WHAT CAN WE DO TO REMOVE CO2 AND PLASTIC ?- "the story of hemp "
2021 -THE SHAME OF THE WORLD : PLASTIC POLLUTION !
2022- THE YEAR OF SOVEREIGNTY & TRANSFORMATION
Go Planet !- Grow Hemp- trees and coral.
Out of SIGHT… out of MIND !-what is going on with plastic waste ?
We cannot ignore the problem of plastic any longer… this is my personal journey and testimonial and this is how I believe we can change things and fix it.
1. Introduction :
“Empty rivers that hold no water ...fragile fauna among harshest of our terrains...they came from all nations lost again ...like their fathers and mothers before them ...into this desert serene...into this lucid dream...
amongst these pillars of red and black of Grey and brown ...and gold and green....
these timeless layer-caked snaked mountains have seen many come and go...
told many stories of those who seek and still do not know ...
yet the winds continue to blow ...cleansing the mind of all tomorrow...
returning to the thoughts to sea and sand ...
Ormus beckons nomads and travelers with his Invisible Hand...
One World Above One Below...
and still yet another deeper to show...
with color... and imagination ...
and magic and miracles ...
this is the place to let it all go -to let the tears drop and
let it flow ...
-into the Golden Silence between Pharonic land and pomegranate
mandarin skies..
this is the Desert of the Most High...
this is... The Sinai!”
I've been coming to the Sinai desert since 1983. My first time I traveled overland from South Africa from Cape Town before the internet… before the golden age of cheap air-travel and before ATM machines. I've seen how beautiful places around the world have been destroyed by mass tourism in the name of jobs and economic progress.
When I arrived in Sharm El Sheikh there was only one hotel and one or two dive shops. The Israelis had pulled out and left everything they had built destroyed. It was a time of political transition and the Americans were policing the desert and only the odd traveler like myself passed through.
Sharm el sheikh was an amazing place. The coral was magnificent and many multi colored fish of all kinds swam under the surface of the red sea. It was in fact so incredible that I stayed for a month exploring the coast. It was a pristine wilderness of unparalleled wonder. No people..no plastic...
In 2006 I returned to “Sharm” to find a developed city. I swam in the same place I was in 23 years before. The water was cloudy… boats everywhere… and the coral was already bleached with little fish to see. I vowed never to return and instead went up the coast to Dahab and to Ras Abugalum and the Blue Lagoon which was still OK. I trekked into the desert on camel for about 3 hours.
It was here that I organized the 1st World Healing Retreat in 2006.
We were about 600 people of all nations from all over the world and the Bedouin kindly allowed us to us an abandoned village to do our small gathering. We ate raw foods for 6 weeks in the golden silence.
It was a life changing experience for many of the people that went through this process of cleansing and purification. And we picked up all our trash and in fact left it in a better state than what we found it.
Sacred spaces...in sacred places...with sacred faces and abundant graces… this is the Holy Sinai- land of prophets and saints and dreamers and wanderers...angels,ascetics and healers and seekers.
But wait… there's more… it
Later it became a “ protectorate “ and whereas Dahab was closed to Egyptian tourists under Hosni Mubarrak .. it changed under President Sisi and was opened to the people of Egypt around 2013. Since then it has undergone a major transformation and the place has been declared a nature reserve.
2. Ras Abu Gallum- Protectorate Park in Sinai Coast
The starkly beautiful Ras Abu Gallum Protectorate covers 400 sq km of coastline between Dahab and Nuweiba, mixing coastal mountains, narrow valleys, sand dunes and fine-gravel beaches with several diving and snorkelling sites. Scientists describe the area as a ‘floristic frontier’, where Mediterranean conditions are influenced by a tropical climate. With its 165 plant species (including 44 found nowhere else in Sinai) and wealth of mammals and reptiles, this environmentally important area is a fascinating place to visit.
