Speaker 1: Guess what will? What's that mango? Do you know that
Speaker 1: Johnny Carson once caused a toilet paper shortage? You know,
Speaker 1: I know we've talked about this story before. It's been
Speaker 1: a long time. Like I remember he joked that there
Speaker 1: was no toilet paper, and all of his listeners like
Speaker 1: went out and hoarded toilet paper thinking that we might
Speaker 1: run out or something like that. Right. Yeah, So that's
Speaker 1: basically the story. I mean, there's a little more to it.
Speaker 1: According to Snopes, this Wisconsin congressman, this guy Harold Frolick,
Speaker 1: and actually realized there was a pulp paper shortage, so
Speaker 1: he was kind of trying to think down the line,
Speaker 1: and he issued the statement worrying about the day when
Speaker 1: the government might have to ration toilet paper. Carson picked
Speaker 1: up the item, and then for weeks it was really
Speaker 1: hard to buy toilet paper. In fact, people were so
Speaker 1: worried that stores not only ran out of toilet paper,
Speaker 1: they also ran out of paper towels as well. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's pretty crazy. And is there any sense of like
Speaker 1: whether Carson felt bad about this or what. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think he mostly felt bad for himself. He didn't
Speaker 1: want to be remembered as the guy who caused a
Speaker 1: toilet paper shortage, which is if you ever saying why
Speaker 1: we're bringing it up today. But today's show is about
Speaker 1: some very real things we're running out of, from sand
Speaker 1: to bacon to precious metals and thankfully no t P
Speaker 1: Let's dive in. Hey their podcast, Lester is welcome to
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and is always I'm
Speaker 1: joined by my good friend Man Guesho Ticketer and on
Speaker 1: the other side of the soundproof glass I can actually
Speaker 1: hardly see him at this point. This guy has been
Speaker 1: building this barricade of sandbags for days now. That's our
Speaker 1: friend and producer Tristan McNeil. So I've got to say
Speaker 1: this might be my fault. Earlier this week I was
Speaker 1: telling Tristan and how the world's supply of sand is
Speaker 1: getting low, and ever since he's just been stockpiling this
Speaker 1: stuff like there's no tomorrow. Well he must have enough
Speaker 1: in there to start his own private beach, which I've
Speaker 1: heard might be his goal as well. So anyway, good
Speaker 1: luck to Tristan. But though to be fair, humans really
Speaker 1: are running out of sand from what I've heard of
Speaker 1: that that's true, right, Yeah, And that's not all either,
Speaker 1: Like they're actually all kinds of unexpected resources that the
Speaker 1: world's in short supply of. This includes everything from like
Speaker 1: coffee to helium to even dirt. And a big reason
Speaker 1: for those dwindling supplies is just how much the human
Speaker 1: population has grown. So if you think about it, like
Speaker 1: in the two thousands, the population was at six billion worldwide,
Speaker 1: and today that numbers way closer to seven point six billion,
Speaker 1: and it's growing fast. And with that kind of unprecedented
Speaker 1: growth in such a short period of time, it's really
Speaker 1: easy to see how we might get light on certain resources.
Speaker 1: I mean, but sand, that's what's so surprising. And I
Speaker 1: say this having just been to the beach, you know,
Speaker 1: not too long ago, so I really wouldn't have thought
Speaker 1: this was something that we'd ever be running out of.
Speaker 1: So what is the story on this? Exactly? So weirdly,
Speaker 1: the blame lies with the const ruction industry, and that's
Speaker 1: because sand is actually a crucial ingredient for producing concrete.
Speaker 1: In fact, sand typically makes up about of a wet
Speaker 1: concrete mixture, and it adds strength to the finished product.
Speaker 1: But to loop this back to the population boom, you
Speaker 1: just have to think about like how much new construction
Speaker 1: was needed to house and service all these extra people, right,
Speaker 1: Like you need new apartment buildings, you need skyscrapers, sidewalks, roads,
Speaker 1: and I guess all sorts of infrastructure to support that
Speaker 1: sort of growth. Then that means a lot of concrete
Speaker 1: and by extension, a lot of sand. And that all
Speaker 1: that makes sense. But you know, if you think about it,
Speaker 1: there's sand used in several other things that we make,
Speaker 1: like glassware, even electronics, and I would think that has
Speaker 1: to be contributing at least a little bit though, right
Speaker 1: it is. And actually sand and gravel are so useful
Speaker 1: in certain industries that they've become the most extracted materials
Speaker 1: on the planet. Like it even surpasses fossil fuels and
Speaker 1: biomass when measured by weight. But even still there there's
Speaker 1: no question that the bulk of all that extra at
Speaker 1: sand and gravel is being used for construction. You know,
Speaker 1: a few years ago, the US Geological Survey estimated that
Speaker 1: about thirty billion tons of sand and gravel were being
Speaker 1: used in global construction projects. And this was every year.
