1. Because there is no faster, better way to remove CO2 from the air
Hemp rocks! It was mankind’s first cultivated crop and its benefits were felt through the ages, until it was banned in much of the western world by a bunch of racists, sociopaths and fossil fuel megalomaniacs. Hemp is ready to reclaim its rightful place as the most useful plant on Planet Earth. A hectare of hemp can remove up to 15 tonnes of CO2 from the air in a single growing season, with two crops possible in hot climates! And, if we use some of the hemp crop’s fibre to make paper (just one of hemp’s thousands of sustainable product applications), then we can stop cutting down beautiful trees and allow them to keep growing and keep absorbing CO2. Win-win! Please share this great news!
2. Hemp cultivation contributes to the European Green Deal objectives
Don’t just take our word for it! Here’s what the European Commission has to say:
Hemp has many environmental benefits.
- Carbon storage: one hectare of hemp sequesters 9 to 15 tonnes of CO2, similar to the amount sequestered by a young forest, but it only takes five months to grow.
- Breaking the cycle of diseases: hemp helps to break the cycle of diseases when used in crop rotation. In addition, weeds are not able to grow due to the fast growth and shading capacity of hemp plants.
- Soil erosion prevention: dense leaves of hemp become a natural soil cover, reducing water loss and protecting against soil erosion. Hemp covers the ground just three weeks after germination.
- Biodiversity: flowering cycle usually occurs between July and September, coinciding with a lack of pollen production from other crops. Hemp produces large amounts of pollen. It also provides shelter for birds and hemp seeds are a food for animals.
- Low or no use of pesticides: hemp is susceptible to few pests because of the lack of natural predators, which means that the use of insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides can be avoided in most cases.
So that would make hemp a win-win-win-win-win! For our friends, the bees, pollen + no pesticides make hemp a definite win-win!
3. Hemp can fully replace fossil fuels
We hear a lot of moaning from the fossil fuel industry, their media apologists, PR lackeys, and internet trolls, about how we just can’t do without their filthy oil and gas. Sorry! That’s a complete load of bullshit and we are calling it out, right here, right now. Hemp was doing everything that fossil fuels now do. Until they banned it.
Jack Herer sums it up perfectly, in his classic book The Emperor Wears No Clothes:
If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as (cutting down) trees for paper and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the Greenhouse Effect and stop deforestation: Then there is only one known, annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world’s paper and textiles, meeting all of the world’s transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil, and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time. And that substance is – the same one that did it all before – Cannabis Hemp!
We could not have said it better ourselves. We’re up against a fossil fuel pantheon of toxic corporations, crazed dictators and religion-fuelled monarchies. They’ve had decades to accumulate obscene wealth and to use their blood money to make and buy weapons, to indoctrinate the planet and to own the media and ‘democratic’ power structures. This will not be easy. But, together, we will win.
We urgently need to end our reliance on fossil fuels. Industrial hemp can be used to make ethanol, biodiesel, and biochar, sustainably replacing gasoline, diesel, and coal respectively. We have the solutions, and war has given us the will. Now we just need political leadership. We’re delivering solutions to our multiple existential crises, with or without political assistance. Are you ready to help?
4. Cannabis legalisation is becoming the norm, releasing hemp from legal limbo
We fully expect federal cannabis legalisation in the US in advance of the presidential elections this year, as a sure-fire vote winner for the Democrats. President Biden has already taken significant steps towards this. Europe is waking up, with Germany racing towards legalisation, and the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Malta having already implemented socially beneficial reforms. When cannabis is legalised, then hemp is released from the THC trap. This means that growers, makers and retailers are no longer under threat of arrest because their hemp crops and products have fractionally more THC than is allowed (currently 0.3% in the EU).
5. We don’t have faith in governments to stop climate change, so Greentech enterprises (like Hempoffset.com) are our best chance
Here’s a sneak peek at the results from our ongoing climate change survey…
We asked how confident people are in their government’s ability to help stop climate change, with 1 being not at all confident and 5 being very confident.
There’s a little more confidence in the UN, but nothing to write home about. So with little confidence in our elected and unelected representatives, that leaves Greentech. The great news is that there are thousands of Greentech businesses getting going around the world. Hempoffset.com is a member of the Greentech Alliance (learn more here) and we are 100% committed to stopping climate change with the power of hemp. And your help.
When launching his incredible BBC series, Universe, before COP26, Prof Brian Cox made the startling statement that “I would say if our civilisation doesn’t persist, for whatever reason, and it might be an external event or it might be our own action, nuclear war, whatever it is we decide to inflict on ourselves, it is possible that whoever presses that button eliminates meaning in a galaxy forever.”
Think about it. What if we are on the only planet with sentient life in the galaxy? In the Universe? Thinking about quantum physics for a moment: observing something makes it real. Observation affects reality. And this has been proven by experiment (see link below). If a tree falls in a forest and there’s nobody there to hear it, does it make a sound? No, it doesn’t.
Without us, and the hemp plants, and the bees, and the trees, and the dolphins, and the dogs, and the cats, and all of our amazing natural world here to observe the Universe, the Universe may cease to exist.
Together, we won’t just save the world. We may actually save the Universe. So let’s get started by making 2024 the year of hemp!
Learn more
Our post on the power of hemp.
Read The Emperor Wears No Clothes for free on Wikimedia Commons.
Wikipedia on the legality of cannabis by country.
The Guardian on Prof Brian Cox and Universe.
Science News – Quantum Theory Demonstrated: Observation Affects Reality.
Image credits
Hemp farming: Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels
Latest posts
- Earth Day 2024: Planet vs. Plastics
- Tao Climate Urges UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs to Exclude Industrial Hemp from Narcotics Conventions
- Our Double Impact Pledge for 2030: Sequester 1 Gigatonne of Carbon in Hemp Housing for 300 Million People
- Hemp Finalist Entry in Elon Musk’s XPRIZE
- Hemp Video for Climate Action
Founder and CEO at Hempoffset.com and TaoClimate.com.
Hempoffset works with hemp growers and makers worldwide, to capture and sequester CO2 at scale, while building a sustainable world.
Tao Climate works with companies and individuals that want to measure, minimise and manage their carbon footprints. Tao Climate is the way to carbon neutral.
We are proud members of the Google Startups for Sustainable Development program.
