with the global supply chain crisis currently affecting every major country around the world
it'd come as a surprise to no one that we're running out of certain things however it'd be
a mistake to see this only as a postcode problem many of these shortages had started showing up
in countries around the world well before cobit only on a much smaller scale the pandemic and
its after effects on the global economy have just amplified a problem that already existed
number 10. antibiotics we don't have to tell you how important antibiotics are for the
medical sciences from everyday injuries to complex surgeries they're a requirement in a variety of
medical procedures which is why it'd be pretty bad news if we suddenly started running out of them as
you can guess from the general theme of this list that's exactly what's been happening for the past
few years apart from supply problems affecting the production of all kinds of medicine we're also
now detecting a variety of new powerful strains of diseases resistant to known antibiotics it may not
sound like a big deal but it really is what's even more worrying is that these strains are coming
up faster than we can improve and replace our antibiotics causing a shortage of common everyday
medicines that we used to take for granted it's fueled by a variety of factors including excessive
use of antibiotics and improper disposal of medical waste on a large scale the biggest
factor however is the lack of regulation and industrial safety standards in some of the
largest antibiotic producers such as china and india where the problem is even more pronounced
than in other countries 9. semiconductors from our cars to phones to television sets almost
every gadget we use every day is made with semiconductors silicon chips that are used to
process data they're the building blocks of the technological revolution and they allowed us to
build machines like computers for the first time currently though we're going through a massive
shortage of semiconductors around the world it's not because of raw material as silicon is the
second most abundant element found on earth after oxygen instead it's due to the massive
influx of demand for things like laptops and other computers but on top of that many car companies
now offering driver assistance systems and other advanced features that require just a lot of chips
most semi-conductor chips are also made by two companies from taiwan and south korea both of
which have been affected by covid restrictions and other supply chain issues of their own
number 8. bananas the banana is easily one of the most widely consumed fruits around the world even
if it's only grown in tropical and subtropical regions accounting for over 76 percent of the
global fruit trade it's safe to say that it's also the world's most popular fruit sadly that might
not last too long the most consumed variety of bananas around the world the cavendish is
currently threatened by a fungal epidemic that we don't know how to stop known as panama disease it
has been ravaging banana plants for almost three decades now just within the last decade a stronger
healthier strain of the fungus has spread to over 20 countries and destroyed about 10 000 hectares
of banana plantations the cavendish variety also seems to be particularly vulnerable to the disease
with almost no resistance to it once infected 7. phosphorus phosphorus might not sound like
an important element to most people though it's crucial to maintaining our food supply as it's
the primary ingredient for fertilizers about 90 of all phosphorus mined from various reserves
around the world is used to grow our food making it one of the most important natural elements for
modern human life in the past years though many of the world's largest phosphorus reserves have
been completely depleted we're now using it up faster than it can be replaced by natural
processes so much so that if we don't find new large phosphorus reserves soon we may completely
run out of it in about 80 years the phosphorus shortage is primarily due to the excess and
uninformed use of fertilizers around the world because of a lack of modern methods of farming in
underdeveloped countries small-scale farmers often end up using a lot more fertilizers than they need
that doesn't just deplete the phosphorus reserves but also seeps into sources of water
and permanently damages the environment even if we stop that however it's a fact
that phosphorus like all other essential natural resources found on earth is limited in quantity
and we'd have to find entirely new methods of food production and farming to really solve the problem
6. sand after water sand is perhaps the most widely consumed material that can be found
only in nature that is at least until someone develops a new method to feasibly erode rock
into tiny grains of sand over millions of years it's the building block of modern
urban life as it's required to make concrete which is then used to build our houses offices
and other buildings along with other essential materials like asphalt and glass as you can guess
yeah we're running out of sand too according to one study our demand for sand may surpass its
total production by 2050 and we still don't know of any alternative to that that can take its place
prices of sand are already reaching their all-time highs due to the ongoing crunch in supply an issue
that can only get worse with time moreover mining sand and fragile natural ecosystems like river
beds and ocean fronts is severely damaging many countries have even capped their sans exports
to protect their environments from further damage number 5. food famines sound like a problem of the
past when we used to be so dependent on farming that even one failed crop or small war could send
entire cities into mass deprivation and starvation undoubtedly we've made some massive strides in
the past few centuries in that regard thanks to improved methods of food production and access
to better healthcare unfortunately the past few years have raised all of those hard-fought gains
against global hunger as we're currently living in the worst global famine since the second world war
over 85 million people required food assistance in over 46 countries around the world that year
particularly in conflict-ridden regions like yemen somalia sudan nigeria and afghanistan
more worryingly the pandemic has made the problem exponentially worse as according to reports the
number of people pushed into extreme hunger after the pandemic may be as high as 20 million one
study by oxfam estimated that 11 people around the world now die of hunger every minute which
may outpace the rate of global deaths due to covid 4. soil topsoil is the uppermost layer
of the ground and contains the highest amount of nutrients and organic matter making it
ideal for farming over 95 percent of food grown around the world is grown on topsoil making
it an irreplaceable natural resource for our civilization in the past few centuries however our
modern unsustainable methods of farming including but not limited to excessive tilling synthetic
fertilizers and the increasing use of pesticides have massively depleted the planet's topsoil cover
according to one report about half of the world's fertile soil has disappeared in the last 150 years
and it's happening at a much faster rate now than at any other time in history in the us for
example the top soil is eroding about 10 times faster than it can be replaced at this rate the
world may run out of its entire topsoil cover in about 60 years 3. rare earth metals rare earth
metals are a class of elements that power modern gadgets like mobile phones televisions cars wind
turbines etc the japanese refer to them as the seeds of technology as all of them like
indium tellurium modium and others are essential for making our gadgets smaller faster and more
efficient sadly they suffer the same drawback as many other natural resources in this video being
limited and scarce in quantity many rare earth elements are on the verge of complete depletion
with no other known deposits anywhere china the largest producer of rare earth minerals recently
estimated that at this rate of consumption its rare earth metal mines will run dry in less than
20 years some of these metals like iridium are so overmined that they might not even last ten years
number 2. water water is easily the most abundant natural substance on earth as about 2 3 of its
surface is covered in the stuff plus all the water stored in smaller streams rivers lakes and
glaciers despite that however many parts of the world are currently experiencing an acute shortage
of water a phenomenon that has only become more apparent with all the extreme heat related weather
events of the past few years while it's true that there's no real scarcity of water on earth most
of it is found in the oceans and desalination on a large scale is still not a feasible option
most of the fresh water we have is either inaccessible and locked up in geological features
like glaciers or unevenly distributed with high cost of transportation currently about 844 million
people around the world live without access to clean water that's only said to grow in the
coming years combine all that with climate change and its projected effects in the next few years
and we're looking at a future where water would be much scarcer and more valuable than it is now
1. storage space from the rest of this list it's clear that we're running out of quite a few things
even if we weren't though that'd still be the problem of storing them in the past couple of
years storage space has emerged as one of the world's scarcest and most sought-after
commodities simply speaking we no longer have the space to store most things we produce from
food grain to finished products to oil a large part of this is due to the pandemic and subsequent
economic slowdowns in countries around the world as consumer demand for commodities
lowered producers suddenly found themselves with a huge supply of things that they didn't want to
do with at one point all suppliers as one example were paying storage facilities around the globe to
store their excess oil as the man for all had sharply plummeted in the early days
of the pandemic so i really hope you found this video interesting if you did please do
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