Speaker 1: And by contrast, all of the world's other industry uses
Speaker 1: for sand account for about fourteen billion tons annually. Wow,
Speaker 1: so forty four billion tons per year and you're saying,
Speaker 1: but that like two thirds of that goes towards construction
Speaker 1: by itself, right, exactly. But but here's the thing. Forty
Speaker 1: four billion tons is considered a conservative estimate. There's actually
Speaker 1: a strong chance that many countries have been under reporting
Speaker 1: their sand used for years to hide the true extraction rates,
Speaker 1: and the result of this is that some regions are
Speaker 1: now running out of sand altogether. They have also been
Speaker 1: some straight up sand thefts from beaches, like in the Caribbean.
Speaker 1: I read the story from two thousand and eight about
Speaker 1: Jamaica where five truckloads of sand were taken from White
Speaker 1: Beach overnight and uh, and police were just baffled where
Speaker 1: they went, Like they went to other resorts, they halted
Speaker 1: con instruction, but they just couldn't match that sand anywhere else.
Speaker 1: Like it's kind of stunning. But um, sand, you know,
Speaker 1: if you think about it, has always been a local
Speaker 1: product because just about every country has some of their own.
Speaker 1: But now that some regions are exhausting their native supply,
Speaker 1: sand has actually become a globally traded commodity. And it's
Speaker 1: crazy to see that I mean, sands international trade value
Speaker 1: has risen about six over the last twenty five years.
Speaker 1: All right, so the sand business is booming like we've
Speaker 1: never seen it before. But I'm curious, like, what what's
Speaker 1: the downside to all of us? Is it just higher
Speaker 1: construction cost or what? Well, I mean, the financial expense
Speaker 1: is definitely a drawback, but it's kind of the least
Speaker 1: of our concerns. The bigger problem is that sand mining
Speaker 1: has all these terrible effects on the environment. It causes flooding,
Speaker 1: It damages infrastructure, plutes rivers, you know, and it ruins beaches.
Speaker 1: And that last part is really where a lot of
Speaker 1: the human cost comes in because beaches and wetlands there's
Speaker 1: these natural protective barriers for coastal communities. So you know
Speaker 1: why spread sand mining. Along with all the erosion it causes,
Speaker 1: it actually exposes people to greater danger from floods and storms. Well,
Speaker 1: and if you think about other issues, we've got sea
Speaker 1: levels that are rising all the time, so it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's not a great position to be in. I mean,
Speaker 1: the situation is even worse than developing countries like parts
Speaker 1: of Asia and Africa, and that's because sand exploitation in
Speaker 1: these regions has actually led to organized crime groups getting involved. So, uh,
Speaker 1: they're into like illegal sand mining and trade and it's
Speaker 1: wild to think about, but they're really these sand mafia's
Speaker 1: out there, these bribes, threats and violence to control black
Speaker 1: market sales. Well, I'm curious, like why are countries strip
Speaker 1: mining beaches and coastlines at all? I mean, it seems
Speaker 1: like there's plenty of sand in the earth deserts, so
Speaker 1: why would we not just be using that? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's a great question, but ultimately, desert sand doesn't work.
Speaker 1: It's it's because it's eroded from wind rather than water,
Speaker 1: and desert sand ends up being like too fine to
Speaker 1: be used in construction materials. I mean, concrete made from
Speaker 1: that kind of sand doesn't hold well together, which you
Speaker 1: know makes it much weaker as a result. But traditionally
Speaker 1: the majority of constructions send was mined from river banks
Speaker 1: and quarries, but now, with demand at this global height,
Speaker 1: taking stands from beaches and coastlines has also become common.
Speaker 1: What's a shame. I'm curious, So, like how desperate is
Speaker 1: the situation? Like, are we really building that much more
Speaker 1: than we used to? Or what so, not all countries
Speaker 1: are showing this dramatic rise and sand consumption, but the
Speaker 1: ones that have are really using enough for this to
Speaker 1: be worrisome. So, for for instance, according to the US
Speaker 1: Geographical Survey, China, India, Brazil, the US and Turkey, these
Speaker 1: are the biggest concrete producers in the world with you know,
Speaker 1: China and India account for two thirds of the total production,
Speaker 1: and China is actually the worst defender. Two fourteen report
Speaker 1: from the UN Environmental Program revealed that over the past
Speaker 1: twenty years, the countrys cement uses skyrocketed by four seven percent,
Speaker 1: and if you compare that to the fifty eight percent
Speaker 1: increase in the rest of the world, you can see
Speaker 1: why China's considered a sand hog. Oh yeah, definitely. I'm curious, like,
Speaker 1: what is the solution to all this, because I know
Speaker 1: we can't exactly ban concrete, right, Yeah, obviously most countries
Speaker 1: aren't going to go for that. There's some promising alternatives.
