We’re Running Out of That Too?

“In 1972, researchers at MIT created a computer model that showed the Earth would run out of natural resources by 2040. A second study done in 2020 confirmed their findings.”

Egg shelves at my local Walmart

I first began writing this article sometime in the Spring or Summer of 2024 before it was known who would sit in the Whitehouse in 2025. Many would have blamed the Biden Administration but as President Donald Trump owns America now I assume those same people will now blame Trump instead. Or not.

Not funny? It wasn’t supposed to be, but the list that follows my commentary is made up of things Trump should be talking about but isn’t. Since Covid we’ve been constantly bombarded with stories of shortages at the retail level and supply chain shortages at the wholesale level, but an even bigger and more dangerous shortage is looming — one from which the world may never recover, and many will never survive. Currently *“humans are using 30% more resources than the Earth can replenish each year,”* with no end in sight.

“The problem is also getting worse as populations and consumption keep growing faster than technology finds new ways of expanding what can be produced from the natural world. This had led the report to predict that by 2030, if nothing changes, mankind would need two planets to sustain its lifestyle. “The recent downturn in the global economy is a stark reminder of the consequences of living beyond our means,” says James Leape, WWF International’s director general. “But the possibility of financial recession pales in comparison to the looming ecological credit crunch.”

Currently there is lots of talk about egg shortages like the photo above showing the entire egg section of my local Walmart devoid of all of the bargain brands and most all of the more expensive brands and sizes. We are also facing shortages of milk, beef, and poultry. A few weeks ago I penned How Trump can solve the egg crises, but probably won’t. He’s forgotten about it and moved on to things more absurd.

In 1972, researchers at MIT created a computer model that predicted the Earth would run out of natural resources by 2040. A second study done in 2020 confirmed their findings.

While not all of the materials on the following list are in short supply worldwide, the ability of any one nation to maintain adequate supplies are dependant on “social constraints, politics, laws, market speculation, environmental regulations, land-use restrictions, economics, and infrastructure.”

