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Six Things You Didn't Know We Were Running Out Of
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lemonjelly wrote: »If you have vanilla donuts, consider yourself at risk...:eek:
I'll just tell everyone it's just Ethyl vanillin really
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The website is a joke website but I think it's meant to be semi-serious. For example they claim helium extracted from the air is 10,000 times more expensive than that which is 'mined'. I have no idea if that is true.
The thing about agave seems reasonable as does the cocoa thing. I mean would you do manual labour at the equator for 80c/day? I wouldn't if I had the choice and maybe those poor farmers are starting to have choices.
It could well be but Helium demonstrates why both government and Physicists should leave markets alone.
The USA strategic reserve originates from before WW2 (when it was used for airships) - the Hindenburg had to use Hydrogen with predictable results (in hindsight).
I can imagine Physicists hate seeing their lovely chemicals tied to a childs hand at a funfair, but would think that if anything has elastic demand, it would be novelty balloons.0 -
The website is a joke website but I think it's meant to be semi-serious. For example they claim helium extracted from the air is 10,000 times more expensive than that which is 'mined'. I have no idea if that is true.
Virtually all the helium we have stems from alpha particle decays over millions of years. It presumably accumulates with other underground gases, which is why it is such a high proportion of natural gas. Once it gets into the atmosphere, it tends to go in one direction - I'll leave you to guess which - so ground concentrations are very low. This plus its very low boiling point makes it very expensive to freeze helium out of the air - what I think they mean by mining. Once the He is in the upper atmosphere it is lost to us effectively.
If helium is really 7% of natural gas then I cannot believe that we are extracting the maximum from the gas we use, so the rest is simply being exhausted into the atmosphere when we burn the gas. I have no idea how the US strategic reserve compares in size with the amount of He we use or the amount that could potentially be extracted from the natural gas we use. If we are wasting it up the flues, I see nothing wrong with wasting it in balloons instead. If we could easily keep it for future generations, I tend to think we ought to do that.The thing about agave seems reasonable as does the cocoa thing. I mean would you do manual labour at the equator for 80c/day? I wouldn't if I had the choice and maybe those poor farmers are starting to have choices.
How much would the price of cocoa rise if the farmers' pay doubled or trebled? Maybe they could increase their earnings dramatically just by forming marketing cooperatives and cutting out one layer of middle men? Without that information, any discussion is pointless.No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?0 -
Is the helium thing true?
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Yes.
As is the Agave thing, although in fairness it's not a new problem, with previous shortages and gluts being the norm. In fact, buying superpremium Anejo tequila at the right time and laying it up for a couple of decades may prove to be the smartest way to financially exploit any of the shortages in the article. It's got collector and appreciation potential like good single malts do, and it's easy to store..... Unlike helium.“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
-- President John F. Kennedy”0 -
The article misses the point that we are running out of time :eek::eek::eek:
Sorry, just thought I'd add to the general theme.
The big things we are depleting though, this article doesn't cover... huge amounts of topsoil are washed away as a result of feeding too many people that way, we are losing entire species of animals so fast we are considered to be in a great extinction period, and we are cutting down large sections of the rainforest that provides the air we breathe.
Topsoil isn't a renewable resource if you use it too far... as quite large sections of the world are finding out.
So, all in all coco butter is probably not the scariest thing going.“The ideas of debtor and creditor as to what constitutes a good time never coincide.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Love Among the Chickens0 -
one cannot have infinite growth in a finite environment... what is so hard to understand about this???0
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How can we run out of water, surely it just gets recycled or is just in the wrong place.
Underground aquifers (where we get the majority of our fresh water from) are being depleted faster than they are being naturally recharged,
See this article for a full explanation:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Aquifer_depletion0 -
I have always envied your sunshine in Aus Gen, but perhaps now I can see a benefit in living in Scotland. There is sooo much water. Although today is a lovely sunny spring day
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Beautiful day in London too.No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?0
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I have always envied your sunshine in Aus Gen, but perhaps now I can see a benefit in living in Scotland. There is sooo much water. Although today is a lovely sunny spring day
We get a lot of water in some parts-Sydney gets twice as much rain as London for example on average. Most of it is channelled into the ocean though.0
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