Bedouin of the Mizena tribe live within the protectorate confines, fishing here as they have done for centuries (although this is now regulated by the protectorate). I managed to get permission from the local sheikh to convene this first healing retreat … and later another gathering was held in this same place in 2015 of the rainbow people. ( see welcomehome.org )... A most difficult time for tourism in Egypt.
The Ras Abu Galum Protectorate is near Taba and was declared a reserve in 1992 primarily for the protection of mangroves and coral reefs. Not only does this unique place include the world famous underwater cave system and dive site of the blue hole but many of its coral reefs are still not bleached white as it is in other areas of the Sinai and the world. It costs 10 USD to enter per person and or a dollar fifty for local Egyptians.
Daily the south Sinai receives thousands and thousands of tourists form ALL over the world who are drawn here because of its incredible coral reefs . Tourism accounts for 12 % and around 80 billion dollars of revenue and employs around 10% of its population.
3.The Global Plastics Challenge :
Who produces the most plastic waste ?
ExxonMobil tops the list – contributing 5.9 million tonnes to global plastic waste – closely followed by US chemicals company Dow and China's Sinopec.
One hundred companies are behind 90 per cent of global single-use plastic production.
China produces around 31% of the worlds plastics.
The world's first fully synthetic plastic was Bakelite, invented in New York in 1907, by Leo Baekeland, who coined the term "plastics".
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptability, plus a wide range of other properties, such as being lightweight, durable, flexible, and inexpensive to produce, has led to its widespread use. Plastics typically are made through human industrial systems. Most modern plastics are derived from fossil fuel-based chemicals like natural gas or petroleum; however, recent industrial methods use variants made from renewable materials, such as corn or cotton derivatives.
Over 400 million tonnes of plastics are produced each year. Wastage is around the same if not slightly more. 90% of all plastics produced are specifically for packaging. Each year 3-5% enter our oceans. In 1950 only 2 million tonnes annually were produced globally. In mass this amounts to 66% of the entire populations body weight each year…
55 % of all that is simply discarded… 25 % incinerated and only 20% is recycled. A large part of what is dumped into landfills. And finally the highest consumer by kilo per person is austral followed by the United States at around 53 kg per person. Germany is one of the worlds larges consumers of plastics with around half a kilo per person per day. Egypt has around 3% of the global waste mismanagement total whereas China accounts for around 27.7% . Rivers input hundreds of thousands of plastic waste into our oceans with the Yangtsze river at around 330 000 tonnes per year. Asia accounts for 86 % of rivers to ocean pollution. The majority of this is in the north pacific ocean with fishing contributing most of the debris.
Microplastics which are less than 4.75 mm are ingested by many of if not all our sea creatures and enter the food chain through fishing. China has banned non industrial plastic waste in 2017. Although plastic waste in itself is a commodity traded on the open market.
Ref https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
SO ...its a big problem. We use plastics in many ways… and both its production and its disposal causes a bigger carbon footprint as well as a lasting problem for the Earth and its oceans.
4. How about other issues ?
Different kinds of plastic can degrade at different times, but the average time for a plastic bottle to completely degrade is at least 450 years!!
- It can even take some bottles 1000 years to biodegrade! That’s a long time for even the smallest bottle. 90% of bottles aren’t even recycled. Makes you think twice about that water or soda, right?
Bottles made with Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET or PETE) will never biodegrade.
And there are even more reasons to lay off the plastic bottles: about 1.5 million barrels of oil are used every year to make the bottles, and even more oil is burned transporting them. Most of the time, the water inside the bottles has more contaminants than regular old tap water, meaning you could be drinking some serious problems. The EPA has more strict standards on tap water than the FDA does for bottled water, which is something to think about when you’re thirsty! And those reusable bottles? Make sure you’re not a collector, because those will never biodegrade.
https://www.postconsumers.com/2011/10/31/how-long-does-it-take-a-plastic-bottle-to-biodegrade/
5.To summarise:
1. Plastic production requires fossil fuels. Oil. The only ones that profit are the owners of oil companies.
2. There is a big likelihood that nano particles of plastic waste have entered the food chain beginning from the oceans.
3. Plastic bottled water is not contaminant free.
4. Incinerating and recycling plastics add to our burgeoning carbon footprint problem.
5. Global health of all Earths beings and its nature is adversely affecting by our insatiable desire for polymer plastics produced as a by product of oil.
