to think everyone should know this about helium balloons?

[ninjasquirrel]

I only found this out the other day and was quite shocked. Basically, helium is essential for MRI scanners and some other things, but it is a finite resource and because we are using it all up for party balloons etc. it could be all gone within 25-30 years. See here

Scary fact.

But the helium from balloons is not "used up", surely it just goes back into the atmosphere to be collected and used again

Um.... the reason why helium is popular in party balloons is because it goes up. I'm not sure it hangs around in the lower reaches of the atmosphere waiting to be collected.

The idea of being able to come up with a substitute for lighter than air balloons is - sorry - just silly. Ye canna change the laws of physics.

Lots of other resources are being depleted, you can't have all your cool gadgetry without rare elements. I guess in the future we'll have to 'mine' landfill but extraction from such sources probably won't be easy.