building will probably require removing a few trees, but that style of housing will allow people to live a much more environmentally-friendly lifestyle, e.g. by reducing car usage (or even allowing people to choose to live car-free), and it will save a hell of a lot more trees elsewhere by reducing the need for low-density suburban sprawl.
DeSantis, like most Americans, is actively hostile towards grey environmentalism, and the necessary structural changes we'll need to make if we have a chance in hell of averting a climate catastrophe.
Never heard of this but it's an interesting framework
This explained how the green movement can be hijacked by folk that are against major change to help "the poors" (making the world a better place)
Well the article mentions gender reveal parties so maybe he just put his fingers in his ears and shouted "BAN IT, I DONT CARE WHAT IT IS JUST BAN IT" the second he heard the word gender.
Balloon releases, for whatever reason, are known to kill dogs and other animals that eat them once they land. I know of people who have lost an animal because of that. Maybe he signed it because it was the right thing to do and it’s the only way to stop animals from dying unnecessarily.
i think that's just a broken clock being right twice a day. desantis lacks the required humanity to care about people's pets, or animals in general.
Well, we know it’s not because he cares about the environment
I remember some event like in the 70/80s when they released like millions of ballons in a major US city which sparked a lot of chaos and interrupted all flight traffic and left thousands of pounds of latex to be cleaned up. I wanna say it was chicago.
Probably some algorithm told his team that Facebook boomers have been complaining about gender reveals.
Florida's government isn't just one guy. Not every law that passes in a given state is motivated by the personal agenda of its governor.
No. The bill was passed with wide bipartisan support. In the house it got 114 Yeas to 1 Nay and in the Senate it got 38 Yeas to 2 Nays.
It won’t. Watching that state over the years, suddenly there will be millions of balloons “accidentally” released just to be assholes and buck the law.
I think because everyone expects this guy to do something insane and then when he does even one reasonable thing everyone makes a double take
DeSantis passing legislation to keep people from doing stupid shit to the environment was not on my Bingo card.
He's such a dipshit I'd be unsurprised if had been the opposite, like "Desantis signs bill requiring the release of helium balloons into the environment after one time use."
To own the libs
Because to someone not in the know, it sounds like a very silly law.
It’s also very jarring to see “DeSantis,” + anything good.
Perhaps they thought it was related to his other nonsense about banning bridges from being lit up in rainbow colors during Pride Month.
I’m assuming the oniony part is that a republican would do something good for the climate… or the fact that many balloons are accidentally released by children.
100%. This is a huge pet peeve of mine and it’s so infuriating. Saw a group set off a ton of balloons for someone they knew dying and I was seething with anger. It’s so ignorant. Please ban gender reveals of the same wastefulness.
He go this one and the one limited HOAs right recently.
Yeah I don’t understand what’s happening. It’s like wait, you could have actually been doing good stuff this whole time but you just like chose not to???
A stopped clock shows the right time twice a day.
Or, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.
The cruelty and the bigotry and hypocrisy and the stupidity aren’t bugs. They’re features, verging on the entire purpose of the GOP.
Agree wholeheartedly. One other time he did something rational, he required financial education for every student in the Florida public school system. He sucks royally, but I would suck as bad as he does if I couldn't admit when he was right.
That’s fair. Trump made animal abuse a felony and I have to give him credit for that. Well, for signing off on it.
I'm sure despite what I'm sure is a wealth of things you disagree with him on, you could find a few dog catchers he appointed you don't mind and a few things along those lines.
in todays news, the worst person you know just did a good thing
Tragic, etc
Same. Balloon releases are terrible for the environment
Also it seems like this bill revises previous prohibitions, one of which I find I bit concerning, in where it says
deletes exemption from such prohibition for certain biodegradable or photodegradable balloons
Isn't that a bad thing? If it degrades then i don't see that as bad
Those can still pose a hazard to low-flying aircraft
And a number of animals, for example sea turtles regularly eat balloons mistaking then for food. Even the "biodegradable" ones (which don't really biodegrade particularly quickly) are harmful.
“Biodegradable” is often a slow process. It’s still bad to litter plant-based plastics, even if it’s not as bad as traditional plastics
“Yes officer, those balloons we let go and are now unrecoverable were definitely biodegradable.”
