Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/10/helium-shortage-deflating-part.html
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So, it’s just not a party without helium balloons? I say, “GOOD RIDDANCE!” Helium balloons are insidious: 1) they pop, making kids cry, 2) they fly away, again with the crying, 3) they get stuck in trees, like so much plastic bag litter, 4) the bits end up in waterways, fooling aquatic species into starvation.
Yes, I’m here to spoil all the ‘fun’.
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I’m ok with not wasting a valuable gas that could be used for useful endeavors instead. Also looking online if there are alternatives that wouldn’t be more dangerous and Neon is a good candidate, the only issue is that its more expensive.
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Seems hydrogen balloon explosions are on the rise in some countries.
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At my daughter’s 4th birthday party in the park, her aunt brought her a huge Rainbow Dash (My Little Pony…) mylar balloon. Not just with a picture, but shaped like the pony. Anyway, of course, midway through the party, the balloon gets loose. It got stuck in a tree for a second, but then was shaken loose and sailed out over the park. The aunt came back about 10 minutes later (having taken a walk) and said that all the kids on the next field were ecstaticly pointing and shouting at the sky “Rainbow Dash is flying over the park!” It certainly helped smooth over the tragedy…(well, the immediate tragedy anyway, the park canopy is still always littered with deflated balloons and plastic bags…)
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Me & the kids will be fine with no balloons, & no fracking.
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I’m extremely baffled as to why helium, which is a nonrenewable resource we only have a few more years of on the entire planet, is allowed to be used in party balloons instead of being closely monitored and allocated for valuable scientific uses.
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I own land in the middle of nowhere. Every time I walk my land I find several helium balloons.
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Finding a new supplier isn’t a solution. It could be a way to postpone the inevitable to buy time to find another way to expand your business to make up for the lost profits. But those quotes don’t sound like they’re thinking along those lines.
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We used to. Then Congress decided “nah” and ordered it to be sold off.
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I mean, they’re Party City, we can hardly be surprised if “Party 'til the Wheels Fall Off” is their stance on environmental/economic issues…
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Non renewable? All you need is an alpha emitter and patience.
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This is the real promise of sustainable fusion: a new source of gas for party balloons.
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23% of the baryonic mass of the universe is helium. The lithosphere creates 3000 metric tons of helium each year through radioactive decay of alpha particles. Yet, we still get most of ours via fractional distillation of natural gas. Helium isn’t in short supply we just don’t have a good way of getting to it.
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We use it for many things in radio astronomy, mostly because it boils at 4K, which is cold enough to make low-noise receivers. It’s a shame to see it go up in balloons.
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Not the first time this has happened
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As someone who knows basically nothing about the non-hilarious uses of helium, I read on BoingBoing in 2016 that an enormous helium field had been discovered in Tanzania, and then on Bloomberg in late 2017 that said helium field was found to be twice as large as initially thought.
So I thought we were OK on helium. But apparently we are not.
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On the plus side. A birthday that won’t be forgotten for a lifetime.
(I hope no one one was hurt.)
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I’m pretty sure future generations will look at ours as if we were savages over this issue. It’s going to become crazy expensive, maybe moreso than gold and they’ll be like “You mean to tell me they pumped it into rubber bags just to look at it for a bit then let it float into the upper atmosphere?!”
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