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Anon creates a mystery (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 78 points 1 day ago (23 children)

Do not do this. Helium is a scarce resource and those balloons create pollution and kill animals when they come down.

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  • [–] 40 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    I'll just shoot myself with a gun made of ice instead

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  • [–] 16 points 1 day ago (5 children)

    You better commit suicide in an environmentally friendly way!

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  • [–] 5 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    Exactly. For example you can take off all your clothes and drown yourself. Preferably in a place with a lot of carrion eaters like crabs.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    Your dead body still gives off methane. If you aren't hermetically sealing your body prior to death you might as well be an oil executive.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 day ago (6 children)

    Helium is no longer all that scarce but balloons definitely create pollution and kill animals

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  • [–] 7 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    It’s not?

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  • [–] 9 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    We've just been relying on helium deposits that are running dry and have to use other methods of extracting it that are less economical

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    The problem with helium is that once we're out, we're out. It's the second-most abundant atom, yes, but it doesn't react with anything, can't freeze, and escapes the planet when exposed to open air.

    The only source we have of it is radioactive decay, and it's not something we can manufacture in any volume. I think the only way to make it would be in a supercollider one atom at a time.

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  • [–] 2 points 17 hours ago (1 child)

    Radioactive decay is the source, yes, which means we won't be out of it until the earth is out of all of the radioactive isotopes that are undergoing alpha decay.

    By the time that happens, Bussard collectors will probably escape from the realm of fiction.

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  • [–] 1 point 15 hours ago

    Yes, but right now it's "cheap" because it's a byproduct of natural gas mining. As we transition off fossil fuels it won't be so easy to acquire.

    One of the reasons the shortage was alleviated was the expansion of gas mining and the subsequent discovery of a bunch in Tanzenia.

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  • [–] 2 points 15 hours ago (1 child)

    IIRC, we get a ton of helium from methane extraction now, which we're increasingly relying on. We have more helium than we know what to do with at the moment I'm pretty sure. Now, once we stop using methane for power, then sure, it's limited. Currently it's a byproduct that there isn't enough use for compared to what's produced.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago

    Since Iran blew up one of the major refineries in the middle east which removed a third of the world's production there's a shortage, can't buy helium here since it's only sold to critical infrastructure now.

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