6. Plastics can take up to a 1000 years to bio degrade adding to our general overall pollution problems and overflowing toxic landfills which enter the water tables over time.
7. Increasing cancer rates and health issues are indirectly caused by plastic waste, toxins and carcinogens not to mention more carbon and poisons in our air, water, food, land and seas.
Is plastic cheap?… NO!
6. PLASTIC ARMAGEDDON :
As I walked back from Ras Abugalum to the legendary Blue Hole which is around a leisurely 2 hours stroll.. I was amazed. Not by the beautiful coastline and coral reef with the ornate pink skyline of Saudi Arabia in the distance… no.
Remember .. I was walking through a “ protected “ area of Egypt .. one that I had just paid 10 USD to enter… a nature reserve in fact… What I saw next totally shocked me..bearing in mind that I had been here before in 1983… and in 2006… and 2015…
So I guess the problem isn't trash thrown out of casino ships from Israel or fat oil sheikhs in Saudi.. no.. these were plastic bottles ...thousands and thousands of them strewn along the beach… not to mention other waste … like shoes and Styrofoam and rusty old wheelbarrows and fishing lines… containers that hold fresh drinking water.
I asked many people why nobody paid someone to keep these beaches clean… the answer was more or less uniform… “ the government of Egypt doesn't care...they take the money and buy a new car or house… its just baksheesh for some fat cat in Cairo.
Others said yes… they do have cleanups ..the tourists mostly do the cleanups… nobody pays them or the locals living in the camps or in Dahab.
But its all volunteers. And too infrequent. I continued to ask … and what happens to this waste once it is picked up ? … “O… its burned in Neweiba about 70 km north!”… “or a hole is dug and its all thrown into the hole and covered up….” But generally … its: “OUT OF SIGHT AND OUT OF MIND”- because most of the tourists are too lazy to walk so they take a speed boat to go snorkeling in Ras Abugalum. And definitely the Bedouin wont pick it up if they arnt paid.
They believe they didn't bring it ...nor will they take it away. Its not their problem. They have bigger ones ..like feeding their large families. Or they too may just be too lazy… and yes… there is no education on recycling or up cycling waste … or dealing with it. Its a throw away culture throughout Egypt like in India and most of Africa and Asia… its a cultural natural thing to dispose of garbage immediately.
Out of the window of the bus or whatever… Out of sight… out of mind… if you cant see it… its not a problem...
In truth… what is happening in developing countries is all part of the plastic Armageddon the world is heading towards… as we pollute our Earth and our oceans … ever greedy for more and ever consuming and ever throwing away… more and more… polluting our air… our and and our water… ignorant and oblivious and asleep…choosing not to see..not to open our eyes...not to take responsibility...
WHAT A SHAME! What a crying shame for all of humanity…
In terms of plasticswaste … the stats are even more terrifying ..on avergage we generate up to 1 kg a person per day. Egypt generates around 0.2 kg and Kuwait and Germany around 0.5kg. It is quite interesting that less developed countries such as The Republic Of Congo , India and Madagascar produce only around 0.1 kg.
https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
7. How did we get here?
Whilst plastics have made possible many things of use to all of us… it has also created many problems and challenges for humanity… but the biggest culprits of this mess … are the very captains of capitalism… because it was all avoidable. In fact we have an alternative to plastics. Several. There's bamboo- clay- glass- and hemp...
These alternatives are 100% biodegradable. Many are plant based and in fact for one of them… for every tonne grown...0.6 tonnes of carbon is captured. This product has been used for thousands of years, and in fact it has over 20 000 product derivatives. Including plastics. What can this miracle compound be?
Before I tell you what it is I want to ask this question… HOW did we get here?