1. Accountants are expected to start demanding more money as fewer accountants are available.
2. Adderall is in short supply due to increased demand.
3. ADHD medicines are reported to be in short supply in Australia. Will America and other nations suffer the same?
4. Air Yes, that kind of air, the air you breath. According to the WHO, 99% of the world’s population does not have air that is fit to breath, putting global supplies of breathable air at risk. Despite decades of reducing tailpipe emissions from automobiles and restrictions on industry, fresh, safe, breathable air is simply not available to most of the world.
5. Air Freight, as in not enough airplanes to meet expected demands will no doubt force shipping costs higher.
6. Air traffic controllers are in short supply and a recent crash between a military helicopter and a commuter airliner in Washington, DC has brought the issue to attention. As consumers, a lot of the things we pay others to do can be done ourselves. Air traffic control isn’t one of those things.
7. AI Chips, the computer chips used to make Artificial Intelligence are becoming hard to get due to increased demand. In particular, the chips used by the Nvidia.
8. Ammo continues to be in short supply as production is switched to meet military needs around the world and weapons sales remain high. You preppers out there might want to bone up on your trapping and fishing skills.
9. Antimony is a metal used in the manufacture of tin, lead, solder, bullets, fire extinguishers, electronics, medications and the lead acid batteries used in most automobiles. The largest source of antimony is the Xikuangshan Mine in Hunan, China and China has banned the export of antimony. Antimony is considered critical for national security and can no longer be found in the USA. China restricts exports.
10. Auto Parts have become hard to get leaving companies like Volvo and Polestar with no choice but to shut down production lines. Other auto makers will follow soon.
11. Babies are going to be fewer and fewer as more and more prospective parents make the choice not to bring children into the world. This will lead to future labor shortages, population declines, and lower tax revenues for government.
12. Bananas are hard to find in parts of Australia because of floods that cut off roads to the growers but the banana industry has been battling disease outbreaks for years forcing some growers to move entire banana plantations to other countries.
13. Batteries, mostly Lithium as used in drones and electric/hybrid automobiles, are becoming scarce due to higher demand and shrinking lithium availability.
14. Bauxite is the world’s main source of aluminum and gallium. While being one of the most abundant materials on Earth, as much as 90% of the world’s supply of Bauxite is located in tropical and sub tropical regions in West Africa, Australia, South America and India. It is believed there remains enough bauxite to last another 100 years at current demand. The USA supplies less than 1% of bauxite worldwide. Most of the world’s largest Bauxite mines will close by 2044.
15. Beef and dairy cattle are sometimes victims of avian influenza. Demand is rising as herds are becoming fewer. Farmers and ranchers both complained that Federal response was slow under the Biden Administration but Trump Administration cuts will only make the problem worse.
16. Biochar can be manufactured but not without problems. While useful for carbon sequestration, carbon sequestration in the form of carbon capture is required to make it. Biochar can improve soil structure, moisture, and pH, is used for soil remediation, and the restoration of polluted soils. Biochar can be used to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, for plant growth, and in building materials. Other uses include peat bog restoration, animal husbandry, and the filtration of water and air. The problems are transportation, expense, a lack of manufacturers, and pollution control as the production of biochar requires the burning of organic materials. There is also competition for feed stock and increasing prices.
17. Biodiesel is getting scarce as more companies look to green their operations, uncertainty over tax credits, and negative profit margins.
18. Blood is getting hard to find. Perhaps we should go to Washington and suck the politicians dry? Give me a break, I’m trying to reduce boredom.
19. Blueberry yields are expected to drop by 30% in 2025 due to climate change and labor shortages.
20. Bread is at risk because of the egg shortage.
21. Bricks and brick masons are becoming harder to get in Britain and other countries.
22. Butter is in shortage worldwide due to high demand and low milk production. Butter is made from milk. Milk comes from cows. Dead cows make no milk.
23. Cannabis is said to be in short supply as demand exceeds supply.
24. Cocoa and chocolate shortages are cropping up due to global warming.
25. Cement shortages are rarely mentioned in the news but shortages of the key ingredients in cement like Limestone, Alumina, Silica, and Calcium sulfate along with problems caused by labor shortages, transportation issues, and the energy needed for production along with a booming construction industry have long plagued cement suppliers. Every time I see the tech morons promoting home construction using cement in 3D printers I just laugh.
26. Cheese is in shortage worldwide due to high demand and low milk production. Like butter, cheese is made from milk. Milk comes from cows. Dead cows make no milk.
27. Chicken needs no explanation unless you’re Rip Van Winkle.
28. Cocoa and chocolate may become hard to get because of labor problems, wars, and bad weather in Africa. Candy companies are increasing production of candies that don’t require cocca while cutting production of candies that contain chocolate. If you’re a candy lover I hope you like candy corn. Wait, that’s not right, candy corn requires sugar and that’s in shortage as well.
29. Coffee is currently spiking in price because of a drought in Brazil and higher than normal temperatures in Asia that decimated the coffee harvest. In the last year alone the wholesale price of coffee beans has doubled. It appears the arabica bean, along with wasabi and goji berries will soon be as sought after as the spice from the movie, Dune.
30. Computer chip shortages are currently being caused by increased demand, international relations, supply chain issues (whatever that means) lack of raw materials, hurricanes, wars, tariffs, and the inability of processing quartz, silicone and other raw materials quickly enough.
