> One thing about helium: once its released to the atmosphere its gone forever. Because it is so light it not only heads upwards, the velocity of the atoms is high enough that some exceed the Earth's escape velocity and don't come down.

I'm all for preserving helium, but sensationalist BS doesn't help.

> On the surface of the Earth, the escape velocity is about 11.2 km/s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity

The thermal velocity (at room temperature) of He is 1.245 km/s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_velocity

There is no way that Helium reaches escape velocity without some sort of mechanical assistance.

I've heard it theorized that Helium, because it is prone to float at the outer edges of the atmosphere, is particularly susceptible to being stripped away by solar winds. I don't have sufficient expertise to evaluate this claim, but it seems at least plausible. This can't be happening very much, though, or our atmosphere would much more closely resemble that of Mars, which lacks a protective magnetosphere.