120 years of oil and fossil fuel production. Before that it was animal oils like whales until 1896.
In these 120 years not only have we progressed technologically a thousand fold or more… we have POLLUTED our planet a thousand fold or more- on the land in the air and in the water .
All driven by the INSATIABLE desire for energy… power… money… control… domination over nature by man himself. And at the forefront of this Armageddon are our energy companies that suck out the lifeblood from the Earth to fund the progress of human evolution… Capitalism and profit the driving forces of this system...
“It is a wish to build a giant tower of Babel into the sky to meet with God -and spit in his eye!”
As a result of oil and the invention of fertilizer our population has grown 7 fold… we not only derive plastics and fertilizer as by products of from oil^ gas ( fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) but pesticides… and we treat new diseases despite our general increase in age…
we rely on scientific breakthroughs in medicine and therapy to sustain our lives … and because we consume more fish… more hormone INJECTED animals we are taller ..bigger and YES fatter !…
also mostly due to our sedentary lifestyles after the invention of the internet and smart phones and remote working and NETFLIX.
And once the metaverse kicks in… obesity will be rampant. Unless of course we balance our lives between work and play.
Yes.. we have as a species progressed in 100 years… but we have also regressed at the expense of our habitat. Not to mention how many oil wars have been fought …
And the main drivers of this economic revolution was the United States of America particularly people like Du Pont and Henry Ford… Rockefeller and Hearst… and Mr Rothschild.
Capitalism WORKS… for the few… but not necessarily for the many… and even our governments who act as our our overlords and made it easy for business to grow and flourish have become democratic dictatorships… (corrupting what was and IS in our best interest as human beings)… PROFIT was put before PEOPLE -and misinformation -and fake news before truth and responsible journalism. In the name of jobs we so easily discard our environmental duty as the caretakers of this planet. Health and ethics are second place in the priority list of the heads of states and captains of industry. Its justified with the saying : ‘ We don't have a better alternative that works!”
By definition capitalism is all profit driven not people driven.
In America people use the vote to elect officials into government to rule over them in their best interest..and yet… legal bribery under the guise of lobbying is used to undermine the sovereignty of lawmakers. How is that right..anywhere?
That's the dis- ease of capital- ism… a centralization of capital in the hands of the select few… who have decided what we think … or believe or feel…
And yes… we have all been lied to… BADLY!
The reptilians truly live… and they use us like cows milking us of our integrity and humanity by indifference and dis empowerment propaganda. We are ALL collectively responsible for the state of our world and the demise of the natural world and the Equilibrium that governs it. That must surely change and change PDQ ( Pretty damn quick)
It all began with the Marijuana Tax act signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1937 which made hemp production expensive and commercially unprofitable. The aim of this was to push it out of the market… why? Cannabis as it was known before this act came into being was used to write the American Constitution on… In fact George Washington the first president encouraged its cultivation by all and grew it himself.
As did Thomas Jefferson.
The Gothenberg bible was printed on hemp or cannabis paper. The sails used to transport the first pilgrims to the new world ..were all made of hemp… and all of this clashed with powerful media and business interests that sought to monopolise a new synthetic fiber market and petroleum oil. In 1883 Hemp was the primary source of paper in the world… and it was required by law in the 16th century England to grow hemp. It can produce 4 times the amount of paper than trees with pulp and doesn't damage the environment in the process. It was used to reduce toxicity around Chernobyl and meets EVERY single one of the UN 17 sustainable goals. Whats more its much faster growing than pulp trees. It takes around 90 to 120 days in fact to grow from seed.
Unlikely Chief supporter of hemp was Henry Ford who produced a hemp vehicle with the material that was harder than steel. He claimed he didn't need this new oil from the ground but could run his cars on hemp oil. Think about that for one moment… Hold that thought…
One hectare of HEMP OIL can grow 1 metric ton of seeds which translates into 1000 liters give or take… and that in turn can fuel just about any diesel vehicle. This is not news. Its been done.
