https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-cheapest-way-to-save-the-planet-grows-like-a-weed/
[Another emerging problem with growing trees as the CO2 capture solution
of choice is that the climate is now changing faster than the trees
grow. One result of that is that pests like the pine beetle are
devastating vast swaths of boreal forest, which makes them fuel for
wildfires - which are also growing in number and size worldwide. Those
fires mean that CO2 which has been captured over a period of decades is
released back to the atmosphere in days - creating a positive feedback
look. Plants like bamboo and hemp which grow quickly and absorb more
CO2 per day per acre (hectare) appear to be a viable part of the current
GHG atmospheric inventory over supply (addressing mostly CO2 and a bit
of NOx, but likely not methane). Hemp has the added advantage that when
the plant matter is used to make cloth, rope and other durable items, it
is a long-term sequestration device. To the extent hemp oil can be used
to displace refining and burning of fossil oil and making hemp-based
plastics, it will help reduce net GHG emissions.
links in online article]
The Cheapest Way to Save the Planet Grows Like a Weed
Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the cheapest and
most efficient way to tackle the climate crisis. So states a Guardian
article, citing a new analysis published in the journal Science. The
author explains:
As trees grow, they absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that
are driving global heating. New research estimates that a worldwide
planting programme could remove two-thirds of all the emissions that
have been pumped into the atmosphere by human activities, a figure the
scientists describe as “mind-blowing”.
For skeptics who reject the global warming thesis, reforestation also
addresses the critical problems of mass species extinction and
environmental pollution, which are well-documented. A 2012 study from
the University of Michigan found that loss of biodiversity impacts
ecosystems as much as does climate change and pollution. Forests shelter
plant and animal life in their diverse forms, and trees remove air
pollution by the interception of particulate matter on plant surfaces
and the absorption of gaseous pollutants through the leaves.
The July analytical review in Science calculated how many additional
trees could be planted globally without encroaching on crop land or
urban areas. It found that there are 1.7 billion hectares (4.2 billion
acres) of treeless land on which 1.2 trillion native tree saplings would
naturally grow. Using the most efficient methods, 1 trillion trees could
be restored for as little as $300 billion—less than 2% of the lower
range of estimates for the Green New Deal introduced by progressive
Democrats in February.
The Guardian quoted Professor Tom Crowther at the Swiss university ETH
Zürich, who said, “What blows my mind is the scale. I thought
restoration would be in the top 10, but it is overwhelmingly more
powerful than all of the other climate change solutions proposed.” He
said it was also by far the cheapest solution that has ever been
proposed. The chief drawback of reforestation as a solution to the
climate crisis, as The Guardian piece points out, is that trees grow
slowly. The projected restoration could take 50 to 100 years to reach
its full carbon sequestering potential.
A Faster, More Efficient Solution
Fortunately, as of December 2018, there is now a cheaper, faster and
more efficient alternative—one that was suppressed for nearly a century
but was legalized on a national scale when President Trump signed the
Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018.
This is the widespread cultivation of industrial hemp, the
nonintoxicating form of cannabis grown for fiber, cloth, oil, food and
other purposes. Hemp grows to 13 feet in 100 days, making it one of the
fastest carbon dioxide-to-biomass conversion tools available. Industrial
hemp has been proved to absorb more CO2 per hectare than any forest or
commercial crop, making it the ideal carbon sink. It can be grown on a
wide scale on nutrient-poor soils with very small amounts of water and
no fertilizers.
Hemp products can promote biodiversity and reverse environmental
pollution by replacing petrochemical-based plastics, which are now being
dumped into the ocean at the rate of one garbage truck per minute. One
million seabirds die each year from ingesting plastic, and up to 90%
have plastic in their guts. Microplastic (resulting from the breakdown
of larger pieces by sunlight and waves) and microbeads (used in body
washes and facial cleansers) have been called the ocean’s smog. They
absorb toxins in the water, enter the food chain and ultimately wind up
in humans. To avoid all that, we can use plastic made from hemp, which
is biodegradable and nontoxic.
Other environmental toxins come from the textile industry, which is
second only to agriculture in the amount of pollution it creates and the
voluminous amounts of water it uses. Hemp can be grown with minimal
water, and hemp fabrics can be made without the use of toxic chemicals.
Environmental pollution from the burning of fossil fuels can also be
reversed with hemp, which is more efficient and environmentally friendly
than wheat and corn as a clean-burning biofuel.
