Derek Thomas – Political Analyst-Climate change is a touchy subject. Many believe that we must cut our C02 emissions in order to prevent dire consequences to humans and our planet. Some point blank don’t believe that human C02 emissions matter. Others believe our contributions are not significant enough to effect global cycles of heating and cooling.
Regardless of your mindset, there are a few undeniable effects of over or irresponsible consumption and emission. Local and regional air pollution are undeniable and often direct causes of C02 emission. The use of finite resources will lead to starvation, social instability and war. And you can’t consider only precious metals and the like in ‘finite resources’. Energy – in most of its current forms – is a finite resource. Our soil quality and water quality are just as finite. And not just in terms of how we deplete our soil or use our water, but what we put into them as well (ie. Agricultural run-off, toxins, pharmaceuticals, industrial pollutents, etc).
HEMP CAN ADDRESS ALL OF THESE ISSUES POSITIVELY. Most cannabis enthusiasts know a lot of the familiar benefits. In case you’re not, let’s review them. When it comes to finite resources, hemp can help alleviate food, building, textile, technology and energy needs. The food comes in the form of a complete protein full of fiber and 3-6-9 omega fatty acids from the seeds. The building materials come from hempcrete – an incredible building material. Hemp fibers make a superior textile to cotton and other natural fibers that lasts longer, is soft, is anti-fungal, and UV resistant. Hemp makes efficient and cheap supercapacitors, replacing the dirty compound known as graphene, for energy storage and transfer in batteries and other electronics.
The best part of all these capabilities is that in making them, hemp will actually leave us with cleaner, healthier soil. It does this in a few ways. It requires no pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, or fertilizer; it pulls pollutants out of the soil through a process called phytoremediation; and it adds nitrates back into the soil – a key element for healthy soil that most crops deplete. And amazingly enough, hemp uses very little water – especially compared to cotton and most food crops.
But what about that C02? Just imagine for a minute, no matter your beliefs, that all the sudden it is 100% irrefutable that we need to start pulling C02 out of the air?
Hemps got us covered. To show how, we have to zoom in on specific examples in industry – I choose to take a look at building.
It’s all about renewables and “sequestered carbon”.
To make one ton of steel, you’ll end up emitting 1.46 tons of CO2. Concrete? 436lbs of CO2 is emitted making one ton of reinforced concrete. But get this: one square meter of timber framed, hemp-lime wall (weighing 264lbs), after allowing for the energy cost of transporting and assembling the materials actually stores 78.26lbs of CO2.
Therefore, when we can convert plants into building materials its a win-win situation.
credit:420intel.com