The catalytic converter in your vehicle is made with palladium, a precious metal mined in only a few locations worldwide.
Economic events can have profound and widespread environmental effects.
In early March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russian supplies of palladium have been severely reduced in recent months. Palladium is a rare, precious metal used in the catalytic converters of cars to clean up emissions and reduce air pollution. Since 1998, rising palladium prices have caused periodic crunches in the production of catalytic converters. The increase in international palladium prices results largely from Russia's recent political instability, which has slowed deliveries from mines at Norilsk, a frozen outpost that was once a prison gulag and is now the world's largest producer of palladium. High prices have also instigated increased palladium production at a palladium mine in the Beartooth Mountains of southern Montana.