CO2 shortage—why can’t we just pull carbon dioxide out of the air?

More people than ever are acutely aware that rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere are accelerating climate change and global warming. And yet food manufacturers have been issuing stark warnings that they’ve nearly run out of the gas, which is used in many products from beer to crumpets. The obvious question is: why we can’t just capture the excess CO₂ from the atmosphere and use that?