Why There Is A Helium Shortage 

My chemistry teacher told us that helium was running out back in 2012, its crazy to see how that man is always correct. Mr Candee if you're seeing this, you're the best.

get rid of those party balloons man!

CNBC, you should cover how Philips healthcare is the only company with a low helium superconducting MRI. All vendors use about 1,500 to 1,800 liters and now Philips can make an MRI with only 7 liters of helium

I don't give a sh*t for the balloons but the Internet and mri is important.

I'm slightly disappointed that for a man who has been in the helium business for over 40 years, Phil Kornbluth doesn't have an incredibly high pitched voice :(

GET RID OF THE FLYING BALLOONS AT THE MACYS THANKS GIVING DAY PARADE! THATS THE BIGGEST CONSUMER/RELEASER OF HELIUM GAS!!!!

That obnoxious music that sounds like a phone alarm made it hard to listen to the guys talk

Alvin and the chipmunks used all of it

CNBC: we’re running out of helium Also CNBC: let’s fill up a bunch of balloons with helium for b roll

Helium should be banned to use in party balloons. Internet and MRI should be given priority.

So your telling me that helium, the second most abundant element in the known universe, is on a shortage on Planet Earth. Strange times.

As others have said, there is no helium shortage, only a shortage of cheap helium. The atmosphere has 5 parts per million helium by volume at sea level. It's about a third as abundant as Neon, and neon isn't expensive. If we run out of helium reserves, we'll have to start getting it from the atmosphere with fractional distillation and the price will go up a lot.

What they failed to mention is that most helium was captured when new oil deposits were found and since the number of new oil discoveries is declining it causes a resultant loss of new helium deposits. We can't frack our way out of Peak Oil.

Good. Balloons are freaking stupid and terrible for the environment anyway.

It always confuses me why we sell helium for consumer use if its so rare.

I thought the person at party city was lying!! I was wrong

I like how they pronounce Qatar as ‘cutter’

Wasting such a precious non-renewable resource like helium on stupid party balloons... Futures humans will be looking back at us for this....

This whole time I wondered how helium was extracted. Since it's straight up a noble gas, I assumed people somehow isolated it from the atmosphere and it is collected. Didn't think it'd be a finite resource that's extracted from age-old reserves.

Says Qatar and shows the flag of Bahrain, Qatar's flag is similar in design but maroonish in colour. Not red

Oh.... So that's where the helium comes from.😅😅

Helium shortage, who knew it suffered A deflation

We dont need party balloons. They just end up in the ocean

Time to start using hydrogen for those party balloons. Explosively fun times!

I've known this since I was little. I refused to buy balloons. My family loves parties and buy about 30 balloons for a party, so thats 16 parties a year. Not including graduations, anniversaries, baby showers, etc.

Helium:Exists Humans :breathing intensifies

Makes a video of why helium is running out, wastes helium in the video Helium: am I a joke to you?

it's because I'm inhaling *HIGH PITCH NOISES*

Was wondering why our local dollar tree has been out of helium for weeks

Wow that explains all the signs at the dollar store saying that they are out of helium🤔

Hey NY, STOP having the Macys day parade.

I think party balloons can be just as fun or even more fun without helium. You can play ballon volleyball, keep off the ground, hot potato, or if it's a hot day water balloon fight with them ! with them. Plus you can reuse them a couple times if you tie them up correctly with a little rubber band or string. Also bonus if it's not a windy day your favorite balloon won't fly away.

I like how at 0:15 the CNBC article is the only one without a pun in the headline

Captain here: The real reason why there're still party balloons is because. first: the margins are very good compared to selling to MRI scanners, second, we don't have the technology (yet) to make all the helium liquefied, there's always a "rest" product that cannot be converted to liquefied form, and that is sold as balloon helium.

**Helium** was never in abundance at the first place..

Forget party balloons! I can't party with the stuff that someone's life may depend on.

It won't be a problem if were able to establish nuclear fusion

My local Dollar Tree ran out of Helium and hasn't had any for a while now :(

To get more Helium, we need to continue the research on fusion energy whose byproduct is helium.

Wait did he just say something about internet I CANT LOSE MY ONLY FRIEND

balloons are so problematic. like they don’t biodegrade and they’re using up helium. for what? a pARtY?

You can mix limestone in water to produce similar gas.

I never thought helium came from the ground. I’m shocked. Bizarre

You used the flag of Bahrain for showing Qatar

Why do I have the feeling going that this video is not trying to I form me about anything but instead is trying to convince us to buy more of it?

Jlo was complaining about not having enough Helium for her balloons lmao . Thanks Jlo , you thought me something

Helium is similar to gold; it has a lot of really valuable, practical, beneficial applications but the industry is absolutely dominated by the frivolous idiot uses we can come up with for it, and that either destroys the supply or has the price skyrocket.

How do you identify yellow lights during a solar eclipse that too a century back?

Ban party usage of Helium. Problem solved.

1:44 sounds like the head man in charge of hawkings labs in stranger things season 2.

