Recently, the ‘soaring’ wholesale price rises in natural gas, has led to claims that it is the harbinger of some sort of disaster. Apparently, if our economies have to reduce their levels of natural gas consumption, there will be a knock-on effect in terms of a shortage of Carbon Dioxide!
It is now generally accepted that there is a causal relationship between Global Warming and higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere; and that increased levels of CO2 follow the burning of fossil fuels for power generation to satisfy the ‘needs’ of our advanced economies, (see Figure 1 below).
The figures of CO2 levels shown in Figure 1 are calculated from measurements of ice cores. Since 1850, roughly the start date of industrialization, CO2 levels have risen by 48%. This startling rate of rise is illustrated by the steep, (near vertical), graph-trace on the right-hand end of the time line.
FIGURE 1: Rise in CO2 levels since the beginning of Industrialized Economies[1]
Source: NASA
In the UK, the wholesale price of natural gas has more than doubled since June of this year, and this is threatening the future viability of energy-intensive industries. One such industry is that involved in the manufacture of chemical fertilizers. The production of ammonium nitrate, which is the most popular nitrogen-based fertilizer used on farms around the world[2], requires the essential ingredient of ammonia, which in turn is extracted from large volumes of natural gas.
The soaring gas prices have risen faster than fertilizer companies can recoup the extra cost from their customers, leading to a threatened reduction in output by Yara International[3] and the actual closure of two UK-based fertilizer-plants run by CF Industries Holdings[4]. The expectation is that further cut-backs and closures will affect production across Europe, leading to poor crop yields, and ultimately, empty supermarket shelves.
However, it is not only the supply of chemical fertilizer to farmers that is jeopardized. A major by-product of the process for manufacturing ammonium nitrate is carbon dioxide, and it has become apparent that large volumes of this gas is required for the human food chain[5], and over 40% of this is supplied from the fertilizer industry.
Carbon dioxide is used to gas pigs and chickens, rendering them unconscious before the final stages of the slaughtering process. In the UK alone, about 1 million pigs and 20 million poultry birds are killed each week and entered into the ‘sausage-machine’ known as the food supply chain. A spokesperson for the British Meat Packing Association warned that without Carbon Dioxide, the slaughtering process of pigs and chickens cannot go ahead.
The deadly gas is also extensively used in the food industry to extend the shelf-life of butchered meat, so that wings, legs, breasts, chops, slices and mince etc. are preserved in their very own alien atmosphere, captured beneath a non-porous covering of cling-film.
And here is the dilemma; the production of ‘essential’ fertilizer for farms requires a process that uses huge amounts of natural gas, which in turn produces huge amounts of CO2. This CO2 is not immediately released into the atmosphere but is sold-on to become an ‘essential’ part of the processed-food industry. It is used in abattoirs to ensure the smooth running of the slaughtering process and it also provides a favourable environment for packaged meat products. However, eventually it will be released into the Earth’s atmosphere and contribute towards global warming and other climate-change effects that are forecast to threaten human life on our planet.[6]
The difficult choice that we have to make is between the shelf-life of dead chickens on a supermarket shelf, and the shelf-life of the human species on Earth.
[1] https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/
[2] (And popular with some terrorist organizations as an explosive)
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yara_International
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CF_Industries (The plants involved are based in Cheshire & Teeside).
[5] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58600583
[6] https://ukcop26.org/