Speaker 1: For example, engineers in the UK are working on a
Speaker 1: new kind of concrete that uses not only like a
Speaker 1: smaller amount of sand, but also makes up the difference
Speaker 1: with these plastic pellets. Um There's also the option to
Speaker 1: cut back on concrete usage in favor of more sustainable materials.
Speaker 1: We're talking about straw here or recycled plastics. Um. Another
Speaker 1: bet is just to make use of the sand we've
Speaker 1: already extracted. So if we got better recycling used concrete
Speaker 1: and glass bottles, we'd actually put a big dent in
Speaker 1: the need for fresh construction sand. But probably the best
Speaker 1: way to prevent a global sand crisis is where countries
Speaker 1: to come up with an agreement on sand usage. I mean,
Speaker 1: we already have these international agreements for other natural resources,
Speaker 1: so why not do the same for sand. Well, what's
Speaker 1: a good point? I think we're just so used to
Speaker 1: having this abundance of sand, and so it never really
Speaker 1: occurred to us that we, you know, we should be
Speaker 1: trying to conserve it. So, you know, but most people
Speaker 1: think about these finite resources, but sand really doesn't tend
Speaker 1: to come up as one of those, at least when
Speaker 1: we're thinking about them or talking about them. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: and that makes sense on some level, because new sand
Speaker 1: is continually being produced, right, Like, sand is just bits
Speaker 1: of rock and shell that have been worn down to
Speaker 1: their most basic elements, and that process is going on constantly.
Speaker 1: But what gets overlooked is how incredibly long that timeline is.
Speaker 1: We've gotten to the point where we're using much more
Speaker 1: sand than could ever be replaced in a lifetime, where
Speaker 1: even in a bunch of lifetimes. Well, that's something we
Speaker 1: should talk about before we go much further. Is like,
Speaker 1: what do we really mean when we say the world
Speaker 1: is running out of a resource? Because you know, it
Speaker 1: can sound a little alarmist to say we're running out
Speaker 1: of sand or coffee or whatever, and especially if that
Speaker 1: resource will never really be exhausted. For example, you know,
Speaker 1: for all the fuel and energy crisis that the world
Speaker 1: is known, we won't ever actually run out of oil
Speaker 1: or gas. Are these substances, they will continue to accumulate
Speaker 1: naturally over time. But what will happen eventually is that
Speaker 1: will deplete all the easy to access fuel deposits. So
Speaker 1: you know, even though oil will still be there, the
Speaker 1: cost of getting it is going to skyrocket, and then
Speaker 1: you know, most people will just be priced out of
Speaker 1: using it as a fuel source. Yeah, and aside from
Speaker 1: certain species of extinct plants or animals, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: if the planets ever really truly run out of a
Speaker 1: natural resource, like apparently there's this mineral called cry light,
Speaker 1: and it's used in pesticides and also in processing aluminum foil,
Speaker 1: and by most accounts, this is something that we've completely
Speaker 1: run out of, Like the last cry light mine was
Speaker 1: closed in the nineteen eighties and we've been using a
Speaker 1: synthetic alternative to make bug spray and foil ever since.
Speaker 1: But that's not to say that the Earth is completely
Speaker 1: out of cry light, Like they're these rich, deep veins
Speaker 1: in the mineral that still exists all over the globe.
Speaker 1: It's just at the going rate for cry light wouldn't
Speaker 1: justify the cost of mining it. So from a practical standpoint,
Speaker 1: we basically run out of cry late, even if there's
Speaker 1: still a lot out there, right, And you know, none
Speaker 1: of this should downplay the severity of these situations, and
Speaker 1: if anything, the idea that we're close to being priced
Speaker 1: out of all of these useful substances, I would think
Speaker 1: that should be a wake up call at the very least. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. I mean, have you heard about China's monopoly
Speaker 1: on rare earth metals. The country is said to control
Speaker 1: more than of the planet's rare earth deposits, and they
Speaker 1: can actually restrict airports on those supplies any time they want. Like,
Speaker 1: it's easy to imagine that kind of thing leading to
Speaker 1: international disputes at some point. Well, I mean, we've already
Speaker 1: said that China is using the most sands, and now
Speaker 1: we're seeing that they're also hogging all of the best metals.
