Cannabis The Carbon Footprint Towards Climate Change

Interestingly in a recent study produced by Evan Mills phd. marijuana has turned out to be a huge energy consumer.

From The Study:

"The analysis performed in this study finds that indoor Cannabis production results in energy expenditures of $6 billion each year--6-times that of the entire U.S. pharmaceutical industry--with electricity use equivalent to that of 2 million average U.S. homes. This corresponds to 1% of national electricity consumption or 2% of that in households. The yearly greenhouse-gas pollution (carbon dioxide, CO2 ) from the electricity plus associated transportation fuels equals that of 3 million cars. Energy costs constitute a quarter of wholesale value."

This is huge, and the Global Warming implications are tremendous.

From The Study:

"From the perspective of individual consumers, a single Cannabis cigarette represents about 10 pounds of CO2 emissions,* an amount equal to running a 100-watt light bulb for 75 hours with average U.S. electricity (or 135 hours on California’s cleaner grid). Each four-by-four-foot production module doubles the electricity use of an average U.S. home and triples that of an average California home. The added electricity use is equivalent to running about 90 refrigerators. Processed Cannabis results in 4,600-times its weight in CO2 emissions. For off-grid production, it requires 70 gallons of diesel fuel to produce one indoor Cannabis plant, or 140 gallons with smaller, less-efficient gasoline generators."

Until the indoor marijuana industry becomes more efficient, the cost of a joint should include additional carbon taxes in California as soon as politicians find out something this power hungry is growing in their state. The rest of the US will have to wait for imposed carbon taxes from progressives. But the cost of cannabis should skyrocket as soon as the feds find out what the energy consumption is in relation to coal and gas producing energy.

1 Joint = 10 pounds of Co2.... I feel warmer already.

Easy reading article from PC Magazine

First they tricked the public with reefer madness now they are trying the same thing with reefer gases.


co2 gases that is.

This hardly surprises me. The electrical costs for growing are pretty high. To produce 1oz of plant material, the cost is approximately $38, and most of that is energy costs. The weed takes a lot of sunlight to produce.

Well, sure, I believe it. Typical propaganda though, IMO.

Indoor growing energy usage is quite high, but that's what one has to do, when growing outside will land you a visit from the local government agencies, even when done in accordance with the law in medicinal use states.

Another issue largely ignored is the annual cost of harvesting and planning trees for lumber, paper, etc. If said substance was legalized on the federal level, the production cost would go down, largely from the ability to grow outside, and the materials harvested from the plant would reduce demand for lumber, thus further lowering cost and the carbon footprint.

Silly me, there I go thinking again.....

a reply to: MarlinGrace

If it weren't illegal, people wouldn't have to grow it indoors to keep it hidden. Even more reason to legalize Marijuana.

a reply to: Evil_Santa

Seems to me that one of the reasons for indoor growing was to hide illegal growing....

Plant is a weed - or Tube farming in the great outdoors....

Oh No in a Mr Bills voice from early SNL.... Green houses cause green house effects....


LOL
kx12x you posted as I was typing and trying to think of something clever like Mr Bill.....

a reply to: MarlinGrace
From what I under stand, CO2 makes Cannabis even Bigger and Better! I think my opinion about green house gases is shifting in favor of global warming... lol

Thank God canabis is a plant that can grow with the sun. Business and profit is what is killing the planet.

Get to the root of the problem.

As usual studies overlook the fact that companies aim only for profit and that is what is making us cut corners, circumvent the natural barriers that keep things in balance like. We must work with nature not control it and make it our slave.

There has to be a better way.

originally posted by: dothedew
Well, sure, I believe it. Typical propaganda though, IMO.

Indoor growing energy usage is quite high, but that's what one has to do, when growing outside will land you a visit from the local government agencies, even when done in accordance with the law in medicinal use states.

