Can you imagine Christmas without some fizzy drinks? That's what people in Britain were talking about this week. The country didn't have enough of the gas that puts the fizz into drinks. Do you know what gas that is?
It's carbon dioxide, also known as CO2. And where else do you hear about? Well, when people are talking about climate change. CO2 is the main gas that's causing global warming - because all our cars and factories are sending too much carbon dioxide into the air.
So, isn't that strange? On the one hand, there's too much CO2 in the atmosphere. But in Britain, they were worried about not having enough? How does that work?
Not enough? Or too much?
Well, the CO2 for fizzy drinks in Britain comes from a chemicals factory that makes it specially. The factory was going to close until, this week, the government did a deal to make sure the factory has enough money to stay open. It was important for the government, not just because people like fizzy drinks, especially at Christmas, but because CO2 is massively useful in all sorts of ways, such as for keeping food fresh.
But, like we said, there's also too much CO2 floating about above our heads. That's got people thinking - what if we could grab that CO2 from the atmosphere (instead of making more of it in factories). That way, we'd help fight global warming by taking CO2 out of the air and have something really useful.
What's more, some of the people thinking about what to do with all that unwanted CO2 in the air have some amazing new ideas for what you can do with carbon dioxide. They're calling it the carbontech revolution.
Food from thin air
Two guys in Finland, Pasi and Juha-Pekka are - amazingly - making food using CO2 "captured" from industry before it escapes into the atmosphere to cause global warming.
Their company, Solar Foods, takes tiny, natural microbes from the Finnish countryside. Using solar electricity it "feeds" them on water from the air and captured CO2 so that they grow and multiply. They end up with protein - a bit like meat or soy bean - which can make tasty meals.
Pasi and Juha-Peka's "food from thin air" might seem far fetched. But serious people, including the European Space Agency, are taking it really seriously. Their protein, called "solein" could be what keeps astronauts going on long journeys to Mars, which are already being planned for the 2030s.
Fancy a solein burger with your fizzy drink?!
