April was Henry’s Birthday.  I had a whole plan for an Avengers theme, and I needed balloons.  Personally, I do not like balloons.  They cause my kids to fight, they are loud when they pop, and they clutter the house.  I know…Birthday BLASPHEMY!  My boys on the other hand LOVE them.  Like a good mom, I headed to Party City to put in my order.  The teenager behind the counter looked at me as I eyed the balloons, and said flippantly, “We can’t blow up any balloons.  We have no helium.”  I asked her when they would have helium, and she said she didn’t know.  Totally annoyed, I left.  How could they not know when they would have helium!?!  Such a basic Party City thing!  Now I have to go who knows where to find another Party City!

Well, apparently, I am a jerk.  They really didn’t know when they would have helium again!  In fact, Party City has to close 45 out of 870 stores across the U.S., because there is a global helium shortage.  Who knew!?!  It never even occurred to me that something we are so use to, a gas, could have a shortage. 

This is what I learned:   Helium is created in abundance in the Universe as a whole, but not so much down here on earth, because it is so light, and our gravity is not.  We haven’t lost it all, because pockets of it have gotten trapped under rocks and minerals when uranium and thorium decay, it is a radioactive by product.  79% of our helium comes from Qatar where it is hard to mine because of political and economic issues.

What is scary is balloons are the farthest from the issue of a helium shortage.  We use helium for super important things like MRI machines, Rockets (like to space), welding, and other engineering and laboratory applications. 

The good news is that helium is a renewable resource.  We are not “running out” of it.  We know how to collect it and we know where to get it, the bad news is it isn’t super easy to get from Qatar right now, so you may not be able to easily get those balloons for your next Birthday Party and give people the benefit of the doubt even when they say something to you that seems totally absurd.

Also, if you are wondering… I did get some balloons.