The Reasons why Hemp can save our environment, page 1
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reply posted on 7-1-2007 @ 04:35 AM by ape

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]


reply posted on 7-1-2007 @ 01:21 PM by LeftBehind
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]


reply posted on 8-1-2007 @ 10:00 AM by Vekar
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.
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