Big Soda is facing some real production problems in Australia thanks to a shortage of carbon dioxide:
Schweppes Australia, the nation’s second-largest soft-drink maker, which also has the Australian bottling rights to Pepsi and Sunkist, said production is being hampered by a lack of carbon dioxide because of plant shutdowns by Orica Ltd. (ORI) and Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG)
The shortage of CO2 is not related to Australia’s carbon tax, but more mundane industrial reasons (an accident at one plant, an upgrade at the other). Big Soda’s current problem is that supplies of the dangerous pollutant it pumps into its product are being sent to more important users first:
Air Liquide, the world’s largest industrial gas producer, said in a Dec. 6 statement that the Kooragang shutdown had forced it to reduce inventory levels and shift product from other states to meet demand. Priority will be given to supplying gas to water treatment plants and medical consumers, it said.
Who knew that, apart from dooming the planet to a fiery hell, CO2 was good for fizzy drinks, water treatment plants and as an additive to oxygen for medical use as a respiration stimulant?
The fact that we can still manufacture CO2 amid a climate of fear about the amount of it in the air exposes the intellectual bankruptcy of Julia Gillard, Weepy Bill McKibben and the entire hippie horde who claim man-made emissions of CO2 drive global temperature. If they were serious, their first targets would be frivolous uses of the gas, like putting fizz in drinks, not power stations that help keep us comfortable and safe.
Until Coke, Pepsi and all other carbonated drinks are deemed crimes against Gaia, I think we can all relax about global warming.
Astute readers will note that Weepy Bill McKibben got a mention. Igor, fetch me the Google juice.
Perennial hottie favorite Nicole Kidman.
You’re welcome.
[...] have a new rule, suggested by reader and serial commenter brc. Any mention of the 2011 Hippie of the Year gets an Aussie hottie. Which is why the Universe gave [...]
Ed,
Thanks for commenting. You’re trying to have it both ways. Climate alarmists make no distinction between ‘good’ CO2, or bad CO2. In fact, the EPA declared it a ‘dangerous pollutant’. Not sometimes, always.
We’re told CO2 is a problem from when emitted by power stations, airplanes, cars, and a host of everyday life activities which require us to make changes or the planet will burn. Bill McKibben spends his time trying to persuade people there is such a thing as a ‘safe’ level of 350ppm.
CO2 is CO2, and greens claim it’s a problem. That it’s used in coke, beer and a vast number of essential activities the greens dare not try to ban is more evidence of groupthink hogwash.
Nice try, though.
You’re making the false premise error here.
You assume that if a substance is harmful in one context, it must be harmful in all contexts. In other words, since water is the cause of the deaths of about 10,000 Americans every year (drowning, etc.), water must be harmful in all contexts, and therefore it should be banned in your view of things. (You’ll find support for your position from comedians and hoaxsters all over the world — see the Research Division at DHMO.org, for example, http://www.dhmo.org/ .)
But that’s inaccurate in a more holistic context.
A close analogy might be gasoline. Surely it does a lot of good as fuel for internal combustion engines, and perhaps even for cleaning in the absence of dry cleaning fluid. But it’s more explosive than TNT, loaded with potent carcinogens, and poisonous.
A wise observer may note that we move and consume millions of gallons of gasoline every day, mostly safely. Might it just be possible that other substances have both beneficial and harmful uses, and can be used safely with proper controls?
Your premise, that CO2 must be either entirely bad or entirely good, is a bad premise. It can be good in one use, and harmful in another. In some uses it may be both beneficial and harmful. Real world rules apply here.
Got any wise observers around?
These guys are are into CO2 sequestering big time, they should be given carbon credits that can be sold back to the dastardly fizzy drink consumers ;)
mikem,
Point taken, and a timely reminder that when hippies and the G&T crowd finally collide, it won’t be pretty.
Exit question - lemon, or lime?
brc,
while there’s no such thing as too much Nicole, I’ll see what I can do next time we need an upside-down hottie.
Liquid CO2, better known as dry ice is also highly in demand. Primarily in the medical field and many older airliners for refrigeration. It is also used to carbonate drinks and to maintain flash freezing. It is actually carbon neutral as you can take the exhaust gas coming from a industrial boiler stack, run the gas through a coke filter and mix it with mono-ethinal amine, then compress it with a 3 stage compressor to 5000 psi and presto….you have dry ice. You sell it in 50 lb. blocks to appreciative customers who take it away and a few days later it turns back into nothing, but you have their money. Unlike all other carbon carbon fantasies, this is probably the only one with any value. Also as Mikem noted, flat Schweppes can ruin your whole day.
Hmm that makes two Nicoles in as many weeks.
She’s a lovely gal and all, but how about some old-school Elle or Kylie?
Or, if you want to get all up to date on your down-under beauties, a bit of Isla Fisher, Miranda Kerr or Megan Gale?
In fact, I think a DB rule should be that for every mention of the Hippie of the Year, you should link to an Australian Hottie to balance out the yin and yang.
I’m sure weepy Bill would approve.
Now look here DB, fizzy drinks may seem frivolous to you but I can assure you that flat Schweppes tonic in one’s gin is in itself, life-threatening.
I believe that most of the CO2 distributed by Air Liquide is collected as a by-product from other industries rather than being manufactured.
So, instead of shoving it all up a chimney they sneak it out in cans of Coke.
It would be interesting to know just how much carbon dioxide is manufactured and released by Coke & Pepsi around the world…
Just saw Billy Bathgate again recently for the first time in years. Ah, when Nicole was young and naked in all her movies. Those were the days.