The building blocks for everything on Earth are made from 90 different naturally occurring elements.
This visualization prepared by the European Chemical Society (EuChemS), shows a periodic table of these 90 different elements, highlighting which ones are in abundance and which ones are in serious threat as of 2021.
On the graphic, the area of each element relates to its number of atoms on a logarithmic scale. The color-coding shows whether there’s enough of each element, or whether the element is becoming scarce, based on current consumption levels.
While these elements don’t technically run out and instead transform (except for helium, which rises and escapes from Earth’s atmosphere), some are being used up exceptionally fast, to the point where they may soon become extremely scarce.
This latest version of the the EuChemS Periodic Table converts the color of carbon from the benign green color to a tricolor of green, red and dark grey:
Green because it is plentifully available in the form of carbon dioxide (too plentiful), carbonate rocks and vegetation.
Red because it will very shortly cause serious problems if no action is taken to restrict its use.
Grey because it can come from conflict resources.