The object of capitalism is to win by any means possible and to dominate the market by any means possible… and in the old days… that's what they did… through lying ..through bribery , cunning, corruption and collusion… it didn't matter.. just as long as your product dominated the competition… that's the problem with capitalism ..even today.
Its UNETHICAL. This is HOW we got here.
Being GREEN & CLEAN didn't sit well with the owners of big oil companies or chemical companies … or media giants… who owned paper mills and plantations of trees…hemp would have put them out of business.
https://nzhempbrokers.com
And if this isn't true then there's no conspiracy..But the facts say otherwise….oil companies weren't just invested in oil but their by products… and together that meant they could dominate the world markets in energy production… fertilisers… plastics… and pesticides… all off shoots of the oil cabal. Its logical they would take advantage by kicking out the competition and destroying its reputation. Technologically, there was NO reason whatsoever to not allow help to be innovated into a material that could create over 25 000 products or more.
So this syndicate… ( William Randolph Hearst(Newspapers), Lammot Du Pont( Nylon fibres), Andrew Mellon( Banker), Harry Anslinger (Government representative to the UN)… and others.. Carnegie..Rockefeller and Rothschild.. they all decided to get hemp out of the way and re-branded it as a drug… in fact a Popular Mechanics story in 1938 stated hemp to be the billion dollar crop that could create just about anything… this of course would mean billions of lost revenue for this small club of cigar smoking capitalist...and incidentally Du Pont is today still in the top 3 producers of plastic waste… Nothing has changed.
What happened next ..right after Du Pont patented nylon… Theodore Roosevelt passed the Marijuana act which taxed it to hell.. and in 1961 .. 150 nations banned hemp altogether… through ignorant subservience and dishonest lobbying using false information.
Yes my friends...
that's how we got here…
GREED.
8. THE SOLUTION!
So we now know the challenge.
Not only does big business in collusion with big government have a specific financial interest in keeping the status quo as it is… ( remember the state gets billions in taxes from the oil companies and their by products) . And who controls the minds of the people? The big media companies and even the big tek companies.. and the kicker of course is ..who sells the drugs and the medicines for the ones that get cancer and other oil related diseases… ? Big business once again. Its a racket. A closed circle. A mafia.
Fortunately, they are not stupid enough to jump off the cliff… and that is why.. suddenly out of the blue… electric vehicles are becoming the norm. Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk have changed the game. And more are coming up as we begin to understand the algorithms and the new economic system we must embrace globally.
By 2035 no gas vehicles will be made in Europe seriously cutting our carbon emissions. But do not think steel or plastics will stop out of goodwill. Hemp steel can replace conventional cars and they are lighter and stronger. It will begin with the massive production of hemp fields as carbon sinks.
Hemp can grow in deserts… anywhere in fact… and it doesn't need fertilizers or pesticides… not in the amount we currently use.
But there are other alternatives to plastics… what are they and how do they compare?
Stainless steel – glass-wood – bamboo- paper- cardboard-beeswax cloth- seaweed- banana leaves-papyrus- mushroom-bagasse ( sugar cane byproduct)-corn starch-chitosan ( fish waste and prawn shells ) _ casein or lactose ( milk protein ) - silberboard and of course HEMP!
Most of these are too expensive and energy or water inefficient except of course hemp. It ticks all the boxes.
Labour is also another challenge.
In India clay cups are used for once only containers of hot tea and tossed out the window to be reintegrated into the Earth… but the advantage of a plant based plastic is that you have the added advantage of CARBON sinking… a BIG plus with our climate crisis issues. You win with the crop and you win with its growth. It is in fact more efficient as a carbon catcher than trees. Its faster growing and has an immediate impact on our carbon bank.
So out of these only 5 meet this criteria… bamboo- papyrus – bagasse -corn or maize and hemp… but the only problem with the others is that a lot of water is required to grow them. So once again hemp comes out on top. THAT'S why it was banned by the oil and gas cabal. It wins hands down.