Speaker 1: And you know, I kind of want to be outraged
Speaker 1: about all of this, but I have to admit I
Speaker 1: don't really know anything about rare earth metals. So you
Speaker 1: tell me, should I be outraged about this? Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: gave gave me a primer, and I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: about it because I let you make up your own mind.
Speaker 1: There are currently seventeen elements classify it as rare earth minerals,
Speaker 1: and this includes stuff like scandium and terbium, which are
Speaker 1: used to make everything from circuit boards and smartphones to
Speaker 1: um missile guidance systems to even magnets used in wind turbines.
Speaker 1: And you know, these medals aren't quite as rare as
Speaker 1: their names suggests, but they are incredibly useful and they
Speaker 1: aren't easy to source outside of China. And adding to
Speaker 1: this concern is the fact that China likes to keep
Speaker 1: its cars close to its best. I mean, we have
Speaker 1: no idea exactly how much of these minerals the country
Speaker 1: still has left in reserve, or how much longer it
Speaker 1: will be willing to trade them and share them with
Speaker 1: rival nations, like if and when that supply drives up,
Speaker 1: we might have to turn to lunar mining to get
Speaker 1: our rare earth fixts. I mean, what strikes me about
Speaker 1: this is just how unsexy of our problem it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, if rare earth elements maybe in
Speaker 1: short supply, but how many of us even really know
Speaker 1: what they are, let alone what they're used for. And
Speaker 1: so it seems like that's one of the biggest hurdles
Speaker 1: to bringing awareness to issues, you know, like these dwindling
Speaker 1: sand resources, or other minerals, or just anything that's like
Speaker 1: this that we don't really understand. I mean, it is,
Speaker 1: but we shouldn't little lack of sex of field stop
Speaker 1: us from talking about something really boring but also important. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, let's double down and talk about what has
Speaker 1: to be one of the least provocative resources in short supply,
Speaker 1: and that's the very dirt beneath our feet. But before
Speaker 1: we dig in, let's take a quick break you're listening
Speaker 1: to part time genius, and we're talking about some unexpected
Speaker 1: resources that the world is running out of. And speaking
Speaker 1: of which will you already alluded to our dwindling dirt supply,
Speaker 1: But just how bad is this damage? Well, the problem
Speaker 1: isn't so much a lack of dirt, but the lack
Speaker 1: of quality dirt. So in particular, we're running out of
Speaker 1: usable top soil, which is that layer of dirt that
Speaker 1: contains the most nutrients that allow plant life to grow.
Speaker 1: And it's frightening, it is to admit by most calculation,
Speaker 1: and I think we're down to about sixty years worth
Speaker 1: of top soil on average. So you're saying that in
Speaker 1: about sixty years we won't be able to grow crops anymore.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the long and short of it. Because
Speaker 1: at this point, roughly of the world's agricultural soil is
Speaker 1: classified as either degraded or seriously degraded. And these are
Speaker 1: the terms that refer to how little top soil an
Speaker 1: area of land contains. And when you run the numbers
Speaker 1: on this, we've actually lost about half the topsail on
Speaker 1: Earth and just the past hundred and fifty years or so,
Speaker 1: and so that means that most of the nutrients the
Speaker 1: dirt once contained are gone now and as a result
Speaker 1: of this, we're growing a lot less food than we
Speaker 1: used to. But even beyond that, what we do manage
Speaker 1: to grow is far less nutritious than it used to be.
Speaker 1: For instance, modern wheat varieties contain fifty less micronutrients than
Speaker 1: the older strains. And it's a similar case with fruits
Speaker 1: and vegetables. I mean, many of those have lost half
Speaker 1: their nutritional value or more and that's just in the
Speaker 1: years since nineteen fifty. So this is actually terrifying to
Speaker 1: think about, especial since it sounds like the problem will
Speaker 1: get significantly worse. But what is the problem exactly? Like,
Speaker 1: what's degrading the soil so much? Well, a lot of
Speaker 1: this soul degradation is due to the farming techniques that
Speaker 1: strip carbon and the nutrients from the soil, and that
Speaker 1: just makes it weaker and less robust than the process.
Speaker 1: So this is stuff like excessive tilling or the overuse
Speaker 1: of harmful pesticides or fertilizers, and these are all methods
Speaker 1: that put a lot of strain on the soil and
Speaker 1: they also up the amounts of salts and acids that
Speaker 1: the soil contains, and of course, over time this makes
Speaker 1: the dirt less and less hospitable to the plants that
Speaker 1: we want to grow there. Okay, so that then you
Speaker 1: can just reverse those practices, right, like, Uh, couldn't we
Speaker 1: just do away with synthetic fertilizers and I don't know,
Speaker 1: like investing good old fashioned manure. I mean, that would
Speaker 1: be a great start, no question about that. But there's
Speaker 1: actually another major issue at play here, and it's, you know,
Speaker 1: something I haven't thought that much about until I started
Speaker 1: skimming through this book. And the book is called The
Speaker 1: Ground Beneath Us and it's by Paul Bogart. And what
Speaker 1: Paul points out is the sheer speed at which we're
Speaker 1: paving over some of the most fertile soil that we have.
