{"id":48449,"date":"2022-07-04T18:07:04","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T01:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=48449"},"modified":"2022-07-04T18:07:04","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T01:07:04","slug":"drought-resistant-fireworks-boom-time-for-drone-july-4th-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2022\/07\/04\/drought-resistant-fireworks-boom-time-for-drone-july-4th-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought-Resistant Fireworks: \u201cBOOM\u201d Time for Drone July 4th Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s that time of year when we literally have a reprise of <em><strong>\u201cthe rockets\u2019 red glare, the bombs bursting in air\u201d<\/strong><\/em> with our traditional annual fireworks displays.<\/p>\n<p>But a number of factors have joined forces to make it become less a tradition, supplanted by colorful and brightly-lit drones.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-48450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Drone_July-4th_03.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"586\" height=\"390\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Firework critics, who have voiced their disfavor due to noise, pollution, injuries, and environmental harm, are celebrating the pandemic\u2019s supply chain shortage of fireworks.\u00a0 They even find a silver-lining in the megadroughts plaguing the West that are forcing municipalities to forgo fireworks in favor of drone light shows.<\/p>\n<p>Drone light shows have become so popular that they\u2019re booked up months in advance for July 4<sup>th<\/sup>. \u00a0And it\u2019s easy to understand why&gt;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CRAZY 4th of July 500 Drone Show! | Sky Elements Drone Shows\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sIV0Byq6eEw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Typical drone shows last 10-12 minutes, comparable to and average firework display.\u00a0 And they will use from 100 drones (felt to be an \u201centry-level&#8221; production) up to 500.<\/p>\n<p>A drone July 4<sup>th<\/sup> generally starts at around $25,000 \u2013 which can be about twice as much as a municipal fireworks display.\u00a0 But they are much more technically cumbersome to design, setup and run.\u00a0 (To add some perspective, the American Pyrotechnics Association reports that firework displays are a $375 million industry.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Epic 100 drone 4th of July Drone Light Show - Hire UAV Pro\" width=\"695\" height=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7qTemeAkfR8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>While the cost of drone light show might cause concern, they do have a number of advantages when compared to traditional fireworks.\u00a0 They are much quieter, cause significantly less pollution, result in far fewer injuries (including deaths) and dramatically less environmental harm.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no surprise that the drought conditions in most of the West have really sparked communities to move to drone shows.\u00a0 Even before conditions became dire, there were approximately 19,500 fires caused by fireworks back in 2018, with the peak occurring on July 4<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-48453\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Drone_July-4th_04_Fires_OPT.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"637\" height=\"357\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Also disturbing is the fact that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported that there were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfpa.org\/-\/media\/Files\/News-and-Research\/Fire-statistics-and-reports\/US-Fire-Problem\/Fire-causes\/osfireworks.pdf\">over 9,000 fireworks-related injuries<\/a> seen in emergency departments in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>I was a bit surprised to learn that one of the strongest supporters of drone light shows is from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/dronebelow.com\/2019\/04\/23\/peta-pushes-for-drone-light-shows-over-fireworks-for-4th-of-july\/\"><em><strong>\u201cDrone shows are quiet, safe, practically pollution-free,\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/a> says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk.<\/p>\n<p>As many pet owners can attest, fireworks are pretty much loathed by our cats and dogs.\u00a0 PETA also points out that besides frightening for small children, they can also be a trigger for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve yet to enjoy a 4<sup>th<\/sup> of July drone show, but I certainly can see they offer a variety of pluses.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-48451\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Drone_July-4th_01_OPT.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"546\" height=\"405\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-48452\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Drone_July-4th_02_OPT.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"422\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s that time of year when we literally have a reprise of \u201cthe rockets\u2019 red glare, the bombs bursting in air\u201d with our traditional annual fireworks displays. But a number of factors have joined forces to make it become less a tradition, supplanted by colorful and brightly-lit drones. Firework critics, who have voiced their disfavor <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2022\/07\/04\/drought-resistant-fireworks-boom-time-for-drone-july-4th-shows\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4448,5024,4438,5026,5025],"class_list":["post-48449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-4th-of-july","tag-drones","tag-fireworks","tag-peta","tag-wildfires","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}