Patricia Cohen

It's how big factories and industry use to power and run their machines and such.

Korea, LNG makes up about 20% of its total energy supply, and it generates about 25% of its electricity.

And Korea is an interesting example because that's a country that in the last 25 years has increased its use of LNG by more than 200 percent.

So you can understand why all of this is so disruptive to some of these countries.

that are really important in industrial production.

So one of them is naphtha, which is probably something you've never heard of, but it's really important in making plastics and other gas products.

Helium is really important for making semiconductors.

And then...

There's nitrogen-based fertilizers, which are crucial to the world's food supply.

And fertilizer prices have soared.

And farmers are really worried, one, can they even afford to buy fertilizer?

And two, will it even be available for them to use?

Exactly, exactly.

So remember, we're in the middle of an energy shock.

Already, we're dealing with higher prices of oil and that this oil can't get to where it needs to go.

And so for countries that also use a lot of LNG, it's like a double whammy because now prices of that are going up.

And so for poor countries, it's really hard because they have trouble affording even the energy supply that's available.

We've seen in places like Sri Lanka and Pakistan, schools are being closed, government offices are being closed.

In Thailand, they're asking people to take the stairs instead of elevators.

Work weeks are being shortened to four days.