Another issue largely ignored is the annual cost of harvesting and planning trees for lumber, paper, etc. If said substance was legalized on the federal level, the production cost would go down, largely from the ability to grow outside, and the materials harvested from the plant would reduce demand for lumber, thus further lowering cost and the carbon footprint.

Silly me, there I go thinking again.....

You should read the article by the author he was a professor a UC Berkeley hardly a safe haven for conservative, and is currently working at University of California. He makes a pretty good argument for indoor growing.

originally posted by: IceHappy
a reply to: Evil_Santa

Seems to me that one of the reasons for indoor growing was to hide illegal growing....

Plant is a weed - or Tube farming in the great outdoors....

Oh No in a Mr Bills voice from early SNL.... Green houses cause green house effects....

LOL
kx12x you posted as I was typing and trying to think of something clever like Mr Bill.....

Man I haven't heard Oh NO Mr. Bill in years...LOL

You cannot grow Medicinal Quality Outdoors.

So, the lights it is...

originally posted by: whyamIhere
You cannot grow Medicinal Quality Outdoors.

So, the lights it is...

Like all corporations this is also the most efficient way per square foot to produce as well. DO everything to keep cost down because everyone in business knows the same thing the, government will tax, legislate, and regulate the heck out of every business out there. What will be interesting is when progressives realize their high is costing them double what it should when the government gets involved. Then like every conservative the call for less regulation will be the cry, then they will hear me laughing all the way to Colorado.

It mentions at the bottom that the carbon footprint can be reduced by 75% without the need to go outdoors. The author seems to want to shy away from the criminalisation issue but it seems to me de-criminalisation would allow for much easier governmental control of the energy consumption.

originally posted by: whyamIhere
You cannot grow Medicinal Quality Outdoors.

So, the lights it is...

Of course you can. Any plant you can grow indoors you can grow outdoors you just have to control the environment such as having it grow in a greenhouse.

a reply to: MarlinGrace

So basically....if it was legal for anyone to grow, people would plant it outside and not be using the electricity because they cannot use mother nature.

The answer is quite easy if carbon footprint is the real issue here, but I don't think it is is it?

originally posted by: whyamIhere
You cannot grow Medicinal Quality Outdoors.

So, the lights it is...

Are you serious?

That is simply not true.

There is no power or light that can replicate the power of the sun.

The cannabis plant produces the THC and cannabinoids based on the wavelength of light it receives. There is no way possible, with today's technology, to reproduce the many different frequencies of light that the sun produces.

It is also a well-known fact amongst the cannabis circles that the strongest, most potent strains on the planet, are grown outdoors. Indoor growing is for the individual grower who just wants something for themselves and wants to be discreet, or a business that can't afford to cut their losses from something like insects, which can still infect indoor operations.

The answer to the problem in the OP is simple....

GROW OUTSIDE.

Stop growing inside with artificial nutrients that are based on petroleum products and in most cases, don't grow with soil, which is one of the most important aspects of growing anything. Hydroponics are great for certain things... growing cannabis is not one of them.

The soil bacteria are what create the ion exchange points around the root systems of plants so that they can uptake nutrients properly. The right combination of chicken crap, fish emulsion and bat guano, which are all natural and naturally made (and not more expensive than artificials) and you can grow anything.

There's a saying....

Good farmers grow food....

Great farmers grow dirt.

~Namaste

a reply to: SonOfTheLawOfOne


My thinking was unlike the lights the sun isn't on for 24 hours, and it's a matter of production per square foot. Triple production in a 24 hour span with lights. More about control and production, then with the great soil weed will grow like weeds.

If it is legalized in my state come November and they allow a couple plants for personal at that point I will invest in a small greenhouse there is no way I would be putting up lights for an indoor grow. I think a lot of other people would do the same.

originally posted by: Grimpachi
If it is legalized in my state come November and they allow a couple plants for personal at that point I will invest in a small greenhouse there is no way I would be putting up lights for an indoor grow. I think a lot of other people would do the same.

The Sunshine state of course...