Fireworks or Fireflies? Savoring Summer's Wild Soul
- Laura A. Weber
- Jun 11
- 6 min read
As Summer 2026 unfolds, celebrations of freedom often bring outdoor festivities complete with colorful explosions in the night sky - fireworks! Fireworks represent a storied history of thrilling displays and bone-rattling booms dating to c. 200 B.C.E., when during the Chinese Han Dynasty, people threw bamboo stems onto fire to ward off evil spirits, a modest bang. Later, during the Song Dynasty, the application of chemical substances to create colored smoke, silver sparkles and colorful flames used low-nitrate gunpowder and other substances to tint flames and smoke, including, for example, arsenical sulphide for yellow, copper acetate (verdigris) for green, lead carbonate for lilac-white, and mercurous chloride (calomel) for white. The mysterious explosions elicited exhilaration and awe. (Source) We are still exploding fireworks in the night skies in 2026 at a much larger scale. But at what expense?
Fireworks do not come without high environmental costs: Chemicals from fireworks don't miraculously "evaporate." The entire Earth, indeed all Earthlings breathe their remains. When burned and exposed to oxygen, chemical substances undergo combustion, which produces toxic atmospheric pollutants, PTSD-inducing effects for many humans adversely affected by deafening or explosive noise, and devastating anxiety, disorientation, and death for our more-than-human kin. The costly, deadly fireworks release a whole host of contaminants that negatively impact air quality, including elevated carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and particulate matter, which can remain as a toxic haze over municipalities for extended periods of time. (Source) The thrill may last less than an hour, less than a half hour even, but the air-borne toxins persist much longer. And we breathe them, along with every other living being in the planet.
I dread fireworks season each year, not just because of the explosive trauma I experience in my body when the M-80s begin to inflict misery during daylight hours, but because of the cumulative effect of war-like "recreation" for our biosphere and all our living kin. As an asthmatic, I can't breathe freely for a week afterward. I used to fear fireworks season for my beloved huskies who would be traumatized every summer for about two months as neighbors shot fireworks off randomly - some with the intention of terrifying people and creatures. Some just for pyromaniacal "fun."
Accidental injuries, deaths, high anxiety, hearing loss, uncontrolled fires and smoke, outrageously wasteful expense, environmental trauma and the well-being of our creature-kin be damned, humanity continues its obsessive addiction to explosive recreation. Why? To celebrate freedom? To celebrate life? The madness of it all seems intrinsically self-destructive, and fatal for the planet's welfare. We might need a coalition of environmentalists, something like "Earth Stewards for Explosive-Free Celebrations," to come together for alternative ways of celebrating and having fun.
A multi-sensory immersive cocktail of beauty and awe is not restricted to the ritual of annual fireworks explosions. Gorgeous, natural thrills for our full sensorium are available every day and at no cost! Nature therapy, in the form of Shinrin Yoku, can have amazing effects if practiced daily.
We can be moved to awe and wonder by the super-charged color symphony of flowers at dawn, or a sensational sunset, or the sudden thrill of a deer sighting, or the explosion of twinkling lights that fireflies produce on a humid summer evening. That's just color and light! What about the fragrance bouquet that is jasmine or lavender, honeysuckle, or mint? Have you felt the ultra-soft texture of lamb's ear or the pliancy of pine needles, or the earthy taste of morels? How about a cool plunge in a fresh pond on a hot summer day? Frog song, cicadas, and owl song, oh my! ALL our senses are stoked when we immerse ourselves in Nature's embrace.
What makes recreational fireworks so attractive to us? It may be the short-burst visual and auditory surprise that - when experienced within the context of a community celebration - can be titillating. KA-BOOM! There's absolutely everything to love about experiencing exhilaration in a community context. But there's a darker economic underbelly. Ker-plop.