Speaker 1: So I'm just going to read a little excerpt from
Speaker 1: the book, and so here's what it says. Human settlements
Speaker 1: have traditionally taken root in fertile areas, and as these
Speaker 1: increasingly urban areas grow in human numbers, we're developing the
Speaker 1: ground and thus losing the best soils for growing food.
Speaker 1: In the United States, the amount of ground being lost
Speaker 1: to development is stunning more than a million acres per
Speaker 1: year as one result. Whereas in nineteen eighty the nation
Speaker 1: had an average of nearly two acres of crop land
Speaker 1: for each citizen, thirty years later, and with ninety million
Speaker 1: people added, that number had fallen to one point two
Speaker 1: acres per American. All this might not matter so much
Speaker 1: if we could just find more soil, or just make
Speaker 1: more soil ourselves, but for all practical purposes, soil is
Speaker 1: a non renewable resource. The recipe for soil is incredibly complex,
Speaker 1: requiring an intricate mix of the right chemistry, biology, and physics,
Speaker 1: and it simply takes a long time to form the
Speaker 1: rule of thumb, between five hundred and several thousand years
Speaker 1: for an inch of top soil, so incredible for just
Speaker 1: an inch of it. It's kind of like sand, right,
Speaker 1: Like like the world continues to make new top soil,
Speaker 1: but not nearly fast enough to keep pace with how
Speaker 1: we use it. So it might be time to rethink
Speaker 1: how we're using it right, and especially the whole paving
Speaker 1: over huge tracks of it in one go part. And
Speaker 1: you know that's not a process you can just undo.
Speaker 1: There's no going back. Once the ground is paved which
Speaker 1: is why there's this saying among environmentalists that asphalt is
Speaker 1: the land's last crop and that that's that's clever, but
Speaker 1: it's also really chilling. But you know, it says, since
Speaker 1: we're already on a downbarad spiral here, if you want
Speaker 1: a truly scary reason to worry about the global food supply,
Speaker 1: I've got two words for you. Phosphorus shortage. All right, well,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to explain why this is scary. Remind
Speaker 1: us again what what exactly phosphorus is and what it's
Speaker 1: used for. Well, I mean, phosphorus is a mineral that's
Speaker 1: used in all kinds of products. It's used in pharmaceuticals, detergents,
Speaker 1: building materials, food preservatives. But you know, probably most importantly,
Speaker 1: it's an active ingredient in most high quality fertilizers. We
Speaker 1: spread a lot of phosphorus on our crops every year,
Speaker 1: So if we were to run out of it before
Speaker 1: sourcing a suitable alternative food, production would actually take a
Speaker 1: huge hit. So how likely is it that will run
Speaker 1: out of phosphorus or is it more a question of
Speaker 1: win at this point? Yeah, So there's a term called
Speaker 1: peak phosphorus and it's basically the point in time when
Speaker 1: humanity will have hit the maximum production rate possible for phosphorus.
Speaker 1: So the idea is that from that point on the
Speaker 1: mineral become harder and harder to source. So most researchers
Speaker 1: seem to think we'll hit peak phosphorus by and then
Speaker 1: completely wipe out our reserves by But there are rosier
Speaker 1: projections as well. They they think we might be able
Speaker 1: to stretch out our reserves for another couple hundred years.
Speaker 1: I mean, I actually think it's kind of weird. How
Speaker 1: two hundred years until famine is really the optimistic take here,
Speaker 1: And so I don't know, I'm curious what got us
Speaker 1: in this trouble in the first place. Was there just
Speaker 1: never that much phosphorus to go around, or are we
Speaker 1: just blowing through it at this reckless rate or what's
Speaker 1: the issue? Yeah, it's a little of both. I Mean,
Speaker 1: there's lots of phosphorus in the world, but the majority
Speaker 1: of it is locked up in the Earth's crust or
Speaker 1: in the bodies of living organisms. So I guess the
Speaker 1: most cost effective way to source of stuff has always
Speaker 1: been to mind it in the form of phosphate rock.
