Sure, we've all heard about Peak Oil (You haven't? You will.), but have you heard about Peak Helium? It seems we've already passed that as well. It's causing scientists working in physics and biotechnology to be unable to continue their research. I'll post parts of the article from the Wall Street Journal below. Also, there is a report of fuel shortages in China that offers a peak of our future problems that I'll post below that.
Ad Demand Balloons, Helium Is in Short Supply
[...]
Helium is found in varying concentrations in the
world's natural-gas deposits, and is separated out in a special
refining process. As with oil and natural gas, the easiest-to-get
helium supplies have been tapped and are declining. Meanwhile,
scientific research has rapidly multiplied the uses of helium in the
past 50 years. It is needed to make computer microchips, flat-panel
displays, fiber optics and to operate magnetic resonance imaging, or
MRI, scans and welding machines.
The technology explosion is sucking up helium supplies
at dizzying rates. U.S. helium demand is up more than 80% in the past
two decades, and is growing at more than 20% annually in developing
regions such as Asia.
"We've not seen the supply and demand at this
imbalance in the past. We're running on the edge of the supply-demand
curve," says Jane Hoffman, global helium director for Praxair Inc.
Supplies in
the world's largest helium reserve near Amarillo, Texas, are expected
to run out in eight years. Finding and developing new helium sources
will take years and millions of dollars in investment.
Glitches at some of the world's biggest
helium-producing plants have put a further pinch on supplies in the
past year. As supplies have tightened, prices have surged in recent
months. For one New York laboratory, prices have increased to $8 a
liquid liter, from close to $4 at the end of the summer.
The upshot: Helium users -- from party planners to
welding shops -- are having to do with less. Large industrial
manufacturers are better able to weather the helium shortage, taking
steps like installing equipment that can recycle the gas. So it is the
nation's cash-strapped scientific community that is getting the worst
of the crunch.
Soaring helium expenses could shut the doors of some
independent labs, many which have produced important research over the
years, and slow down work at bigger research centers. Helium is used in
research to find cures to deadly diseases, create new sources of energy
and answer questions about how the universe was formed.
Helium is essential to cool the magnets in nuclear
magnetic resonance, or NMR, instruments used to map the chemical
structure of molecules. Dale Ray, from The Cleveland Center for
Structural Biology, an association that groups researchers from several
institutions, says he is considering selling or shutting down two
machines at the NMR lab he manages. The increase in helium prices is
making it unaffordable to run the equipment, which is used to study
proteins responsible for Alzheimer's disease, among other things.
[...]
Additionally, the biggest helium reserve in the world,
which is operated by the U.S. government, is in steady decline. Stored
in a depleted natural-gas cavern known as the Bush Dome near Amarillo,
it supplies 35% of the helium consumed in the world. The government
started the reserve in 1925, but by the mid-90s decided to sell it to
pay off debt it incurred from stockpiling helium over the years.
Under law, the entire contents of the Bush Dome should
be sold by 2015. Helium is very expensive to store because, like a
stranded party balloon, it floats up and disappears into the
atmosphere. As a result, there is little storage capacity for the gas.
Virtually all helium is processed and shipped to its final user as soon
as it is extracted from the ground. Once the Bush Dome reserve is gone,
there will be no stored helium to supply the market in case of
disruptions at production facilities, making for even spottier
deliveries and higher prices.
Living the Diesel Shortages in China
Trucks are lining up in their hundreds at three stations in Chongqing,
China, in the hopes of getting 40 litres of fuel each. In this city of
10 million, only those three are still selling diesel. This may be an
economics-induced dress rehearsal of the reality that will face the
rest of the world in the post-peak oil universe...
[...]
To highlight social stress inflation is causing: “Stampede leaves 3
dead, 31 injured” is a headline that sums up the situation. Carrefour
supermarket had a special on cooking oil which was discounted $1.55
from the regular $7 price. The promotion saw bargain shoppers lining up
at the store entrance at 4 a.m. When the doors opened at 8:40a.m.,
there was a stampede to the aisles. Fights over the bottles of oil
began, and shoppers were pushed to the floor. Some were trampled to
death. Those that went to the hospital for injuries had bruises and
gashes to the face, hands and forearms caused by other shoppers using
cans as weapons to loosen the grip of those with bottles in hand, and
retrieving dropped bottles. This incident is also a result of bio-fuel
production interfering with food production and driving up cooking oil
prices. Inflation was not the only cause.
It has been a culmination of lost dreams, minimal income, rising food
prices and no end in sight of rising cost of daily life that made last
month’s 10 per cent rise in fuel prices unpopular and added another
nail to the coffin. Those that were able to afford cars within the last
few years are now complaining about filling up the tank. Two years ago
gasoline was 2.5 yuan per liter, now it sits at 5.8 yuan.
China’s national government sets fuel prices, and with the Olympics
approaching they want no civil disorder like that which Myanmar
experienced after their fuel prices climbed. The illusion of a
harmonious society needs to be maintained through the Olympics to
generate more foreign investment. Another rise of fuel prices of 20-30
per cent will bring the refiners to the break even point when selling
refined fuel in China, but will also cause transport drivers to strike
and the gentle old lady on the street corner selling roasted chestnuts
to become a fire breathing dragon asking for change.
Chinese citizens have put the equation together: Higher fuel prices =
higher food prices. Based on the complaints I hear from my students
about high prices, the central government would be asking for trouble
with another fuel price hike. This puts the central government squarely
in the center of a catch 22. If they raise fuel prices, refiners will
produce more since they are not losing money, but civil disorder may
occur. If they do nothing and the shortages will continue for the next
six months, the manufacture and export sector will continue to slow
down, slowing the entire economy. That is until the Olympics are
finished!
[...]
