Why the World Is Running Out of Helium 475
jamie writes "The US National Helium Reserve stores a billion cubic meters of helium, half the world supply, in an old natural gasfield. The array of pipes and mines runs 200 miles from Texas to Kansas. In the name of deficit reduction, we're selling it all off for cheap. Physics professor and Nobel laureate Robert Richardson says: 'In 1996, the US Congress decided to sell off the strategic reserve and the consequence was that the market was swelled with cheap helium because its price was not determined by the market. The motivation was to sell it all by 2015. The basic problem is that helium is too cheap. The Earth is 4.7 billion years old and it has taken that long to accumulate our helium reserves, which we will dissipate in about 100 years. One generation does not have the right to determine availability forever.' Another view is The Impact of Selling the Federal Helium Reserve, the government study from 10 years ago that suggested the government's price would end up being over market value by 25% — but cautioned that this was based on the assumption that demand would grow slowly, and urged periodic reviews of the state of the industry."
Probably because of my niece's birthday parties (Score:5, Funny)
Re:can we make it? (Score:5, Funny)
All you need is a star with a shitload of hydrogen and a few million years. It's pretty difficult to retrieve, though.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)
For the children (Score:5, Funny)
Re:can we make it? (Score:5, Funny)
Until we get those fusion generators up and running! I hear it will be in the next ten years!
Re:can we make it? (Score:3, Funny)
"The Earth is 4.7 billion years old" (Score:1, Funny)
Citation needed????!!!!!
Re:"The Earth is 4.7 billion years old" (Score:5, Funny)
Careful, or I'll get a "[citation needed]" stamp and go all stamp-crazy on your Bible...
Re:Probably because of my niece's birthday parties (Score:5, Funny)
The balloons are to make up for the clowns.
Re:For the children (Score:3, Funny)
That works with hydrogen too. Xenon is far funnier though.
And funnier still when the anesthetic effects occur.
Re:Running out? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Running out? (Score:1, Funny)
I was thinking the exact same thing - it's not like we're feeding it all into a fusion plant and leaving none for later generations, they just might have to expend the energy to recapture and re-purify it.
Recapture it from SPACE, you ignorant tool.
Re:"The Earth is 4.7 billion years old" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What ever do you mean... (Score:3, Funny)
Even if we're in no immediate danger of running out, we're still living on a planet with finite resources.
But helium isn't burned or consumed or changed into something else, so we still have it when we are done using it. It's not like the helium is going to vanish into thin air.
Re:For the children (Score:5, Funny)
Helium makes your voice sound funny. N2O makes everyone else's voice sound funny.
Re:Blimps vs. 747s, a good reason to keep helium. (Score:3, Funny)
So, since when are Amish encouraged to post on /.?
Your blimp might be fuel efficient, but going from Los Angeles to Sydney at the mind-numbing speed of 45 MPH doesn't appeal to everyone.
I'm also guessing you want us to give up those wasteful automobiles, because your horse-drawn carriage uses less fuel, provides you with a cheap source of fertilizer, and is oh-so-comfortable?
That's why we need a space elevator! (Score:3, Funny)
Back in Galileo's day (Score:5, Funny)
They took citations and stamped "Bible needed".
Re:What about the space program? (Score:3, Funny)
They really ought to be inflating the price,
Yep, they should definitely take steps to make the price balloon now, before it's too late.
What? Why are you looking at me that way?
Re:Blimps vs. 747s, a good reason to keep helium. (Score:3, Funny)
Good analogy! "Your basic blimp" vs. a 747 is clearly an apples-to-apples comparison!
Re:Running out? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, and it's up there with groping crops for biofuel.
To be fair, it was an exceptionally well-formed ear of corn.
Re:Probably because of my niece's birthday parties (Score:3, Funny)
Once helium does run out we can still use hydrogen to fill those party balloons for the kids
And after the kids crap out and go to bed, the adults can play "Balloon meets Cigarette" for some drinking fun
Re:can we make it? (Score:2, Funny)
pardon my non science background, but is there a way a to manufacture helium?
Sure we just need to capture a bunch of Hynerians and make them nervous.
Re:Probably because of my niece's birthday parties (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, "Balloon meets cigarette". When I was a kid there was this piece of shit on two legs, he loved to pop up on kids at funfairs and blow up their balloons with his cig. He'd go "oops, sorry" and walk away while the kids cried.
We filled some balloons with a mixture of hydrogen and air, and tied them to an empty pushchair about 30 meters from the fair near the parking lot. Of course, he couldn't resist, thinking the kid would be around to see his precious balloons pop. He took a nice long drag on his cig, touched the balloon with the lit end and...
To this day, sometimes I still hear the screams.
Ah, sweet childhood memories. :)
Re:Just in Time Worrying (Score:1, Funny)
Bah. Everyone knows that Greenpeace is just a shell company of BP.
Re:Blimps vs. 747s, a good reason to keep helium. (Score:1, Funny)
Your basic blimp is also slow, can't carry much weight, and can't deal with storms very well.
I'm an average American , you insensitive clod!