So what is the solution ? How can we reverse and re-wild our habitat not only mitigating the massive carbon commission problem but also stopping plastic pollution?
1. THE LAND :
Hemp can grow anywhere even in a desert if its irrigated. In Sudan the biggest sugar cane project in the world was created next to the Nile river… Millions of hectares of semi arable land exist all around the world. Hemp can not only be grown on them but also it is a crop which can in some climates be grown 3 times a year! Not ONCE...not TWICE ...but THRICE! It takes around 90 to 120 days to grow a crop of hemp on one hectare of land. And there's so much land available to grow this crop that land is not the problem. One hectare of land creates up to 20 metric tonnes of product – including one ton of seeds which can be used in diesel engines or for other purposes. One hectare of land @ 150 - 250 USD a ton produces in one crop around 7 tons of fibre.
Add to that the seeds and less costs of growing and you can count on around 3000 USD per hectare or more. In fact I see a future where governments will subsidize growing of hemp to offset carbon. For every ton of hemp grown 0.6 tons of carbon is offset. To translate that into easy terms … per capita carbon emission in the USA is around 16 tonnes. One hectare will sequester 3 persons carbon footprint per year. Why not have a carbon tax and grow hemp ? Farmers will be encouraged to grow hemp throughout the developing world and it will create MILLIONS of jobs… so yes… there is an argument both ways. To reduce pollution and reduce carbon emissions.
And yes… we have enough empty land to do it.
2. POLITICAL WILL
“tipping point” : the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.
“ critical mass “ a size, number, or amount large enough to produce a particular result
To reach the tipping point , we need to reach critical mass . To do this it must come to the forefront of the political agenda – and yes… there are other problems in the world that may or may not be more important. But unless we deal with our shit...human beings are parasites ..a virus on the planet and we will eventually destroy ourselves if we carry on this way. Some call it the 6 th extinction but I prefer to call it common sense. The evidence is overwhelming and besides that… its human waste. It isnt in sync with the equilibrium of the planet. Its a case of convenience above care.
So yes… we accelerate the consciousness and we give everyone the data and we do something about it. We need to decriminalize all cannabis. In fact there is a strain of cannabis or hemp that is THC free. We need to lobby the United Nations like the cabal lobbied them to ban it world wide in 1961. We need to reverse this edict.
In fact one company has managed to create a THC free strain ( THC is the element that is used to make you high) Legal standards cannot exceed 0.3 % of total.
By offering good solutions for climate change and plastic pollution and joblessness in the developing world… we can change the political will collectively . But we need to start right now.. GROW HEMP ! SAVE THE PLANET!
3. FUNDING :
A. Donors : Elon Musk once “twittered” come up with a way to deal with our carbon emission problem and we will offer you a 100 million dollar prize. This is it. Its so simple yet so effective. It solves many issues on many levels both on an environmental level as well as a sustainable level. It provides jobs- employment as well as reducing and replacing plastic dependency and .. its a super effective carbon removal tool. And besides Mr. Musk there are many people around the world who care about our planet and its future. They dont have to be billionaires...they can be anyone. Even you.
B. Crypto;
Crypto coins can be issued on proof of ethics as an airdrop and traded. Also this new digital economy can incentivise the use of products and its creation. With the advent of the metaverse a whole new field of possibility is possible. Crypto tokens that are ethically based could be used in the metaverse when real estate is bought or sold and virtual hemp grown. Carbon removal is in itself an activity which should be rewarded. This is how we empower everyone.
C. Subsidies- grants and crowd funding :
Sequestering carbon and creating jobs globally especially something that doesn't require a university education is profitable for everyone. Millions of migrants try every year to get into developed countries in Europe , the United States and Canada -not to mention Australia and New Zealand. Creating a global development fund will ensure we make poverty history especially in Africa where half of the people do not have access to electricity and running water and live on less than 2 USD a day. Brazil which is the size of Europe could cultivate hemp crops instead of cutting down the rain forest for cattle and timber. The Amazon forest produces around 25% of the worlds oxygen and fresh water yet the rest of the world does not pay its fair share for the air they breathe. Perhaps one day we will pay OXYGEN tax or CARBON tax on all the products we consume. This should factor in any forward planning of any government big or small. Much of this funds could go towards creating hemp plantations.