Yeah same
A few years ago at a park here in Florida, there was a family finishing a birthday party and they let all of their Mylar balloons go intentionally and I shit you not, yelled “screw the environment!”. Well I got the pavilion number and time e-mailed the county parks department and they actually responded and said they would issue a citation to the family and thanks for letting them know.
Same. I hate ballon releases. They are trash literally.
I know. I read the headline and thought: "This sounds good but it's DeSantis, so what's the catch?"
Literally the only thing I don't despise him for, that said if you need to vote against DeSanctimonious: If anyone reading this lives in Florida and needs to register to vote: registertovoteflorida.gov/eligibilityreactive
“The most whimsical form of littering”
And wasting helium.
Helium is a nonrenewable resource. The amount we have in the ground is IT. And all applications of it cause it to escape into the atmosphere where it rises to the top and flies away from the planet.
Trace helium is usually discarded from natural gas mining unless it's naturally rich and then it's separated. Like all gases that is a pain to work with and a hassle.
Helium has several applications that no other element can be used, most with liquid helium providing the necessary cooling for powerful magnets and superconductors. Some of our top level science and top level medical equipment require helium to continue to function, like MRI machines. When the helium runs out we won't be able to do that anymore. At all.
Time to bring back the hydrogen balloons
Birthday parties with a bang!
Probably more of a woosh unless mixed with an ideal amount of oxygen.
Oh, the humanity!!
More fun too.
Is it possible the helium used in balloons isn't pure enough for the other useful applications? For example MRI machines require helium with purity level of 99.999%. Do we just grab that impure helium and purify it or need to start with a better source?
You are kind of right and wrong at the same time. “Balloon grade” (grade 4) helium is at 99.99% purity so that would not work for an mri machine obviously but helium is normally transferred in the liquid state which ends up being closer to 99.999% purity (grade 5). That is good enough for spectroscopy, chromatography, cooling etc. So its quite likely that balloons are filled with 99.999% purity. It all depends on if the supplier for the shop invested in dilution equipment to reduce the higher purity helium to grade 4 or if they are just shipping grade 5 gas to the final customer.
Oh, didn't expect balloon grade to be that high, I thought it was in the 95%
I was honestly surprised too. I have worked with equipment that uses liquid helium as a coolant and never realized it was basically the same as balloon helium. You could probably use lower purities but it seems like the extra effort to dilute it would cost more than just using higher purity.
I've been trying to wean my labs off helium (we mainly use it for gas chromatography) by switching to hydrogen.
It's harder than I thought...
That's an explosive call.
Eh, as long as you have proper ventilation and monitoring, shutoff valves, and make sure the tubing is all stainless steel, it's not nearly as hazardous as people think.
“And monitoring” is usually what does people in.
Or the monitoring of the maintenance of the above.
My idiot self only got to the parenthesis before I started picturing Labrador retrievers with high pitched barks 🤦🏻♀️
I thought the helium used for balloons was unusable for the scientific applications.
Not directly, it isn't but I think any source of helium probably needs additional purification before it can be used for those applications anyways.
Until we get fusion up and running. You know whenever that is...
To my understanding, I think this is a bit overstated. Helium is produced in the earth via radioactive decay. As you mentioned, our current supply largely comes from natural gas wells. Today, drillers won’t tap a well if there’s too much helium in it, and most wells aren’t set up for helium capture anyways. So the moment there’s enough of a shortage that we really need helium we’ll start adding helium capture systems on wells or tap some high-helium wells. There’s lots of supply in the earth still, especially relative to essential demand.
Is the method of littering woke or is banning it woke? He must have struggled greatly with this decision.
he prayed on it and the truth was sorely revealed
he just misunderstood it and accidentally did something rational
Good lord I hate when i agree with someone like him.
"Governor performs minor formality related to job"
It's only really notable when governors veto something.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Banning a littering event can't be wrong - especially with that much ocean around.