Speaker 1: I mean, the trouble is that only a handful of
Speaker 1: countries possessed significant deposits of this rock, and you know
Speaker 1: they aren't always as frugal with it as you might
Speaker 1: want to be. I get the feeling we're talking about
Speaker 1: China again here, though, right. I mean, don't don't tell
Speaker 1: me they're hogging all the phosphorus in addition to everything else,
Speaker 1: are they? Yeah? So, historically China has had one of
Speaker 1: the world's largest reserves of phosphate rock, but even they're
Speaker 1: running load these days. Not that you'd be able to
Speaker 1: tell from how the farmers use it. Well, what makes
Speaker 1: you say that? So? Back in two thousand nine, China
Speaker 1: Agricultural University published a study that found that northern Chinese
Speaker 1: farmers use about five pounds of fertilizer per acre. It
Speaker 1: sounds like a lot, but then you realize it's actually
Speaker 1: six times as much fertilizer as the average American farmer uses.
Speaker 1: And if that's not bad enough, the overuse of phosphorus
Speaker 1: is compounded by the fact that most of it gets
Speaker 1: washed down into the ocean by rainwater. I mean, could
Speaker 1: this be a blessing in disguise? Like if that much
Speaker 1: phosphorus is swirling around in the ocean's currents. Because is
Speaker 1: there a way to start mining it from the ocean
Speaker 1: somehow and and use it that way? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: in theory, that could really work, and it's a great idea,
Speaker 1: but again, we'd eventually run into that core problem of
Speaker 1: pricing ourselves out. Like a switch from dry mining, the
Speaker 1: marine mining would likely push the prices so high that
Speaker 1: most farmers would have to give up on phosphorus fertilizers,
Speaker 1: and I guess use synthetic ones, which of course wouldn't
Speaker 1: do our food or soil any favors. Okay, well, that
Speaker 1: that makes sense. Why you were saying this phosphorus shortages
Speaker 1: is pretty scary to think about. But you know, now
Speaker 1: that we've laid out the bleakest food future imaginable, I
Speaker 1: feel like we should look at a lighter example of
Speaker 1: diminishing resources. What do you think? I like the light
Speaker 1: side of resource scarcity, but I'm not sure how much
Speaker 1: luck we'll have finding that. But why don't we give
Speaker 1: it a shot? After the break? Al right? Well, so
Speaker 1: late on me. What what's your upbeat example of a
Speaker 1: resource we're running out of? I didn't say upbeat, I
Speaker 1: said a lighter example, because there's actually a worldwide helium
Speaker 1: shortage Mango, you get why I said that, I've been
Speaker 1: been saving that one up. So anyway, we we know
Speaker 1: helium best. Is this noble gas that adds lift to
Speaker 1: our balloons and of course gives us the squeaky voices.
Speaker 1: And you know, honestly, losing that in itself would probably
Speaker 1: be enough to fake it feel like a tragedy. But
Speaker 1: but there are other things to worry about as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine a world without helium balloons, But why
Speaker 1: are we running out of helium if we can find
Speaker 1: in that sphere? Well, that's the thing, because helium is
Speaker 1: super abundant in general, and it's actually the second most
Speaker 1: abundant element in the universe, and that's after hydrogen. It
Speaker 1: just so happens there isn't very much of it on Earth,
Speaker 1: and the helium that is here is constantly escaping through
Speaker 1: our atmosphere. And that's what's worrying, because helium actually has
Speaker 1: all sorts of important applications. For example, Juno in its
Speaker 1: liquid state, helium has the lowest boiling point of any
Speaker 1: material on the planet. So not only does that make
Speaker 1: helium and valuable in cryogenics. It also makes it uniquely
Speaker 1: suited as a coolant for everything from magnets in an
Speaker 1: m R I scanner to the l c D screen
Speaker 1: on your TV or your smartphone. So all these ways
Speaker 1: that I actually really didn't know that much about before
Speaker 1: doing the research for the episode. So what are we
Speaker 1: doing filling party balloons with helium? I mean, it feels
Speaker 1: like such a waste. And actually, if if it's so
Speaker 1: useful and rare, how come you can buy a bundle
Speaker 1: of helium balloons for like ten bucks? Actually that's a
Speaker 1: really good question, and there are plenty of experts who
Speaker 1: argue that we should be charging way higher prices for
Speaker 1: he lium. Like I think they said the going rate
Speaker 1: for a balloon worth of helium should realistically be, you know,
Speaker 1: something like a hundred bucks, rather than the dollar two
Speaker 1: that we actually charged for this stuff. That's insane. So
Speaker 1: it really doesn't make sense, like this price deflation. So
Speaker 1: how do we get away with selling it so cheap? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's partly just because we're used
Speaker 1: to helium being cheap and plentiful, So there's really this
Speaker 1: built in resistance to the idea of charging more for it.
