Balloon releases were a thing of my childhood - we did them in school for all kinds of events, sometimes with a letter attached to see if someone would write back and we would know how far the balloon had traveled! I don't think anyone ever wrote back though - growing up near the SF Bay means those balloons are probably still in the ocean decades later :(

Environmental justice is a global issue, and we cannot ignore what we do in one area affects others - whether locally or across the world, we have to consider how our modern industries affect everyone. I've lived in an industrial area before, and our air quality was vastly different with an oil refinery 1 mile away than it was when we moved across the same town (just 3 miles away). Guess which part of town was lower income? Everyone has a right to live with access to clean air and water, without health impacts.