31. Concrete is in short supply because the cement needed to make it is in short supply. Other concrete ingredients like useable sand and proper aggregates are also in short supply. More about sand below.
32. Coal is something we’d all like to be rid of but as it turns out we only have another 188 years of coal left to burn with China increasing coal imports every year and continuing to worsen the problems of air and water pollution. Coal is also used as a feed stock in the production of fertilizers, methanol, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide. Supplies are falling due in part to the war in Ukraine. Other chemicals made from coal include olefins, acetic acid, formaldehyde, ammonia, urea, and more.
33. Copper has been mined longer than any other metal going back some 9,000 years to the stone age. Fortunately most of that copper is still in use today as it can be infinitely recycled, but due to increasing demands and the fact that most of the world’s copper has already been mined demand exceeds availability. Copper’s use in electronics is invaluable as only silver is more conductive than copper.
34. Diapers are getting harder to find and prices are getting higher, in-part because of tariffs.
35. Doctors are swamped with work as Medicare reimbursements have dropped by 33% since 2001 driving many smaller practices out of business.
36. Drugs like 0.9% sodium chloride, 10% dextrose injection, and 23.4% sodium chloride injection are in short supply. As a matter of fact, hundreds of drugs are facing shortages.
37. Ducks catch avian influenza (bird flu) just like chickens, wild birds, cows, and people. Restaurants in some places have been dealing with duck shortages for over a year.
38. Eggs being on this list are no surprise but what may surprise you are the many other shortages you will find listed below that are caused by a shortage of eggs. Fortunately vaccine makers produce their own eggs independent of other egg producers as many vaccines require eggs for vaccine production.
39. Electric Transformer shortages are causing problems for electricity distribution around the world as electric cars, artificial intelligence, and other technology increases in use.
40. Energy is expected to be in short supply, especially in Texas as Texas remains the only state outside of Hawaii that isn’t connected to the North American grid. Expect rolling blackouts.
41. Feathers, especially down, are in short supply because of avian influenza. No birds, no feathers. This is pushing up the cost of clothing and bedding made from down. Fishing flies, sleeping bags, jackets, and coats are all made from down as are decorative items like boas, feather fans, masks, costume accessories, bird ornaments, earrings, and flowers. Even food can be made from feathers.
42. Fire Trucks are becoming scarce in some places. The trucks already in use are getting older and more likely to break down. Don’t be surprised if they don’t show up when your house catches fire.
43. Fresh drinking water Most of the world is covered in water — salt water — but at least 2/3 of the people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water. Desalination can help but traditional desalination is dirty, very damaging to the environment. Desalination combined with hydrogen production is a possible solution but we are many years, perhaps many decades, from bringing such processes up to scale.
44. Gallium is widely used to make alloys with low melting points. Gallium is used to replace toxic mercury in thermometers, electronics, light emitting diodes (LEDs) and jewelry. Gallium is sometimes used instead of silicon which is also in short supply. As gallium does not occur as a free element in nature gallium is sourced from the mining of Bauxite, another product on this list. Other uses include microwave circuits, high-speed switching circuits, infrared circuits; and blue and violet light-emitting diodes and diode lasers. Gallium is also used in the production of artificial garnets for jewelry, and for brake pags. Gallium is considered a technology-critical element by the United States National Library of Medicine.
45. Gasoline prices are rising…. again. Wars, OPEC, tariffs, blockades, and speculators are all doing their parts to restrict flows and push up prices worldwide. Long term, the market is very dependant on the actions of the Trump Administration. In Australia the problems have already begun.
46. Germanium is a byproduct of zinc ore processing and coal fly ash. Uses include use in electronics, fiber optics, and solar panels, as well as in semiconductors, transistors integrated circuits. Germanium is used in fiber optics, communication networks, infrared optics, night vision systems, thermal imaging, and infrared sensors. Other uses are the production of solar panels and as polymerization catalysts used in the production of PET plastics. It is less toxic than lead and tin, and is in short supply because of Chinese export restrictions and diminishing feed stocks. The problem will only get worse as the burning of coal is phased out.
47. Gold If everyone in the world were given an equal share of all the world’s gold it would amount to one gold coin per person with each coin weighing less than 1 ounce. Thus the reason the Gold Standard has been abandoned by every nation in the world. Gold is extensively used in electronics, as a high tech lubricant, as an anti-inflammatory agent, in the treatment of cancer, and in the treatment of lagophthalmos, as well as for jewelry and art. While mining of gold continues, worldwide production of gold has neared its peak leaving many in the field to speculate the world will run out of gold by 2050 with prices exceeding $7,000 per ounce.
48. Graphite is made from carbon. While carbon is in almost endless supply, carbon in the form of graphite is in higher demand than can be met with our current manufacturing base. The most common use of graphite is pencil lead. While rarely done, graphite can be recycled. Perhaps it is time we figured out a way to recycle pencils, perhaps by soaking them in wood eating acid or termite farming.
49. Hazelnuts are getting scarce in Turkey which is the world’s largest producer and exporter. Expect price increases for Nutella and other products made from Hazelnuts.
50. Helium is getting harder to find due to increased medical uses such as the cooling of MRI scanners and production of semiconductors.
