The Reasons why Hemp can save our environment

If you study human history from the beginning of the industrial revolution and compare it to now you will see that our industrial world has evolved into one of the most wasteful societies to ever walk the face of the earth.

In just 300 years we have found a way to destroy our planet. You wouldn't pollute or trash your home right?

Of course not. Earth is our home and mankind is destroying it. Earth is literally on the brink at this point in history.

The world needs to find more intelligent ways sustaining our society but not destroying the environment at the same time.

www.ratical.org...

The planet is dying. You might not realize it but mankind is killing it. And if nothing happens within the immediate future to change this fact we are going to lose this planet.

If you are reading this right now and think that we have another 20 years don't get too comfortable.

I do agre with you about us using hemp instead of trees for paper and other tre items, but the thing that suck is that not everyone thinks the same.

(in voice of tommy chong ) wow man you want to make paper from hemp.

what if we smoked it. then we would'nt have to worry about the worlds problems

Seeing as how smoking hemp is illegal in the US (not sure about anywhere else in the world, but it is here), that would make it much more difficult to import.

Also, with the price being driven high by it being illeagle, that would make a note book come out to around $1,000.00. Nope, I'm not buying that.

Now, you make hemp LEGAL in the US, you might be on to something here. But then ALOT of dealers get pissed and kill folks. After all, they know nothing else. If they did, they wouldn't be pushing.

Originally posted by BradKellBrrexkl
Also, with the price being driven high by it being illeagle, that would make a note book come out to around $1,000.00. Nope, I'm not buying that.

Now, you make hemp LEGAL in the US, you might be on to something here. But then ALOT of dealers get pissed and kill folks. After all, they know nothing else. If they did, they wouldn't be pushing.

Two things we should get straight:

A) You ever bought a hemp necklace/bracelet? I bet it didn't cost you $500. Just because it's illegal to grow, it doesn't make hemp products illegal.

B) Hemp and marijuana are not the same thing. Although containing low levels of THC (less that 1%), hemp will not get you high. This is a COMMON misconceptions of hemp that is part of what keeps this plant illegal!

Now that we've got our facts straight, lets keep this discussion about HEMP. It's not about paper, it's about oil. Here's a quote from the article posted by this thread's author:

It is estimated that methane and methanol production alone from hemp grown as biomass could replace 90% of the world's energy needs.

This is one of my favorite discussions as it is one of the most obvious profit driven conspiracies of our century.

Chop up a notebook, weight it, and tell me how many ounces you get. Remember, these things can come in 5 subject! That's alot of hemp! I mean getting in trouble crossing states lines with your notebook kind of alot! And did you see Woody Harrelsons's hemp suit at the Awards Show a few years back? Bet that cost more than a dang hemp necklace!

I think the laws against weed are stupid and produce more crime than making weed legal would. They have medicinal purpose, and though most use that as an excuse for recreational usage, we have less crime from people 'high' on weed than we do from those 'stoned' on hard drugs or 'drunk' off alcohol.

As for an alternative fuel, look at Corn. Yep, our famous Native American Friend! Ethonol can be a major fuel in the near future. If hemp can be used to cut away our dependance on Oil, I say yes. However, it's the getting those pesky politicians to see that where the problem lies.

great post!

It's always great to hear from those educated in the pros of hemp. It is very american like for something like this to be banned. Our government is to busy with terrorists to realize that Henry Anslinger's view of marijuana back in the 30's was all BS. He stated that marijuana was linked with violet and racial crime. Give me a break. Many other ill effects are assocaited with MJ so hemp had to go down with it. Although as stated above you can't get high from it. All because some Donald Rumsfield like punk had to fib about a drug to prohibit it. Our fore fathers grew hemp and made some serious dough doing it. It was used for rope, paper and fabric. Although it would be hard to moderate hemp from MJ it should be allowed for these purposes. THen you have the oil thing while we are in a energy crisis. It's really a no Brianer. The gov is to worried that legalizing hemp tells are children that marijuana is ok.

This very easy to discuss over the internet inside our well climate controlled houses supplied by electricity from coal fired plants all built as a result of the last 300 years of "wastefullness" to develop machines to run on oil. Yeah, hemp will magically save the world.

What is magically supposed to mean. I don't recall in hocus pocus in anything until now. It will take much more than hemp to save the world. Maybe like the decision making skills to legalize a plant that has been successfully used throughout history.

On a serious note, if farmers grew hemp 1 season, it would replenish the soils nutrients for 4-5 seasons of corn. Of course, soybeans do the same thing, but, it takes a crop or two more. I have to relate that this tidbit of info comes from a corn/soybean farmer in my area, not from any "official" source.

On a whimsical note, I've always said that if Marijuana were legalized, and alcohol were outlawed, the only people on the road at 2:00 am would be the pizza delivery guys.