What's oniony about that? It's a very good idea. What kind of nonsense is to throw trash to be taken by the wind for fun?
at least paper lanterns are only degradable paper and wax, and a fire hazard in dry areas
Don't they have metal support rods?
seems like some do.
hopefully using very rustable iron that will turn into dirt after a year or two in the elements.
plastic and latex is forever, clogging up storm drains and washing up on shores
It’s oniony because it’s DeSantis
So if they say 'whoops' when releasing them it's fine?
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11d
the goofy thing about this bill is that it has language saying it doesn't apply to people age 6 or under. So if you are 7, totally fucked but your 5 year old little sister can reenact the movie UP if she wants.
I can also see shitty tiktokers having little kids do this just to try to skirt the law.
I think that is to protect the dumb kids who let go of balloons by accident due to their brains lacking object permanence
I just thought 6 was a wierd age to use in a law.
Ah ha! Everybody in this thread was baffled why DeSantis would pass a bill that seems like it's a great idea for everyone... The catch was that he wanted to use it to put seven year olds in jail! /s (but...he really might actually want to do that, so maybe not /s ??)
Surprised this wasn't already illegal, wouldn't it be covered under littering?
In Chicago there's this new trend for murder victims where they do a balloon release at the end of the memorial. Dozens of mylar balloons are released, people cheer loudly and news crews film it. I find it incredibly tacky weird.
What happened to shooting into the sky?
This is NOT Oniony. It's actually a good move from DeSantis for once, some but not all issues are... Animals sometimes choke on them, sometimes they cause powerline shorts/fires, it's litter, and it's also a waste of helium, a non-renewable resource. here's an extreme version of what can happen.
The first sensible piece of legislation to emerge from the skeeter swamp.
DeSantis has actually been one of the kinder governors in recent memory to the environment. Hate him in every other regard, but he's generally better about protecting our environment than dick Scott, Charlie, and Bush were.
DeSantis is going woke!
Holy shit! The dude did something we can all get totally on board with!
Not sure why Florida is leading the way here but this should be the law everywhere.
While I agree with the sentiment, why does this feel like a direct attack on Disney World?
Because he opposes most all environmental regulations as a way of showing how Republican he is. So this just seems like he has some alternate motive
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11d
I can imagine them wondering around Disney World everyday and writing down as many fines as they can come up with
I mean, I can kinda get behind this one - can we ban gender reveals next?
I don't usually find myself agreeing with DeSantis, but I agree with him on this. Released ballons end up popping in mid-air and the debris create litter on which animals can choke.
$150 fine? Sounds like a $150 permit to someone who doesn't care.
This is a good thing because balloons kill wildlife and pollute. But fuck desantis.
This is pretty woke for him.
Woah, weird! I actually agree with something that jackass supports?! I need to check my medications.
I can’t believe Desantis would take away my freedom! What kind of crap is this? I better still be able to fire semi-automatic weapons into the air on religious holidays!
Wait, I'm not supposed to do that??
I suppose it's fine as long as you're firing that gun at balloons
i'm genuinely surprised this wasn't a law banning local ordinances that ban ballon releases
Well, hell officially has frozen over. Desantis did something I actually agree with.
Heartbreaking: the worst person you know makes a great point
The only good thing he’s ever done
But I thought helping the environment was woke??? /s
I’m actually shocked he didn’t just ban balloons that aren’t red, white or blue.
I’m from Cleveland, so I totally get it.
Still too soon?
He probably thought it was some anti-LGBTQ thing
Did he get confused and think releasing balloons is good for the environment or something?
This is like one of those comic scoreboards where there is now 1 point on the good side of the scoreboard
Stopped clock, twice a day, etc. etc.
What , desantis made and passed a good bill?
Wait, does he know he just signed an environmentally based law?
There's finally one issue I agree with him on.
He must have misunderstood the wording in the law, because that one actually makes sense.
Good law, and I'm not sure, but I imagine it was made for the wrong reasons. Celebration?! No! Something like that.
Probably to spite Pride events. But a broken clock is right once in a while too.
Releasing balloons is just festive litter.
Proves that a broken clock can be right occasionally. He probably doesn't even realize he's pushing the green agenda here. Great.
I'm actually pretty okay with this.
So was it balloons causing my FL homeowners insurance to sky rocket, Ron?
Depends, was it a helium-filled policy?
Finally, somebody is doing something about the scourge of gender reveals!