Speaker 1: Then there's also the fact that we won't run out
Speaker 1: of helium for at least a lifetime at this point,
Speaker 1: and that makes it easier to shrug off the risk.
Speaker 1: But probably the biggest reason that we sell helium so
Speaker 1: cheap is that the US government wants it that way.
Speaker 1: You see, in the decades after helium's discovery by this
Speaker 1: French astronomer back in eighteen sixty eight, officials that began
Speaker 1: to realize how useful a lighter than air gas could
Speaker 1: be for these military applications. So with that in mind,
Speaker 1: the federal government created this Federal Helium Reserve. And this
Speaker 1: was back in nineteen so I knew of the government
Speaker 1: had a raisin reserve, but I don't think I realized
Speaker 1: there was one for helium as well. You love dropping
Speaker 1: that raisin reserve fact. I was hoping you would throw
Speaker 1: that into which has always been weird to me. But
Speaker 1: we'll have to talk about that in another episode. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this helium reserve, it's located in this huge, abandoned salt
Speaker 1: mine somewhere out in Texas, and you know the billion
Speaker 1: cubic leaders of gas that stored there. It represents half
Speaker 1: of the world's helium supplies just unbelievable, and in fact,
Speaker 1: its peak in two thousand four, the facility was used
Speaker 1: to satisfy about eighty four percent of the world's helium
Speaker 1: demands for that year. But nowadays I think the number
Speaker 1: is something closer to you know, like fort or so.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's still insane. But why was there such
Speaker 1: a drop off? Well, back, Congress passed a law called
Speaker 1: the Helium Privatization Act, and this effectively marked the end
Speaker 1: of our country's seventy year experiment in buying and storing, refining,
Speaker 1: and then selling helium. And I guess the thinking was
Speaker 1: that helium hadn't turned out to be the wonder gas
Speaker 1: that we took it for back in the early twentieth century,
Speaker 1: so we might as well start selling off our massive reserves.
Speaker 1: And after all, the projects had incurred about one point
Speaker 1: four billion dollars in dead and the government wanted to
Speaker 1: recoup as much of that as it could, so so anyway,
Speaker 1: the law mandated that all but six hundred million cubic
Speaker 1: feet of the reserve be sold off by two thousand
Speaker 1: and fifteen. But no matter how cheap we sold the
Speaker 1: helium balloons for we still couldn't manage to unload it
Speaker 1: all by that deadline, so instead, Congress passed another act
Speaker 1: establishing an auction system for getting rid of the helium,
Speaker 1: while also pushing that deadline back to I think it's
Speaker 1: one if I'm not mistaken. I mean, that's crazy to me,
Speaker 1: because it feels like the kind of decision that could
Speaker 1: come back to Biden is right, Like, I mean, we
Speaker 1: were burning through the stockpil at bargain basement prices just
Speaker 1: because we don't want to hold onto it anymore. But
Speaker 1: once all that accessible helium has been used up or
Speaker 1: I don't know, dissipates into space, how are we going
Speaker 1: to cooler iPads or fill our balloons or freeze aer
Speaker 1: ted Williams is in the future right, Well, you know,
Speaker 1: when the reserve is tapped, that's when we'll have no
Speaker 1: choice but to finally charge what helium is it really worth?
Speaker 1: Because once the current store has gone, the only options
Speaker 1: will be to pull helium straight from the air, and
Speaker 1: that'll raise the cost by about ten thoour from what
Speaker 1: I've read, you know, or we could just mind it
Speaker 1: from the Moon's lunar soil, and of course that's not
Speaker 1: going to be any cheaper. I mean, I can't believe
Speaker 1: the Moon's are best option. It feels like we've hitched
Speaker 1: the future of all kinds of resources to the Moon's surface. Well,
Speaker 1: and it's like we've been saying, that's kind of the
Speaker 1: story behind all the resources that we're quote unquote running
Speaker 1: out of. Not that we'll mind them all from the
Speaker 1: Moon necessarily, but that we'll have to turn increasingly to
Speaker 1: these more expensive options to extract them. And you know,
Speaker 1: finally we just won't be able to pay the cost
Speaker 1: anymore and are going to have to look elsewhere for
Speaker 1: sources of fuel or food or I don't know, even
Speaker 1: the funny voices or whatever it might be. But you know,
Speaker 1: preserving natural resources is always this balancing act and it's
Speaker 1: one that honestly, our species hasn't quite gotten the hang
Speaker 1: off so far. So pretty much what you're saying is
Speaker 1: get used to a hundred dollar balloons. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's going to be the place at some point. And
Speaker 1: you know, come to think of it, Tristan might have
Speaker 1: been better off stockpiling helium instead of all those sandbags.
