10 Things the World is Running out of Forever. The Earth is running out of some pretty essentialand treasured items! 10) Phosphorus – Phosphorus, to most people,is just another block on the table of elements. However, it's critical to everything we needto survive. Phosphorus is one of the three main componentsin fertilizers, which are used to grow the food we consume every day. Only five countries in the world have phosphaterock reserves, one of which is the United States. .
The decline of these reserves means bad newsfor 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'scrust through radioactive decay. Most unfortunately, it cannot be artificiallyproduced. What's especially alarming is that the UnitedStates is getting rid of its helium reserves .
Because of a law passed by Congress in 1996called 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 billionin debt and selling the helium was a means of paying off that debt. 8) Wine – It's hard to imagine the worldwithout the perfect glass of pinot grigio or moscato. Sadly, wine production is failing to meetconsumer demands for the delicious adult beverage. In recent years, there was actually an abundanceof wine, but European governments, in order .
To boost wine prices, had many vineyards destroyedto make way for housing. Now winemakers are struggling to keep up withthe demand for wine because they simply don't have enough grapes to make the amount of productneeded. 7) Bacon – Vegetarians might not be concernedabout this; some might even say they're delighted at the prospect. The rest of the world, however, is not pleasedabout the so-called aporkalypse. Bacon is one of the most delicious foods knownto man, and the thought of waking up in the morning without the scent of crispy pork deliciousnessis hard to swallow (no pun intended). Most regrettably, lower production rates andthe 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 coldas well. A study by the Royal Botanic Gardens and theEnvironment and Coffee Forest Forum projected that there could be a between 38 to 90 percentreduction in the land used to grow Arabica coffee due to climate change. .
Aside from a climate change, coffee plantsare 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 toensure untainted coffee beans. 5) Doctors – Don't worry. Emergency rooms aren't going to suddenly closedown because there's no one to work. But a study by the Association of AmericanMedical Colleges projects that by 2025 there may be a shortage of as many as 90,000 doctorsin the U.S. Most of the shortage of doctors comes not from reduced numbers, but ratherfrom a population that is aging and getting .
Larger. In addition, The Affordable Care Act mandatemade sure all Americans were covered by health insurance (or else they were fined), so thesudden influx of new patients through healthcare facilities' doors has increased the demandon the current doctors in the system. 4) Sand – You've got to be kidding! Running out of sand seems impossible withvast deserts like the Sahara, which has 3.6 million square miles of sand. Interestingly, desert sand can't be used forproduction purposes because the grains are too rounded to stick together, meaning youcan't make products such as glass out of it. .
Quartz sand found on beaches is slowly erodingaway due to rising sea levels and hurricanes that sweep most of it out to sea. Replenishing the supply is no easy task, butthe future of some countries may depend on it. 3) Chocolate – Personally, we look upona chocolate shortage as equal with the zombie apocalypse. Chocolate is so delicious and chock full ofmindblowing jolts to a person's taste buds that a worldwide shortage, or eliminationof chocolate altogether, would be nothing short of disastrous. .
Cocoa takes five long years to grow and mustbe produced very close to the equator to ensure a good crop. This means that there's a very thin “chocolatebelt” where it's grown, 2/3 of the world’s cocoa comes from four countries in West Africawhich have experienced excessive dry weather. The other location where chocolate is grownis South America and just as coffee is being destroyed by fungus, so is chocolate. The fungus is called frosty pod which causedan almost 70% decrease in production in Brazil. 2) Gold – What's one of the most preciouscommodities that any human being can possess? Gold. .
The reason for this is because it's a usefulresource. Unlike paper money, gold's value isn't justas a currency. Precious metals, including gold, are usedto make electronics and machines. While silver and copper are the best electricalconductors, gold is also a good conductor of electricity and has the added advantagecompared to silver and copper that it doesn’t tarnish which makes it particularly good forconnectors. Now you know why cables are often gold-plated. Cell phones, microchips, and computer harddrives frequently have gold in their ingredients list. .
Some estimate that it may only be about 20years before we run out of minable gold. Since gold has become difficult to find inthe mining business, we may soon be finding ourselves in search of a new precious metalto make products with. 1) Antibiotics – It's not so much that we'rerunning out of a supply of antibiotics, but rather a useful supply. In fact, antibiotics as we know them may gothe way of the dodo. The reason for this is an increase in newstrains 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 developnew antibiotics, but there are so few researchers looking for new discoveries in this fieldthat we may be doomed after all. Pharmaceutical companies are focused on drugsthat treat chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes which are morelucrative for them than antibiotics because they cost more and patients take them forlonger periods of time.
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Things the world is running low on! From bacon to chocolate learn the things the world may face a shortage of