Endangered Elements
Did you know that the world is almost out of gallium? Or that the supply of zinc may only last another 30 years?
Robert Silverberg tells us:But now comes word that it isn’t just wildlife that can go extinct. The element gallium is in very short supply and the world may well run out of it in just a few years. Indium is threatened too, says Armin Reller, a materials chemist at Germany’s University of Augsburg. He estimates that our planet’s stock of indium will last no more than another decade. All the hafnium will be gone by 2017 also, and another twenty years will see the extinction of zinc. Even copper is an endangered item, since worldwide demand for it is likely to exceed available supplies by the end of the present century.
Though that was written by a science-fiction writer in a science-fiction magazine, it's not fiction, and other elements are disappearing as well.
Why care if some elements you've never heard of (and a few you have heard of but don't pay attention to) are disappearing? Because of what they're disappearing into -- modern electronics -- flat screens, microchips, and even power sources that some people are touting as the solution to our oil woes. And they're hard to retrieve from those things.
See more explanation by DarkSyde at Daily Kos.
Update: Ars Technica thinks the worries are overblown. I think their price-based analysis is a bit narrow-minded, but they make good points about the possibility of technology moving on to different materials.
Robert Silverberg tells us:But now comes word that it isn’t just wildlife that can go extinct. The element gallium is in very short supply and the world may well run out of it in just a few years. Indium is threatened too, says Armin Reller, a materials chemist at Germany’s University of Augsburg. He estimates that our planet’s stock of indium will last no more than another decade. All the hafnium will be gone by 2017 also, and another twenty years will see the extinction of zinc. Even copper is an endangered item, since worldwide demand for it is likely to exceed available supplies by the end of the present century.
Though that was written by a science-fiction writer in a science-fiction magazine, it's not fiction, and other elements are disappearing as well.
Why care if some elements you've never heard of (and a few you have heard of but don't pay attention to) are disappearing? Because of what they're disappearing into -- modern electronics -- flat screens, microchips, and even power sources that some people are touting as the solution to our oil woes. And they're hard to retrieve from those things.
See more explanation by DarkSyde at Daily Kos.
Update: Ars Technica thinks the worries are overblown. I think their price-based analysis is a bit narrow-minded, but they make good points about the possibility of technology moving on to different materials.