We get helium as a byproduct of liquified natural gas processing. So it’s a nice side effect of our dependence on oil.
I did not know that.
Helium is heavily used by the semiconductor industry. Making all those fancy high end chips requires helium in the process.
I had no idea.
30% of the world’s helium supply is extracted in Qatar, which ships it the semiconductor manufacturers in Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan.
There are all kinds of surprises in the global supply chain.
The ships that transport that crucial element are currently bottled up in the Strait of Hormuz.
I can see where this is going.
Iran just blew up one of Qatar’s helium plants.
Uh-oh.
All this destruction was triggered by a rogue American president, who is also a raging asshole and incompetent moron.
At least I already knew that!
I hope no one was hoping to get a new computer (or an MRI) in the future.
Oh, and hey, if you’ve got a birthday coming up, maybe ixnay on the artypay alloonsbay. They just seem wasteful.
It gets a lot closer to home than a helium plant in Qatar.
I drove by a gas station on my way home last night.
Gas prices have gone up 50 cents per gallon in just a few days.
I haven’t seen gas prices this high since I can’t even remember when.
Google says it was last this high in 2022.
Filling up one of those oversized pickup trucks the MAGAs favor with a 30 gallon tank now costs $165.
Who voted for this and why?
Makes sense: the main source of new helium nuclei on earth is alpha decay in radioactive ores.
@ #1: What the Thousand-Year Blood Reign Means for Gas Prices
Back to the OP, did you also know that (a) natural gas is a key feedstock for nitrogen-based fertilisers, via ammonia and urea, and (b) that somewhere between 20% and 30% of the world’s urea also needs to transit the Strait of Hormuz? Oh, and (c) there’s no strategic stockpile or reserve.
You may find yourself more concerned about the price of bread than the price of gas.
Dunc: in the US, a lot of that fertilizer serves to fertilize corn for ethanol, so the price of gas will rise too!
The saving grace regarding fertilizer is that crop yields aren’t linear in fertilizer input; the reduction in crop yields will be much less bad than the reduction in fertilizer. It’s still going to lead to high food prices, which is great for farmers and terrible for everyone else.
raven@1: the price is up only by $0.50/gal for you? That seems pretty low compared to the averages. The US average is up by nearly $1/gal (up nearly 50%).