“A dream. It’s perfect”: Helium discovery in northern Minnesota may be biggest ever in North America::For a century, the U.S. Government-owned the largest helium reserve in the country, but the biggest exporters now are in Russia, Qatar and Tanzania. With this new discovery, Minnesota could be joining that list.

You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments
30 points

This is actually incredibly good news

permalink
report
reply
10 points

Not really, because we’re still pissing away invaluable helium because of capitalism…

If we keep doing that, it doesn’t really matter how much we find.

We need to stop wasting it first, then finding huge supplies is a good thing. As long as we’re not dumb enough to start wasting it again.

permalink
report
parent
reply
19 points

Ah yes, we’re wasting helium, so finding more isn’t a good thing. Of course. 🙄

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Yeah it’ll hopefully see us through to when we’re collecting it in space - there’s plenty up there and they’ve already come up with some good ways of collecting it

permalink
report
parent
reply
-5 points

Imagine we found out climate change predictions were a decade early, so we kept pace and didn’t use the extra time to try and fix it…

It’s not bad news that we got another decade, but it doesn’t matter that much in the long run if we still don’t fix the underlying issue

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

How are we wasting it? Keep in mind that the helium used for stuff like balloons is not the same as the helium used in medical equipment. Also keep in mind that even if it were, the amount of helium used in balloons would be less than 1% of total usage.

So I ask again, how are we wasting it?

permalink
report
parent
reply
-4 points

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/01/775554343/the-world-is-constantly-running-out-of-helium-heres-why-it-matters

Tldr:

It takes an insanely large timescale for it to be produced on Earth, and it rarely accumulates because it’s fucking helium. It’s so light that it will literally just float out into outer space as soon as it’s vented to the atmosphere.

Using any for nonessential purposes is a waste.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Technology

!technology@lemmy.world

Create post

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


Community stats

  • 18K

    Monthly active users

  • 12K

    Posts

  • 553K

    Comments