Speaker 1: I hate to say it. And of course, the hope
Speaker 1: is that humans will come up with some ingenious ideas
Speaker 1: to replace sand and dirt and whatever else. But you know,
Speaker 1: while we wait for that to happen, where do you
Speaker 1: say we get to the fact? Off it sounds good?
Speaker 1: In I DA nine, the New York Times did a
Speaker 1: story on cars in the Soviet Union, and one of
Speaker 1: the things the writer realized was that part cars rarely
Speaker 1: had windshield wipers on them, like drivers would take them
Speaker 1: into the house with them because otherwise they'd actually get stolen.
Speaker 1: Apparently there was such a car parts shortage in those years,
Speaker 1: and windshield wipers were harder and harder to replace. Well,
Speaker 1: the BBC did a story that there's been a shortage
Speaker 1: of burial space almost everywhere and it's led to some
Speaker 1: pretty strange solutions if you just look around the world.
Speaker 1: So there's some places in Spain and Greece where you
Speaker 1: rent an above ground crypt and then when the body decomposes,
Speaker 1: they'll just move you into this common cemetery. Over in
Speaker 1: Israel there are some multi story underground tunnels that have
Speaker 1: been built and they're trying to come up with a
Speaker 1: workable solution in the meantime. And then in Singapore they
Speaker 1: have this unique system for ashes where they store the
Speaker 1: remains in one of fifty thousand urns and you just
Speaker 1: bring a card to the front desk whenever you want
Speaker 1: to visit your relative and they bring their urn out
Speaker 1: to you. That's crazy. Um, did you realize that Norway
Speaker 1: went through a butter shortage in two thousand eleven. It
Speaker 1: was officially called butter panic, or that's how it translated,
Speaker 1: and it was caused by a heavy rainfall one summer
Speaker 1: which affected milk production. But apparently a single packet of
Speaker 1: butter was selling for seventy seven dollars. You know, of
Speaker 1: all the things we've talked about today, this sounds the
Speaker 1: scary because I can't imagine life without butter. But all right,
Speaker 1: well here's something you probably didn't realize. But there's about
Speaker 1: to be a bacon shortage. Okay, maybe this is even
Speaker 1: scarier than the butter shortage. But according to Britain's National
Speaker 1: Pig Association, apport shortage is quote now unavoidable. And this
Speaker 1: isn't because we've been feeding too many bacon's trips to
Speaker 1: our dogs. It's a whole lot of other factors, from
Speaker 1: the price of grains going up to pig illnesses. And
Speaker 1: again it doesn't mean we'll run out of bacon. It's
Speaker 1: just that the price of pork chops and everything else
Speaker 1: will likely go up. So, speaking of bacon, I know
Speaker 1: we've talked about the Lake Cow bacon, which is when
Speaker 1: Congress tried to import a bunch of hippos to America.
Speaker 1: In this was to counter a meat shortage, and apparently
Speaker 1: hippos were also supposed to take care of invasive plants
Speaker 1: that people were worried about, and the meat supposedly tastes
Speaker 1: like bacon. But uh I, I didn't realize there were
Speaker 1: a bunch of other wild meat options on the table
Speaker 1: to Congress was actually thinking about importing ostriches to start
Speaker 1: a bunch of ostrich farms and antelope as well. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: as a beer drinker, I'm sure you read about the
Speaker 1: hot shortage back in two thousand eight, and then again
Speaker 1: there was one back in two thousand twelve. But did
Speaker 1: you realize that the Sam Adams Brewery actually shared over
Speaker 1: twenty thousand pounds of hops with hundreds of different craft breweries.
Speaker 1: So I, I didn't know about the hops shortage. But
Speaker 1: what's the advantage to Sam Adams to like share with breweries? Well, basically,
Speaker 1: stop these other brewers from going out of business, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't just a gift, and Sam Adams had actually
Speaker 1: given them at cost. But as the founder of Sam
Speaker 1: Adams told the Chicago Tribune quote, I don't want to
Speaker 1: be Goliath. It's a lot more fun if you've got
Speaker 1: more than one. David Oh, I. I really like that
Speaker 1: Sam Adams did that to kind of save all these breweries,
Speaker 1: and it makes me like the Vier a little more.
Speaker 1: I think you deserved the win with that fact, So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you the trophy. All right. Well, thanks
Speaker 1: so much, and thank you guys for listening today. I
Speaker 1: know there are probably a lot of facts that we
Speaker 1: forgot to include in today's episodes, so we would love
Speaker 1: to hear those from you. You can always reach us
Speaker 1: at part Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com
Speaker 1: or act hotline that's one eight four four pt Genius,
Speaker 1: or you can hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.
Speaker 1: But thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
Speaker 1: and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do
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