This Bites


Extinction of animal life at the hands of man is accepted as just the price of doing business in this world... important stuff like making bajillions of cheeseburgers and fomenting endless wars on godless communists or godful terr'ists.

But in an ironic twist, there's a new form of extinction that threatens business itself and that's the quickly disappearing stockpile of certain elements.

What?

Yes, the element gallium is almost completely depleted, along with indium and hafnium. Zinc will all be gone by 2029 and it's a critical component of the canning process. Get used to buying your soup in a bag.

Without gallium you can't have liquid-crystal displays. Indium is a vital component of control rods in nuclear reactors. Hafnium (hold onto your keybords) is used in the production of computer chips.

And somewhere down the line, and not that far off, the copper will run out. Then we're really in trouble.

The two simple answers to this problem is to start recycling everything and to start buying less stupid junk. I realize that anti-consumerism isn't sexy but the alternative is that eventually you'll be impressing the guys at the office with your new flint spear point. And probably sooner than you think.

=mike=