Hemp cultivation also encourages biodiversity in the soil, by
regenerating farmland that has long been depleted from the use of toxic
chemicals. It is a “weed” and grows like one, ubiquitously, beating out
other plants without pesticides or herbicides; and its long taproot
holds the soil, channeling moisture deeper into it. Unlike most forestry
projects, hemp can be grown on existing agricultural land and included
as part of a farm’s crop rotation, with positive effects on the yields
and the profits from subsequent crops.
A Self-Funding Solution
Hemp cultivation is profitable in many other ways—so profitable that it
is effectively a self-funding solution to the environmental crisis.
According to a Forbes piece titled “Industrial Hemp Is the Answer to
Petrochemical Dependency,” crop yields from hemp can range from $20,000
to $50,000 per acre. Its widespread cultivation can happen without
government subsidies. Investment in research, development and incentives
would speed the process, but market forces will propel these
transformations even if Congress fails to act. All farmers need for
incentive is a market for the products, which hemp legalization has
provided. Due to the crop’s century-long suppression, the infrastructure
to capitalize on its diverse uses still needs to be developed, but the
infrastructure should come with the newly opened markets.
Hemp can break our dependency on petrochemicals, not only for fuel but
for plastics, textiles, construction materials and much more. It has
actually been grown for industrial and medicinal purposes for millennia,
and today it is legally grown for industrial use in hundreds of
countries outside the U.S.
Just after the nationwide ban established by the Marihuana Tax Act in
1937, an article in Popular Mechanics claimed it was a billion-dollar
crop (the equivalent of about $16 billion today), useful in 25,000
products ranging from dynamite to cellophane. New uses continue to be
found, including eliminating smog from fuels, creating a cleaner energy
source that can replace nuclear power, removing radioactive water from
the soil and providing a very nutritious food source for humans and
animals. Cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive derivative of hemp, has
recently been shown to help curb opioid addiction, now a national epidemic.
Hemp can also help save our shrinking forests by eliminating the need to
clear-cut them for paper pulp. One acre planted in hemp produces as much
pulp as 4.1 acres of trees, according to the USDA; and unlike trees,
hemp can be harvested two or three times a year. Hemp paper is also
finer, stronger and lasts longer than wood-based paper. Benjamin
Franklin’s paper mill used hemp. Until 1883, it was one of the largest
agricultural crops (some say the largest), and 80–90% of all paper in
the world was made from it. It was also the material from which most
fabric, soap, fuel and fiber were made; and it was an essential resource
for any country with a shipping industry, since sails were made from it.
In early America, growing hemp was considered so important that it was
illegal for farmers not to grow it. Hemp was legal tender from 1631
until the early 1800s, and taxes could even be paid with it.
Banned by the Competition?
The competitive threat to other industries of this supremely useful
plant may have been a chief driver of its apparently groundless
criminalization in the 1930s. Hemp is not marijuana and is so low in
psychoactive components that it cannot produce a marijuana “high.” It
was banned for nearly a century simply because it was in the same plant
species as marijuana. Cannabis came under attack in the 1930s in all its
forms. Why? Hemp competed not only with the lumber industry but with the
oil, cotton, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. Many have
speculated that it was suppressed by these powerful competitors.
William Randolf Hearst, the newspaper mogul, owned vast tracts of forest
land, which he intended to use for making wood-pulp paper. Cheap
hemp-based paper would make his forest investments a major money loser.
Hearst was a master of “yellow journalism,” and a favorite target of his
editorials was “reefer madness.” He was allied with the DuPont
Corporation, which provided the chemicals to bleach and process the wood
pulp used in the paper-making process. DuPont was also ready to
introduce petroleum-based fibers such as nylon, and hemp fabrics
competed with that new market.
In fact, hemp products threatened the entire petroleum industry. Henry
Ford first designed his cars to run on alcohol from biofuels, but the
criminalization of both alcohol and hemp forced him to switch to the
dirtier, less efficient fossil fuels that dominate the industry today. A
biofuel-based infrastructure would create a completely decentralized
power grid, eliminating the giant monopolistic power companies.
Communities could provide their own energy using easily renewable plants.
None of this is news. Hemp historians have been writing about the crop’s
myriad uses and its senseless prohibition for decades. (See “The Emperor
Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer, 1992 and “Hemp for Victory: A Global
Warming Solution” by Richard Davis, 2009.)
What is news is that hemp cultivation is finally legal across the
country. The time is short to save the planet and its vanishing
diversity of species. Rather than engaging in endless debates over
carbon taxes and Silicon Valley style technological fixes, we need to be
regenerating our soils, our forests and our oceans with nature’s own
plant solutions.
[more on growing hemp in Ontario:
http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/00-067.htm]
--
Darryl McMahon
Freelance Project Manager (sustainable systems)
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