10 Things the World is Running out of
Forever.
The Earth is running out of some pretty essential and treasured items!
10) Phosphorus – Phosphorus, to most people, is just another block on the table of elements.
However, it's critical to everything we need to survive.
Phosphorus is one of the three main components in fertilizers, which are used to grow the
food we consume every day.
Only five countries in the world have phosphate rock reserves, one of which is the United
States.
The decline of these reserves means bad news for everyone; phosphorus is needed to create
DNA and cell membranes in the human body, and it has no substitute.
9) Helium – It's just for party balloons, right?
Wrong.
Helium is used in tools such as MRI scanners (to cool the machine and keep it from overheating)
and radiation monitors.
Helium is naturally occurring in the earth's crust through radioactive decay.
Most unfortunately, it cannot be artificially produced.
What's especially alarming is that the United States is getting rid of its helium reserves
because of a law passed by Congress in 1996 called the Helium Privatisation Act, that
forces us to sell off all of our helium.
The reason for this law?
The Federal Helium reserve was $1.4 billion in debt and selling the helium was a means
of paying off that debt.
8) Wine – It's hard to imagine the world without the perfect glass of pinot grigio
or moscato.
Sadly, wine production is failing to meet consumer demands for the delicious adult beverage.
In recent years, there was actually an abundance of wine, but European governments, in order
to boost wine prices, had many vineyards destroyed to make way for housing.
Now winemakers are struggling to keep up with the demand for wine because they simply don't
have enough grapes to make the amount of product needed.
7) Bacon – Vegetarians might not be concerned about this; some might even say they're delighted
at the prospect.
The rest of the world, however, is not pleased about the so-called aporkalypse.
Bacon is one of the most delicious foods known to man, and the thought of waking up in the
morning without the scent of crispy pork deliciousness is hard to swallow (no pun intended).
Most regrettably, lower production rates and the dreaded Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus
have cut down the tasty treat's numbers.
At least PETA will be happy.
If you’re a bacon fan not to worry however, as it likely just means higher prices.
6) Coffee – It just gets worse and worse, doesn't it?
Not only are we running out of wine and bacon, but those who depend on their daily dose of
java are going to be left out in the cold as well.
A study by the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Environment and Coffee Forest Forum projected
that there could be a between 38 to 90 percent reduction in the land used to grow Arabica
coffee due to climate change.
Aside from a climate change, coffee plants are also being hit hard by a fungus called
“coffee rust.”
Higher quality coffee will suffer the most, as production costs will go up in order to
control the climate the plants grow in to ensure untainted coffee beans.
5) Doctors – Don't worry.
Emergency rooms aren't going to suddenly close down because there's no one to work.
But a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges projects that by 2025 there
may be a shortage of as many as 90,000 doctors in the U.S. Most of the shortage of doctors
comes not from reduced numbers, but rather from a population that is aging and getting
larger.
In addition, The Affordable Care Act mandate made sure all Americans were covered by health
insurance (or else they were fined), so the sudden influx of new patients through healthcare
facilities' doors has increased the demand on the current doctors in the system.
4) Sand – You've got to be kidding!
Running out of sand seems impossible with vast deserts like the Sahara, which has 3.6
million square miles of sand.
Interestingly, desert sand can't be used for production purposes because the grains are
too rounded to stick together, meaning you can't make products such as glass out of it.
Quartz sand found on beaches is slowly eroding away due to rising sea levels and hurricanes
that sweep most of it out to sea.
Replenishing the supply is no easy task, but the future of some countries may depend on
it.
3) Chocolate – Personally, we look upon a chocolate shortage as equal with the zombie
apocalypse.
Chocolate is so delicious and chock full of mindblowing jolts to a person's taste buds
that a worldwide shortage, or elimination of chocolate altogether, would be nothing
short of disastrous.
Cocoa takes five long years to grow and must be produced very close to the equator to ensure
a good crop.
This means that there's a very thin “chocolate belt” where it's grown, 2/3 of the world’s
cocoa comes from four countries in West Africa which have experienced excessive dry weather.
The other location where chocolate is grown is South America and just as coffee is being
destroyed by fungus, so is chocolate.
The fungus is called frosty pod which caused an almost 70% decrease in production in Brazil.
2) Gold – What's one of the most precious commodities that any human being can possess?
Gold.
The reason for this is because it's a useful resource.
Unlike paper money, gold's value isn't just as a currency.
Precious metals, including gold, are used to make electronics and machines.
While silver and copper are the best electrical conductors, gold is also a good conductor
of electricity and has the added advantage compared to silver and copper that it doesn’t
tarnish which makes it particularly good for connectors.
Now you know why cables are often gold-plated.
Cell phones, microchips, and computer hard drives frequently have gold in their ingredients
list.
Some estimate that it may only be about 20 years before we run out of minable gold.
Since gold has become difficult to find in the mining business, we may soon be finding
ourselves in search of a new precious metal to make products with.
1) Antibiotics – It's not so much that we're running out of a supply of antibiotics, but
rather a useful supply.
In fact, antibiotics as we know them may go the way of the dodo.
The reason for this is an increase in new strains of bacteria that are resistant to
antibiotics or ignore them altogether.
Some bacteria can even shut antibiotics out, preventing them from doing any good whatsoever.
This wouldn't be so bad if we could develop new antibiotics, but there are so few researchers
looking for new discoveries in this field that we may be doomed after all.
Pharmaceutical companies are focused on drugs that treat chronic conditions such as heart
disease, cancer, and diabetes which are more lucrative for them than antibiotics because
they cost more and patients take them for longer periods of time.