It has recently come to my attention that the world's source of helium is rapidly depleting. I discovered this one day when a little girl came up to me while I was at work (Red Robin) and asked me for a pink balloon. When I went to fill up the empty balloon nothing came out of the helium tank, after inquiring with my manager he informed me that we were temporarily out due to the shortage. This left the girl saddened and me puzzled. It made me wonder, what would happen if the Earth ran out?
Helium is a nonrenewable resource that is either made by the sun or decay of terrestrial rock. (learn more here!) Despite my original belief, helium is more useful than to make little kids smile, it is most commonly used in MRI scanners, radiation monitors, and is even used by NASA.
All these are far more important and had me concerned that if we are soon to run out of this very useful gas forever, and haven't yet found a replacement for it, why do we continue to use it for unimportant things like floating, plastic bubbles! What if this element is the secret behind the cure for cancer, and we are wasting it on balloons?
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