I am pretty sure Walter White could invented a way to manufacture helium if he was alive!

It's not running out at all it's just being incredibly mismanaged

Company’s getting to gas giants: guys lying on money

Watching Smiling Friends has gotten me searching for these videos now

before even watching this: just make fusion reactors.

They just stopped selling it in stores yesterday when I went to get my father balloons. I was freaking out.

Wait America still uses Helium for their balloons?!

And will we have too much helium if/when they get fusion reactors working and fully implemented?

Yay ! Find the Helium !!!

I'm starting to think that the helium shortage has to do with a hidden technology, like space travel power supplies, as in fusion engines.

I always knew those circus clowns were up to no good!

"silly humans, using such a powerful element for balloons" -Ultron

it's not fair, just tell space to give our helium back

Rip my graduation and future birthdays 😂

Is that why my local Dollar Tree always has multiple signs that say "no helium"? Huh, I just assumed it was because they were a bad individual store.

No wonder i don't see them use helium ballons anymore. I remember there use to be a lot when i was a kid. Now instead of helium, they use a transparent plastic ballons with blinking lights here. Kinda cool i would say.

There must be away to synthesize the stuff?

currently it has affected supply of Fiber optics cable today 29/7/2022,, 4 days ago there is a report of shortage of fiber which has delayed fiber rollout projects for telecom companies such as Openreach BT,...

We are running out because it was all used in the Allstate commercial

The world is running out of helium. 0:48 - wastes helium

“Cutter” for “qatar” lollllll

so a main problem is storing Helium, so an improvement in how to contain it is a priority.

Ye but wudabout da nerve gas?

I better be saving my hellium balloons soon. They're gonna be worth a fortune in the future

Someone needs to figure out a way to extract it from space. I’m not giving up in balloons.

Didn't mention Helium as a shielding gas for T I G welding aluminum.

We just need fusion reactors to produce more

This has some facts but some major errors. The national reserve is a holding place for helium, not a natural supply. They can actually pump helium into the reserve for storage. Here are some more details MRI machines use liquid helium. Liquid helium has a low boil point and quite a bit of it boils off during transfer. The helium that boils off in the process is often captured and sold as balloon/lifting gas. Yes, it is possible to refine this captured gas and re-liquefy it for use in MRI machines, but the cost of this is so high, that they would take a financial loss to do this. Instead, they sell it for balloons, airships, weather balloons and the like. Also, helium is not as finite of a resource as you may have been led to believe. We have a production shortage, not a supply shortage. Helium is found alongside natural gas and has historically been primarily sourced as a by-product of natural gas refining along with a few accidental pure heliums finds as well. Matter of fact there are some natural gas producers who do not find it economically worthwhile to capture and sale it, so they just release it into the atmosphere. Also according to John Hamak at the Bureau of Land Management whom I contacted on this, party/decor balloons account for less than 1 percent of all helium usage. The other thing is that Helium is actually constantly being created, albeit slowly from the radioactive decay of elements such as uranium. This gas slowly raises up to the surface and gets trapped in pockets. The crazy thing is, up until only a few years ago, no one actually looked to find these pockets, we have only been using byproduct helium. But a few people and companies started to look for helium and found a massive supply in Tanzania (here www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-07/tanzania-helium-find-may-be-double-first-estimate-explorer-says) and now another one in Tibet. (and here www.minagao.com/2018/05/10/the-discovery-of-helium-rich-hot-springs-in-the-ali-area-of-tibet-china) So eventually all the easy access Helium may be gone, just as oil is. However, since helium is a product of radioactive decay there are some hopes that it may be possible to generate it from the fusion reactors that are being researched at the moment. No guarantees on that front, however. But last I checked we had over a 300 year supply and growing.

Dammit! There goes my Death Ray laser.

I went to Party City and they had around a 100 balloons filled up with helium just for display. That seems extremely wasteful.

Video volume needs to be increased by 25% or so

Good thing they found the largest concentration of helium in South Africa

we have the capability and smarts to know how to make it, that would be a good start.

That was some news..!

Ban helium balloons, blow your own party balloons

I blame the Balloonfest of 1986. Cleveland Ohio doomed us all.

Guess gotta start hoarding balloons ;).

Before it is gone I have to try the high voice thing

Man damn those balloons

What’s the song name from 0:57 to 1:20

2020 Nobody talks about helium

No more party balloons and inhaling to have a high-pitch voice.

A world without party balloons 🎈!! I don't think I can go on 💀

Can we combine hydrogens to make helium?

Just wait for fusion energy, the waste of it will be pure helium 😁

Its not a shortage issue...Its a demand issue...Saying its a shortage suggests a dwindling supply. Even if that's not what it means that's what it sounds like. And it doesn't escape into space...It just floats at the upper edge of our atmosphere.

Macy is the second largest user of helium

Welp. . I guess it's time to switch to Hydrogen.

We'll have to build solar collectors to get helium from the sun 🌞

Basically no helium means no internet?