51. Honeybees are back in the news as US are seeing a 70 to 100% collapse in their colonies.
52. Hospital beds and patient rooms are becoming harder to find in US hospitals as hospital construction has stalled due to a lack of available funding.
53. Jackets as used by the United States Coast Guard are in short supply because of supply chain issues.
54. Labor is expected to be in short supply in healthcare, retail, and food services. Construction and farm labor are currently experiencing shortages because of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
55. Landfills are overflowing and we’re running out of places to build new ones.
56. Limestone shortages aren’t talked about a lot but as limestone is used to make lime, cement, cereal, high quality paper, paint, iron, toothpaste, plastics, steel and copper production; air purification, calcium supplements, glass, pickles, and energy efficient white roofing shingles it’s hardly a wonder there could be shortages. Lime is used in water filtration and to adjust ph levels in soil and water. Local shortages in limestone are contributing to shortages of cement and concrete. People are beginning to question if there will even be enough limestone to keep up with President Biden’s infrastructure bill as the projected *“INCREASED demand of the global cement market to grow more than 43% to over $450 billion by 2028.”* As much of the available limestone is located in aquifers, the mining of limestone is contributing to global water shortages.
57. Lithium suffers from wild increases in demand due to the use of lithium batteries in everything from toys to electric trucks.
58. Matcha, despite tripling production, the bright green Japanese drink made from Green Tea is becoming more expensive and harder to find due to surging popularity driven by social media, increased tourism in Japan, and failing tea crops.
59. Magnesium is becoming hard to get because of the rising costs of mining coupled with increased demand due to magnesium’s use in new battery technologies. Add to that, China supplies almost all the world’s magnesium.
60. Matcha, the fine powdered bright green tea from Japan is in short supply and according to the New York Post there is “no end in sight.”
61. Milk Do I need to explain that milk comes from cows and cows are catching bird flu forcing herds to be put down? If yes, then you’ll never be able to figure it out. Keep going, nothing to be seen here.
62. Missiles are in short supply due to the many wars going on in the world. Seems to me that’s a good thing.
63. Natural Gas is already in short supply because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. My gas bill has doubled in the last 12 months as has my electric bill as natural gas is the primary fuel used by my electric provider, Duke Energy.
64. Natural rubber supplies have been negatively impacted by supply train issues, diseases affecting rubber tree plants, bottlenecks in the Red Sea and Panama Canal, an El Niño, and climate change. Natural rubber is used in tires, medical devices, and surgical gloves. Other uses include toys, pacifiers, clothing, motor mounts. balloons, and engineering applications.
65. Neon is rarely used to make lights, vacuum tubes, or picture tubes these days but because of extensive use of neon in semiconductors supply is not currently keeping up with demand because of the war in Ukraine.
66. Nickel is used to make nickels but it is also used in chrome plating, the making of stainless steel, in nickel and copper based alloys, plumbing fixtures, hardware, electronics, and electric vehicle batteries. Most Nickel is mined in Indonesia and currently there is only 1 Nickel mine operating in the USA.
67. Niobium is a rare alloying element in steels and superalloys used in jet engine components, rocket subassemblies, combustion equipment, and applications where resistance to high heat is needed. Other uses are in pipelines and body piercing jewelry. Supplies are limited and unevenly distributed, and will likely remain so.
68. Nitrocellulose, the stuff that makes rockets go zoom is zooming out of stock.
69. Oil is predicted to peak this year according to a study by none other than oil giant, British Petroleum.
70. Oxygen, specifically medical oxygen is running out.
71. Penicillin is in short supply because of recalls.
72. Pennies, that’s right, pennies. While production of pennies isn’t slated to end until 2026, as of October 2025 Retailers are reporting a shortage of pennies and are asking Congress for permission to round-up the amounts you pay. Now that sounds like a manufactured shortage if there ever was one.
73. Pepper, namely black, white, and green peppercorns are suffering from too little or too much rain in the countries where they are grown. Perhaps you should stop spraying the Virginia Pepperweed that comes up in your yard.
74. Phosphate rock is apparently still widely available despite internet myths to the contrary. Hey, we needed some good news
75. Potatoes are in short supply for the second year in a row. Already french fry makers are closing factories. Growers are facing seed potato shortages, especially for processing varieties. Fertilizer prices are rising, soils are in decline, water is scarce, and transportation costs are rising. Vladimir Putin is quoted as saying, *“It turns out that we don’t have enough potatoes. I spoke with [Belarusian leader] Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. He said, ‘We’ve already sold everything to Russia.”*
76. Pulp and paper products could potentially be in short supply or much more expensive because of Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports. How many paper towels and rolls of toilet paper can you stockpile?
77. Rare Earth Magnet shortages are causing problems for the automotive industry dependent on the latest technology to build new cars.
78. Refrigerants are getting hard to find. Will any be available when your air conditioning needs a refill?
79. Rice is in short supply in Japan as a wave of panic buying beginning in 2024 continues to empty store shelves.
80. Road salt If you are a resident of New York State you should probably be concerned about the availability of road salt as the state legislature passed the Buy American Salt Act which recently went into effect making road salt harder for local governments to get. Yes, the state can make exceptions but don’t expect deals from suppliers who know the purchase is a one time only thing. This is a prime example of how governments create shortages. Those things said, there is a road salt shortage in several states that is likely to effect your morning commute.
