As a Newshub news article warned earlier this week, New Zealand’s CO2 shortage is going to bite.
It’s not only fizzy drinks and alcohol production that use CO2, it’s also used to grow and transport food.
Dawson [chief executive of the Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Federation] said dry ice, which is the solid form of carbon dioxide, was essential for the transportation of perishable products, including fruit, fish, meat and medical supplies that needed to be chilled. […]
Horticultural companies, which use carbon dioxide to promote the growth of plants in greenhouses, have warned the latest outage is reducing the supply of tomatoes and peppers and pushing up their price.
Dawson said the problem for its members was that the cost of dry ice had risen from $5 a kilo to $18, “if it can be obtained”. […]
While carbon dioxide can be imported in cylinders at a price, Dawson said there was also an international shortage to contend with.
One CBAFF member had been advised by distributor BOC they could no longer receive orders of dry ice that they needed to transport yoghurt cultures around the country, she said.
“They are relying on reusing dry ice that comes in with imports from Denmark, but it’s already depleted from the five-day transit.”
Stuff
With Marsden Point refinery permanently closed, inflation and the cost of food getting steeper, things are looking increasingly dire for household budgets.
Meanwhile, in Germany, where getting through the winter on limited gas has been a serious concern for households, protesters have been trying to stop work on an open-face coal mine that might be required this Northern winter.
[S]everal hundred climate protesters are determined to stop RWE getting at the lignite that lies underneath Lützerath.
Some have been here for more than a year, squatting in the abandoned brick buildings. And it will probably take police weeks to remove all the barricades and tree houses. […]
BBC
Police moved in this week, but some protesters remain and two are hiding in a tunnel. Yesterday, everyone’s favourite climate ‘activist’ visited for support (albeit briefly, to speak to media). Further protests are expected today.
Yet German citizens have to conserve energy to get through – using less hot water, switching off lights and turning off heat. And their gas prices have increased markedly.
Moritz Kuhn [economist at University of Bonn], says his friends and family have been trying to buy firewood to heat their apartments, but it’s nowhere to be found. “If you go to a store and try to buy anything that you could burn in your oven, you are not going to find anything. It’s just all sold out or has ridiculous prices,” he says.
Discuss it on The BFD.