Cuhail

Originally posted by Cuhail



On a whimsical note, I've always said that if Marijuana were legalized, and alcohol were outlawed, the only people on the road at 2:00 am would be the pizza delivery guys.

Don't forget the bootleggers. They would also be on the road bringing me my delicious illegal booze.

The planet is dying. You might not realize it but mankind is killing it. And if nothing happens within the immediate future to change this fact we are going to lose this planet

I agree about hemp 100%, imagine taking care of your paper/fuel needs by growing hemp acres in a season rejuvinating the landscape it's grown on for other uses in the future without having to chop down acres of precious trees. It's illegal simply because hemp products are easily produced and reliable and profitable, it would compete with cotton ( which is horrible to maintain considering all the pestacides used, hemp needs no pestacides) and alot other industries including petrol among others who have a monopoly in our current industry.

I disagree with your assertion that the planet is dying, this is hardly true. this planet has been around billions of years human beings will not be it's downfall. the earth has many ways of cleansing itself and calderas are one of earths options. earths current active calderas are overdue, when a big one goes off and it will in due time it would put the earth in another iceage and change global temperatures and weather patterns for decades. it would also wipe out a good number of humans especially when the yellowstone one blows its top again ( which is overdue and very active ). our time on this planet is miniscule compared to the age of earth and the constant changes it goes through, modern man has yet to feel her full wrath and her ruthless nature. we should consider ourselves blessed we live in such peacefull times because if you look at the history of this planet it's pretty brutal, time is on her side not ours.


[edit on 7-1-2007 by ape]

Hemp needs no pesticides?

Do you have any link to that? I have talked to people who have grown the other kind of hemp, and there are insects that attack the plant just as with any other plant. Spider mites were a particular worry, as were fungi.

Also, almost any sort of farming operation would need a pesticide progam to prevent other plant species from growing with the crop, be they natural or chemical means.

Roundup Ready Hemp anyone?

[edit on 7-1-2007 by LeftBehind]

Originally posted by bigx01
(in voice of tommy chong ) wow man you want to make paper from hemp.

what if we smoked it. then we would'nt have to worry about the worlds problems

You don't just smoke hemp. Buds which are smoked only grow on female plants. Male plants don't bud out they just produce seeds to pollinate the female plants.

hemp roots are dominant, infact in some parts of the world hemp is planted to kill alot of other unwanted weeds etc because it dominates all the root space, farmers get the best of both worlds because they dont have to do all of the work eliminating a contaminated field and rejuivinating the landscape when all they have to do is plant some hemp which can establish itself almost anywhere.


im not going to post links to sources stating hemp does not need pesticide, infact that statment may be a little off as it could require a small amount but not nearly as much as cotton and others currently used today, spider mites are usually an indoor hazard they dont prosper well out in the elements.

the reason im not going to post links is because usually those sources go into detail about cannabis etc etc and I access this site from work and I will not go there and I dont want to even think about going there, I suggest using a search engine and phrasing ' hemp and pestacides'.

[edit on 7-1-2007 by ape]

Hemp needs no pesticides?

"marijuana whats a parent to believe?" by Timmen L clark will confirm that one for you. along with many other reasons to legalize. Hemp/MJ is a weed. You won't see any pesticedes needed for dandelions to grow like wild flowers!

Awesome input APE!

[edit on 7-1-2007 by whoknew]

From what I can find, it takes very little pesticides, and can survive just fine without them.

However I am sure that commercial growers use some sort of pesticides, even if in much smaller amounts than say cotton.

www.grist.org...

hemp can be grown with very few pesticides and herbicides, partly because the height and density of the plant creates too much shade for weeds to thrive. In that way, it is a clear choice over conventional cotton, which could win awards for the volume of pesticides and herbicides typically doused on it.

There are a few sources claiming that it uses no pesticides, but they all seem to be selling things. From my knowledge of agriculture and pesticide use, I find it hard to believe that any commercially grown crop would not use some sort of pesticide, even if its just a spray of roundup to kill everything off before planting.

It makes much more sense for it to be extremely low maintenence, and it would be interesting to see what they use in the large scale operations in China and other places.

Any sort of homogenous crop will be susceptible to something.


Growing wild is one thing, growing a commercial crop is quite another. Even a dandelion farmer would have to use some sort of pesticide in todays world. Except the organic farmers I suppose.

[edit on 7-1-2007 by LeftBehind]

yeah I agree, the plant is very hardy and switching to hemp would help the enviroment because right now they go wild with prestacides. Not to mention that hemp seed oil is one of the healthiest cooking oils known to man so that would be another benefit.

what I like the most is how it makes previously unfertile land fertile, it has so many benefits is almost beyond comprehension on why it's illegal.


the first american flag was made out of hemp.

I would like to define my own meaning of "Save the planet."
1: Earth dying slowly from extreme use of chemicals that damage the planets ecosystem and structure. The extreme use of other materials without giving something back. Planet releases new kinds of diseases and wipes out humans in order to rebuild itself.