To environmentally hostile or antipathetic fireworks devotees, often decibel-anesthetized, posthuman and thus, harried, fragmented, and addicted to adrenaline rush, fireworks are a compulsory celebratory event, the big KA-BOOM. As a young colleague's brother sadly proclaimed, "What's more American than blowing stuff up?" Oh, Johnny.
For U.S. fireworks fans who spent about $2.5 M on fireworks in the U.S. in 2025, pyrotechnics may seem like exciting fun, a shot of dopamine in an otherwise dreary daily drama. The absurdity of the obsession can be monetized for those who would remove protections for the Earth in favor of the profit associated with unabated recreational fireworks. H.R. 8593, The "Fireworks for Freedom" Act is legislation incentivizing community fireworks displays in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary. This bill, supported by both the American Pyrotechnics Association and the National Fireworks Association, would waive adopted environmental regulations used to deny fireworks permits for environmental protections. We can trade planetary health and wholeness for a few (ghastly and expensive) moments of artificial, sparkly, colorful KA-BOOM! And the pyro-manufacturers and sellers profit all the way to retirement.
I can imagine so many ways we can celebrate the good life and the unfettered freedom of Earth's abundance, color, beauty, wilderness, and mystery without compromising the health and well-being of an entire planetary community.
Here are a few Earth-friendly alternatives to fireworks:
Host a community celebration of Earth-Friendly Freedom for ALL creation! Welcome everyone who lives in the community, human and more-than-human kin. Be hospitable. Anticipate what the birds and the bees, flowers and trees, canines and felines need, as well as your human guests. Make sure there's plenty of water, lemonade, tea, fresh fruit and veggies, naturally sweet treats, and laughter-inducing stories for everyone! Made-up games for the creative imagination sustain dopamine and endorphin production much longer than a short-term spike produced by fireworks. The Earth is filled with color and sound in the summer if we pay attention!
Early Birding - Celebrate Nature's flair by practicing neighborhood Sunrise Yoga or Tai Chi/Qi Gong at the crack of dawn. You'll be surprised how much energy you'll have after your morning practice and a refreshing glass of water or tea! While you recover, find your favorite sit-spot and do a little patch-birding. Notice which birds are drawn to which plants, trees, and feeders. Learn their beautiful melodies. Use the Merlin app to help you (and the kids and grands!) identify and protect our avian kin!
Image courtesy of Laura Weber Plan a day-long picnic in Nature that titillates each sense - visual, auditory, texture, taste, and olfactory - one that celebrates all the senses. Create a menu featuring organic, local fare. Maybe try a new cocktail, like the Solar Flare. Or an organic, vegan trifle! Pool or sprinkler parties are great, or better yet, head to the park for a clean stream plunge or lakeside picnic. Nothing fills our bucket more than time outside with the ones we love! Blow bubbles and delight the littles! Bubbles are so pretty in the sunlight!
Go Slowly, Savor the Day - Image courtesy of Laura Weber Accompany your young Nature explorers on a treasure hunt to find turtles, plants and insects to improve their Nature intelligence quotient. Pack the telescope for nighttime star-gazing and add blankets and comfy pillows for story-telling. The kids need our presence and attention much more than a $500 fireworks show that lasts ten minutes.
Host a sunset dance party! Invite your favorite partners to waltz, jive, or groove in the dazzling color-striated horizon. As the day-light birdsong wanes, tune into frog song and owl song, and let your central nervous system relax. Prepare a hot cuppa for your beloved in the moonlight. Read poetry or your favorite story. Tell them you love them. Give them something you made, something you found, or something you cherish. Make sure you note your gratitude for all the gifts of the day before you close your eyes. Let your heart swell with the full moon. See if that doesn't give you a healthy endorphin release!
If we spend just a day or two this summer slowing down, savoring freedom and abundance, and celebrating Nature's wild soul with the ones we love, we might experience a little rewilding of our own!
Follow the fireflies. Reach for the stars. And fireworks will pale like a cheap imitation.
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