Investing in carbon sequestration and job creation in developing countries can solve many of the challenges facing the world today including mass migration. It empowers everyone both producer and consumer. Also crowd funding is a useful tool in raising finances for projects such as these. This new green economy I call
“ ENVIRONOMICS” ... it looks to the needs of both humans and the environment without compromising either.
Fair to the Earth, Fair to the people ...and Fair share!
An economy that rewards ethical consumerism.
D. THE NUMBERS:
1. 400 million tons of plastic is produced each year-50% is for single use alone.
2. 43 billion ( 2019 figure) www.theworldcounts.com is emitted by human activity each year… this includes agricultural and industrial emissions. Or 36 billion according to www.statista.com. Oceans absorb around 30% of that leaving 24 billion
tonnes. 20 to 25 % is absorbed by trees and plants leaving at best leaving 15 billion tons still in the air. The figures on this are not accurate as some say forests account for one third oceans another third so at best we still are left with 10 to 15 billion tones of carbon each year to deal with.
wri.org states there are some other ways to capture more carbon . We submit that on land hemp can be grown and on the oceans seaweed could increase carbon capture rates.
Even 10 billion tons of carbon per year in the atmosphere is too much. We need to consume less and reuse more.
There are many other innovative technological ways to capture carbon but so far nothing has proven more effective than plantlife. ( carbon mineralisation- atmospheric loss-direct air capture and filtering or storing ...biomass using photosynthesis and soils. However, the best way is to increase global biomass and thereby increase photosynthesis which converts carbon into oxygen .
This is the solution but do the numbers add up ?
3. There are 1.4 billion hectares of unused land fit to grow on.
70 % of the Earths surface is unused for any kind of farming, With oceans you can farm 3D . On the surface kelp and below fish. This is still a pioneering business.
If ALL the unused land were to be used to grow hemp we could capture all the carbon and still be left with over 19 billion tons to spare. Around 28 billion tons could be captured. On the oceans we could capture even more.
Theoretically it is possible to clean up the air by utilising every used hectare of land on the planet. But that is not feasible . At best we could reduce our emissions from 36 billion to around 6 billion tons on land and another 6 billion on our oceans . This would cancel out our excessive emissions. But there is another solution. Creating carbon removal machines.
Or utilise near space satellites to transport our waste into space. Satellites orbit ting Earth that convert carbon into oxygen… NASA has been experimenting with a machine it intends to use on Mars called MOXIE www.wired.com To create such machines would require more innovation and tek which we currently do not have nor can we deploy ….but in the next 10 years the technology will be here to mass produce these “carbon converters” and to send them NEO ( near Earth Orbit ) like big vacuum cleaners in the air.
To give you some idea of the urgency of this problem… in the last 20 years atmospheric carbon has increased by 11 % - www.climate.nasa.gov. Thats a lot.
4. From 7 to 15 metric tons of hemp can be grown per hectare. Minimum of two times a year.. that's 14 to 30 tons per year… x times amount of hectares … www.ers.usda.gov
At around 260 USD per ton that is nearly 8000 USD per hectare per year.
A million hectares is worth around 80 billion dollars. That's just the hemp … with subsidies and carbon capture points… you can add on another 20 billion . If 0.6 tons of carbon is captured per ton that works out to 9 million tons or 9 to 1 for every hectare under cultivation. T hats just an approximation because I've not taken off the costs to grow it...Conservative figures say that after expenses profit will be around 1250 per hectare. Either way everybody wins. Add carbon rewards or credits … that another 600- 1000 USD per hectare.
These can be sold to companies with high carbon emissions. In total there is no reason why profits of a minimum of 3000 USD a hectare target is not feasible. You will have to factor in as well haulage to port.
