Diwali falls in October or November each year. Indians celebrate the holiday with lavish meals, lighting clay lamps, elaborate house décor, fireworks, exchanging sweets and much more. The month preceding Diwali is the Indian community’s classic gift-giving season. Individuals, small businesses and large corporate houses budget for Diwali gifting and workers’ bonuses at the outset of every financial year.

The Diwali industry is well developed in India but in other parts of the world it is limited by the geographical and cultural context of businesses in the Indian community. Given the increasing numbers of Indians all over the world and increasing evidence of unsustainable Diwali practices, this holiday has become an opportunity for eco vendors and businesses all over the world.

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Pittsburgh, PA.  A place known for its peoples’ good ol’ blue collar fervor, our enthusiasm for everything from our football team (STEELERS!!) to our beer (Iron City) to our hoagies (Primanti’s, brother!).  We are thus naturally inclined to encourage bombastic public demonstrations of our affection–in this case, in celebrating ourselves!

I viewed the record-setting Pittsburgh 250 fireworks display from a wonderful vantage point on the North Shore, as I cheered my city on from the balcony of McFadden’s with a massive group of Couchsurfers visiting Pittsburgh for their regional meet-up weekend.  All the while I was marvelling at the bright splashes and the thundering bursts–thirty minutes in duration!–the thought kept flitting across my mind: “what exactly is IN that massive smoke cloud pooling across the river?”

The Composition of Fireworks, a page compiled by Reema Gondhia at Imperial College in London, gives you the factual rundown of the makeup of fireworks.  A firework’s chemical arrangement, however ingeniously designed to manifest our titillating visual delights, provides some unsettling names–chemicals with long rap sheets from research institutions indicating their threat to living systems.  Read on for some distrubing examples.

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On Saturday, October 4, 2008, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania celebrated its 250th birthday in a climax of a fireworks display, thirty minutes long and launched from 17 different locations around the city, including barges floating on Pittsburgh’s three rivers and off of downtown skyscrapers.

Pittsburgh loves its fireworks.

I’ve noticed that after every Pirates game, whether the outcome is good or bad, there are fireworks.  Steelers games.  Community events.  And now, Pittsburgh’s 250th birthday warrants the biggest blast of them all.  How many folks out there have actually watched fireworks for thirty straight minutes?  Since Pittsburgh’s 250th birthday celebration, I have.  Your neck hurts!

In the official press release about the event from Zambelli Internationale, Pittsburgh set a record of 17 firework launch positions, “the largest in the country.”  The site also describes a formidable array of effort: 40 professional pyrotechnicians and nearly 40,000 fireworks went into Pittsburgh’s big day.

Personally, while I was watching the spectacular displays, after a while I stopped being awed by the visual splendor and noticed my mind wandering to this thought: “what exactly is in those thick black clouds of firework byproduct eclipsing downtown?”

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Via:  www.abc.net.au & Grist

Image:  dcJohn on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Related posts on fireworks, ozone, and the environment:

• The Sensibility of Sabbaths for Sustainable Living : Sustainablog

• Tip o’ the Day: Red, White and Bang : amystodghill - Green Options

• Environmental Defense Fund: Asthma and Idling - A Bad Combination …

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.1

Like the people and even their God, then, the farmlands were given time to rest from their productive toil, to rebuild their strength in order to be fruitful again after the period of rest so that they might yield bountiful harvests for years to come. As the ancient Hebrews restrained from working their fields, they honored their God and the land itself.

I mention this practice of a “sabbath of the land,” almost entirely forgotten in modern farming (and especially in agribusiness), because it provides a potentially useful paradigm for more than just agriculture. It also provides a good model for us today, for how we might live sensibly and sustainably in a time when natural resources are threatened and the Earth is endangered, at least to some degree, by human actions.

One recent example of honoring/acknowledging the (imperiled) state of nature is in California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s call to Californians not to use, heck not even to buy, fireworks this Fourth of July. Gov. Schwarzenegger made this plea for sensibility with wildfires numbering in the hundreds throughout the state and with state resources to fight those fires as threatened as the homes, lives, and habitats themselves.

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While the number of display fireworks has declined by half since 2000, and make up about 10% of the total amount of fireworks used by Americans each year, these big bursts of color that light up the night aren't without their environmental impacts. The gun powder used to propel the fireworks, and accelerants and heavy metals used to color them can linger in the air and water for days. Fine particulate matter produced during the blast also adds to air quality concerns (all major displays must abide by local fireworks laws and the Clean Air Act.) Disney pioneered a technology in 2004 that propels fireworks using compressed air, and non-heavy metal colorants are available. These alternative technologies are available and are approved by the American Pyrotechnic Association, but are not widely practiced.

Does this mean you shouldn't watch fireworks? Of course not. But, if you're going to check out a big display, see if there is a public transportation option available. Some locations may offer shuttle service from a parking lot to a designated viewing area. Or you can gather up a group of family or friends, meet up at a central location and carpool. That way there's also less cars to fight traffic with when everyone is leaving after the show.

You could always stay home and watch the display on TV (with the lights off). Firework displays from around the U.S. are usually boradcast with patriotic music accompaniment, and this year will more than likely be shown in HD.

If you plan on purchasing and setting off your own fireworks be safe, and sweep up as much of the firework litter from the streets as possible (drivers the next morning will thank you.)

Amy says: I'll admit, I'm a sucker when it comes to grand firework displays. Although, when I was growing up my family went down the street and watched the neighborhood kids set off fireworks they got from the Native American reservations. That was fun until one of those ground-spinning fireworks took flight and buzzed by my head. These days, I stick to sparklers and enjoy the big public displays.

Tree Hugger (The Prettiest Pollutants)

About.com (Declare Your Independence from Toxic Firework Pollution)

American Pyrotechnic Association