What a woke bitch
The bill also says you can't throw your tobacco product on the ground (cigarette butt litter)
Also kids six years of age and younger are not penalized because it takes more work to make them work. So they will be able to sentence 7 year olds to litter pickup duty in the road right of way.
This is good because pollution is bad, this is bad because gender reveal parties that don’t use balloons usually involve doing something much worse.
I thought this was AMERICA!
Damn Big Government East Coast Liberal Elite fascists violatin' muh FREEDOM OF SPEECH!
Strange that it doesn't mention that we only have a finite supply of helium.
So, ocean pollution was the first time - and preserving helium was the second time he was right .
Twice a day, on the rest of his days, he probably is right about what pudding cups taste best.
How does one quantify intentionally? It's purely subjective unless the person keeps doing it in front of you or admits.
Now how is Matt Gaetz suppose to carry around his coke?
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. Lol
The ONE THING I can agree on. These balloons kill all kinds of wildlife and water dwellers.
Great job.....reads article again, Florida!
Didn't have that on my "shit I didn't think I would say this year" BINGO card.
No 99 Luft Balloons?
Something good for once
This is something everyone in FL wants. The balloon releases are heavily documented to kill hundreds of birds and sea animals. The bill has been a long time coming.
Ok but how are you gonna enforce this?
For once I agree with the clown. Good move Ron.
Some enlightened soul must have told him that democrats love balloons
I hope this doesn't go on my permanent record but.. good job DeSantis
This is a good thing.
So he did something good for once.
This is actually a good bill! Are you SURE it was DeSantis?
You would be surprised the amount of jet fuel that gets wasted chasing Mylar balloons.
I aint mad at this, but fuck DeKlantis either way
Age 6 and under are exempt. I’d like to see a cop go after a 7-year-old
Finally, the bastard did something actually good!
This is the first time I have ever seen him do something good and beneficial. Ever.
Things DeSantis has done -
Good - 1
Evil - 942
He did something… right? Huh.
I think this is the first thing he has done that I agree with. I don't think it belongs on this sub.
Wow Florida leading the way on something good. Weird. Is this because some liberal group released balloons that landed on his mansion? The why to this is the interesting part to me.
He's still a piece of shit.
While I agree with this….Fuck this dude.
Rare W from Florida Man.
Plastic is extincting our entire fucking planet. Should have been banned 30 years ago
Broken clock I guess.
Wait!?! How will they do gender reveals!?
A lot of commenters here probably don't realize the EPA was started by Nixon.
So this has been something we have been trying to enforce under littering, but this just makes it more cut and dried, gender reveals aren’t even the big one, it’s actually all the remembrance/vigils I dunno what you call them, they release balloons and sometime place those paper lanterns in the water or release some in the air.
But but but mah freedums!!!!!
It's about time someone did this.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
How do you prove it's intentional?
There was that crazy incident where they released a bunch of balloons and it was disastrous.
Given the media’s typical coverage of DiSantis, there’s probably more to the story.
His first correct decision.
One thing I can support that he has ever done. They end up in the ocean.
This is a completely reasonable rule, especially in a coastal state.
Florida UFO sightings drop to all time low
Only good thing I have seen him do.
Ron DeSantis, like Greg Abbott, is still a little piss baby. I do agree with this law, though. Save the manatees!
A Republican did something to impinge on people’s freedom— because it will protect the environment??? When are they going to revoke his GOP card?
The bill was intended to ban the release of baboons, but no one in the governor's office knew how to spell "baboon." /s
Holy shit Desantis actually did something right for once.
This has to be some kind of attack on NOAA right? Did weather go woke?
headline sounds like one of those fake fluff stories that would ticker by in SimCity 2000
Great news!
…and there’s nothing oniony about it…
He got something right
Because Florida has solved all of its other problems and this was the only one left to be dealt with…
This has to be fake news! DeSantan would never intentionally do anything that was good for the environment. He probably didn’t sign it for environmental reasons, he just wanted to take some fun out of children’s birthday parties.
Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point
I do support this.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
DeSantis actually passing a sensible law? My brain believes it, but my heart is SKEPTICAL 😂😂
I fully support this even though I hate DeSantis