Its hard to imagine there is a global shortage of Helium.  The uses go well beyond your kids birthday parties, the blimp etc.  

Helium is used in everythign from deep sea diving, airbags, rocket fuel, cryogenics, MRI’s, and other major tech.

Imagine companies like Party City are closing 45 stores in part because of the shortage.  

MRI’s rely on helium to to circulate through the equipment to operate.  MMRs which are one of the most important machines for characterizing in a chemical lab rely on Helium. 

Helium predominantly extracted from the natural gas mining and the National Helium reserve which is poised to close down in 2021.  The reserve was once supplying 30 percent of the global production of the gas.

What does it mean?  there is still a 200 year supply globally.  Its the time to start re-thinking how we utilizing a non renewable resource.