5. Who will buy Hemp?
In short those companies who produce plastics right now. China – the factory of the world produces around 31% of all plastics Around 60 million tons annually. ( statista.com ). But other countries will once demand is there start refining hemp for multiple uses.
Raw hemp can be refined in factories and produce over 25000 products. Hemp seed can be resold or reused. Biodiesel. CBDs. Paper . Cloth. Textiles. The list is endless and yes… PLASTIC. Polluting compnies must pay their fair share for the carbon they use and they will pay the farmers who produce hemp or seaweed after necessary certified calculations of carbon reversal are made.
THIS IS ENVIRONOMICS.
This is part of the algorithms required for proof of ethics in this new blue green economy. We can rebalance our planet if we believe it so.
6. To summarise:
Is it possible to GROW ourselves out of this problem of too much carbon in the air and too much plastics in our oceans and in our food chain? The answer is YES!
We need to make the growing of hemp, bamboo and seaweed a priority to offset this challenge and save the planet from a climate disaster or God forbid… an extinction event. We can rewild the Earth. Existing landfills can be retunred to the Earth through special fungi that eat plastics. But the solution is not to make plastic for single use in the first place.
Finally,there is a THC free strain of hemp and there is no reason why it cannot be grown. It is time to tell the oil and gas...the fertilizer and pesticide companies and the plastic companies to retool & reconfigure and get with the programme… or go out of business! Its time to heal the Earth.
We still need fossil fuels for a few more years , but we need to start reducing our consumption dramatically of them. There is a solid solution to stop the shame of humanity… Our pollution of this beautiful work of art we call Earth...
GROW HEMP!
I thank you
Aslan La Vega
Postnote:
After making this decision to do something about it ...to take responsibility I put these words into action. The following weekend I created a facebook event to pick up all the thousands of plastic bottles on the sea shore from the Blue Hole to Ras Abugalum. I got over 35 people who said they were interested in participating but only one showed up. I managed to recruit another person by word of mouth and the three of us set off with 25 bags. We litterpicked for around 3 hours. Along the way another person joined us and by sundown we had covered half of the shore. The next day we were 7 people and we picked up another 25 bags of plastic cleaning up around 85% of the shore.
The following day I was discussing the outcomes of the first workshop and felt a little deflated because I was told all they do is BURN the plastic at the local dump. Our plan was to pick up the bags the following weekend with camels and boat and drive them to the dump. Then I realised there could be another possibility based on the concept of UPCYCLING. This is a method of turning trash to treasure. This means you create something useful or artistic from junk. So then the vision came to create a TREE OF LIFE as a plastic sculpture and exhibit it and other art pieces which could become an outdoor exhibition at a later date. All of this required more and more energy, resources and commitment ...and once again I felt deflated because I saw how difficult it is to motivate people to come and do the job. Many are called but few are chosen… and at the end of the day … some negativity always comes from parties who are cynical about doing anything.
Gandi once said ..” At first they laugh at you (thinking you a fool)… then they fight (you because nobody likes to change their negative behavioral patterns)… and then you win( or lose or give up) … so yes… it is a battle. The BIGGEST battle of course is in your own mind. You have to first motivate yourself and ask ..” WHY am I doing this? - is it my ego ...is it my self righteousness? … is it for fame and fortune? Or is it simply to make a difference?- I like to think the latter. It must be first for yourself. And you have to be ready to go the extra mile to get things done. Its not easy. But I know it has been with the support of friends working collaboratively that we can turn the tide. Whatever you do it for … it must first be for yourself. For the exercise… for the pure desire that you want to see a beautiful place remain beautiful. It is with inspiration that we find our motivation...but it requires perspiration too. And persistence. Nothing worthwhile doing is easy. But when its done you have that personal satisfaction that you didnt fall into the trap of apathy and indifference.
There
is a lifetimes work ahead for anyone that wishes it to clean this
planet up. But I take courage and strength from the fact that in this
dream … I am not alone!
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