Re: Helium?
" the Earth's limited supply of Helium escapes into the outer atmosphere never to return, and is needed for medical purposes."
The amount of helium in _one_ child's balloon is enough to fill at least 50-60 hard drives - and unlike a balloon, a metal case can be made relatively resistant to the gas escaping.
Helium wouldn't be in short supply if we were using molten salt nuclear fission technology (LFTRs - and we should have, instead of abandoning the technology 40 years ago in favour of keeping water-driven steam bomb designs in service) or had working fusion reactors. As it is, 90% of what's tapped from oil/gas reservoirs is vented straight to the atmosphere and only a few wells actually collect it. Given a rise in price(*) more may start doing so.
(*) This is likely to happen when the US finally stops dumping its Strategic Reserve on the world market, which has kept prices stupidly low for the last 2 decades.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