The Earth is a giant recycling center, a slow one, but it recylces none the less. However if you throw a monkey wrench in the system, it tries to get it out by whatever means necessary. Thus you (humans) could be looking at extinction if you push to hard and too far.
Hemp is a good plant to use, it used to be used in the American Revolution and somewhat during WW2 I believe, however after that point it fell off the charts. If we grow hemp, but only make hemp legal not the usual marijuana then we need to follow Canadas example: hire more pilots to fly over the USA and have each and every hemp farmer tell them WHERE their crops are and how large. Any crops spotted from the air NOT on the list get rounded up after doing a stakeout for the planters and then burn the crop.
One thing I heard that I can only back with 1 statement from a pot-head, lives in lala land woman (thinks the legal system is infallible and can be used to do anything for the people) said during the 60's-70's she tried to smoke hemp once, stole it from someones small field (not sure where) and promptly got sick. Yes it made a pot-head get sick, for some reason hemps anatomy is as other people said different from normal marajuana. Thus people smoking it might not smoke it much longer if they get the same results as her... So in a way we can NOT have to worry about pot-heads stealing our crops for very long. Now back to HEMP growing.
I myself have a pair of hemp socks and they have held up better the past 2 years than cotton socks. I lived in North Carolina for a year right after cotton harvesting began and a new crop was going in. I can tell you that what I saw makes me NOT want to wear cotton cloths anymore. They sprayed the fields daily and laid out so much fertilizer that the soil turned WHITE. I mean WHITE. You could SMELL the darn fields even in town, 10 miles away if the wind was going. The cotton I saw growing was the sorriest excuse of a crop I could ever see, not just the one but other farmers crops in the area as well. The soil was used only for cotton and was so deprived of minerals that the plants grew scantly a foot or two high. Glad to say I left the area, not sure what all was in the water after that experiance either. That might explain why the townsfolk were extremely mentally retarded and mentaly unstable.
Thus, if we switch to hemp and then get rid of all these chemical corporations who keep pushing herbicides and pesticides that do nothing but destroy the land and harm people and animal alike just to kill one little bug which a chicken or bird could do, we will be better off. Since hemp is a weed it grows like one, however that is not the point I am trying to make right now. Since it grows fast it can EASILY get rid of ALLLLLL need for tree-based paper which is loaded with chemicals to bleach it that nice white color people want. Also the chemicals needed to transform a hard object to a soft flexible object is also rather oh lets just say "pungent" to put it mildly.
If we grow hemp nationwide we will have no need for cotton either, or at least not much. Since hemp is an all arounder it can be used for textiles, medical (bandages), oils, paper products and so on. So long as we keep the hemp out of the hands of major corporations and let family farms grow it we will be fine. Also DO NOT genetically engineer the plant. Doing so will wipe out MOST of our need for cotton and trees, however if you want to solve energy problems there are more effective ways of going about it. Looking at production vs. consumption just in everyday life and other peoples lives around you, you will notice we will have scant little hemp left for other purposes if we do some of what I stated with it.
If you want to solve energy "problems" as in the kind that damage the enviornment then go solar, wind, and water. After that, we have hydrogen power, not the kind corporations want which is oil based once again. Since Earth is 70% water we have abundant supplies of water to be used for hydrogen power should we process it. This will handle our vehicle usage and after that we will no longer need such massive amounts of oil. Oil will take a backburner for needs since it is only used here and there in small items since the rest of our stuff can be made from metal (raid a junk yard) and other, more renewable resources. Lets take a chapter from science fiction for a moment and find a way of making bio-organic objects, need a computer? Just grow the shell, then put the parts inside! Voila! Instant computer! Took two days to grow and now will last you 30,000 years till it vio-digrades. I am suggesting the use of Chitin, the hard exo-skeleton of bugs. A roach can withstand nuclear attack due to its chitin, so lets make body armor out of it. The bugs have something going for them here...
All in all hemp will NEVER be legalized so long as there is one major oil corporation left alive in the government. Economically hemp is also viable, we just need to mass produce it and instead of shipping it to CHINA lets just cut the middleman out and do it all here. More jobs, stronger economy, exports increase, imports decrease= A STRONGER ECONOMY.

I am all for legal hemp or marijuanna. If think you or anybody else should grow all the hemp or marijuanna you can and use it for fuel, paper, or fun.

I do doubt the claims that hemp is a wonder plant that can solve all the world's problems. The problem with arguments like these are that they come across as thinly veiled attempts to justify the legalization of marijuanna. Rather than make outlandish clamis about hemp, you should try to disspell the outlandish claims made about marijuanna. I think the best way for these claims to be disspelled is for all the marijuanna smokers to come out of the closet. The fact is people who have at least tried marijuanna once are in the majority.