81. Salt — the kind you put on your food — is in short supply in Sri Lanka. Thankfully this appears to only be a local issue.
82. Sand is everywhere, right? Beaches and deserts seemingly have an endless supply, but many of those sands are not suitable for construction of houses, factories, businesses, skyscrapers, bridges, or highways. Mining sand along beaches and on river bottoms is causing yet another environmental crisis. The shortage is so great that organized crime has actually begun stealing and selling construction grade sand, even shipping it across international borders. *Burj Khalifa,* the world’s tallest skyscraper, was built in the UAE, a desert country on the Arabian Peninsula, using sand imported from Australia over 7,000 miles away.
83. Scandium is a rare earth metal that is used in leak detectors, space industry materials, military applications, and seed germinating. It is also used in aluminum alloys and Solid Oxide Fuel Cells which are fueling increased demand.
84. Seeds, especially the seeds used by large market commercial food producers, are expected to be in short supply.
85. Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, and the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Yet the supply of silicon is hampered by the inability of industry to refine silicon fast enough to meet demand adding to computer chip shortages.
86. Silver is expected to rise from $32.69 to $50.oo per ounce by mid year. As silver is the best electrical conductor known to man it’s uses include printed circuit boards, which are used in computers, cell phones, and other electronics, solder and brazing alloys, and electrical contacts. Silver is also used in medicine, water purification, solar panels, and batteries. Other uses include dentistry, glass coatings, LED chips, nuclear reactors, photography, RFID chips, semiconductors, touch screens, water purification, and wood preservatives.
87. Space in space is becoming hard to find as more and more satellites are being placed in the same space where something over 500,000 man made objects are currently orbiting the Earth.
88. Specialty Vegetables are becoming more expensive and harder to find as speculators and commodities traders are starting to hoard them in an effort to avoid tariffs and push up prices. The odd thing about the commodities markets is that traders can lock in prices in advance for things they never actually see or touch making spoilage someone else’s problem.
89. Sugar wouldn’t be a problem here in the USA if someone were smart enough to end the restrictions on Cuban sugar that were put into law in 1960, but noooo, Biden and Trump kept it going.
90. Tanks, specifically Russian military tanks are becoming scarce. Yes, the cause is the war with Ukraine but like all shortages its supply vs demand — Ukraine keeps blowing them up faster than Russia can make them. For most of us that isn’t a problem but for Putin it is a very real problem.
91. Teachers who are qualified to teach are getting scarce.
92. Top soil, the part of the ground that actually grows things like food is disappearing at rates far to fast to be replenished.
93. Tuberculosis (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) ) vaccine has been in short supply since 2019 because of increased demand and production challenges. BGG is difficult to make and recent outbreaks in several US states and numerous countries raises concerns that Tuberculosis may become the next pandemic. Merck, the maker of BCG, currently monopolizes supplies.
94. Tantalum is hard to come by simply because it cannot be processed quickly enough. It’s most common use is in capacitors used extensively in miniaturized electrical circuitry.
95. Titanium is getting hard to source due to sanctions and geopolitical tensions, the war in Ukraine, being hard to mine, labor shortages, factory shutdowns, and increased demand from the aerospace industry. Titanium is also used in automotive applications, consumer electronics, tools, and medical implants.
96. Toilet Paper will soon be in short supply due to tariffs on Canadian trees, lumber, paper, and bleached kraft pulp used to make paper.
97. TNT, the explosive used in artillery shells, mining, and construction is becoming rare because of wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
98. Tungsten is used to make alloys that are strong, flexible, and wear-resistant, high-speed tools, cutting tools, and grinding wheels. As welding electrodes, bullets, chemical catalysts, ceramic pigments, dyes, fire retardant coatings, and jewelry. Currently tungsten is in short supply because of export controls in China as China control’s 80% of the world’s tungsten supplies. The Guardian Metal Resources’ Pilot Mountain project in Nevada hopes to establish tungsten mining in the USA as we currently have none.
99. Vanadium is used to make ceramics, rust-resistant, spring, and high-speed tool steels, and superconductive magnets. Other uses include VRDs (vanadium redox-flow batteries) for large-scale storage of electricity. Current supply issues include the addition of vanadium to steel rebar to reduce rust, increases in battery production, the war in Ukraine, tensions between the US and China, tariffs, and production issues in South Africa.
100. Water, as in safe drinking water, is running out worldwide.
101. Weapons are in such short supply that promised shipments to Ukraine have been canceled.
102. Wood isn’t currently a concern for those who can afford the price increases brought about by Covid and more recent supply chain issues, but global demand for wood will again go up long after our most recent supply chain shortages get sorted out. Around the world deforestation is exceeding the amount of wood that is being replaced. Trees here in North Carolina and many other places are being cut down to provide wood pellets used to heat homes and generate electricity in England and Europe while adding to air pollution on both sides of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, our landfills continue to be filled with enough waste wood that it could be made into enough Methanol that when converted to hydrogen could replace gasoline and diesel fuel in cars, trucks, and ships.

I’ll update this list from time to time as more things become scarce and others become less scarce. Thank you for reading, commenting, and clapping. You might also enjoy How Trump can solve the egg crises, but probably won’t.

Latest update, October 25, 2025.