Here at The Richmond we believe any small step towards celebrating responsibly (environmentally speaking) makes a much larger impact towards the future. This year a new green initiative has been illuminated for me by Steve Connor, writer for The Independent, who points out in his article (Why the world is running out of helium) the potential dangers of running out of this commodity.
"It is the second-lightest element in the Universe, has the lowest boiling-point of any gas and is commonly used through the world to inflate party balloons. But helium is also a non-renewable resource and the world's reserves of the precious gas are about to run out, a shortage that is likely to have far-reaching repercussions. The experts warn that the world could run out of helium within 25 to 30 years, potentially spelling disaster for hospitals, whose MRI scanners are cooled by the gas in liquid form. Helium's low boiling point makes it useful for cooling metals needed for the superconducting magnets in medical MRI scanners. Despite the critical role that the gas plays in the modern world, it is being depleted at an unprecedented rate and reserves could dwindle to virtually nothing within a generation."
"Nobel laureate Robert Richardson, professor of physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, believes that party balloons filled with helium are too cheap, and they should really cost about $100 each to reflect the precious nature of the gas they contain. Once helium is released into the atmosphere in the form of party balloons or boiling helium it is lost to the Earth forever, lost to the Earth forever, he emphasized."
This chilling news has inspired me to dissuade my clients from using dated old helium balloons to decorate their events, and into the future of balloon decor with over-sized balloons, filled with nothing but air. They are recyclable, suspended with magnets, and have a huge impact. Check out some photos of past events with big balloons I've hosted at The Richmond on Facebook and Flickr. A big thanks as well to Dennis Mills from Balloon Trix, http://www.balloontrix.com, for his beautiful balloon displays.
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