OK, suck all the joy out of everything.
As a growing number of states legalize marijuana, cannabis businesses are ramping up.
But cannabis is often grown in indoor farms under intense grow lights. And this setup can have a large carbon footprint.
Quinn: “Indoor-grown cannabis is using just a ton of electricity.”
Jason Quinn of Colorado State University co-authored a study on how much energy it would take to grow cannabis indoors at various locations in each state and the carbon pollution that would cause.
The researchers found that in general, production is less polluting in areas with more clean power on the grid and in mild climates where less energy is needed to maintain a farm’s temperature and humidity.
In the worst case, growing just one kilogram could emit as much carbon pollution as burning more than 500 gallons of gasoline. But in Long Beach, California, it would emit less than half that.
Quinn: “One of the challenges with it being federally regulated is that you can’t transport cannabis across state lines.”
But the study suggests that one way to reduce the industry’s climate impact would be to concentrate farms in optimal growing areas and when possible, avoid artificial lights and heat entirely.
Quinn: “The easiest thing you can do is just grow it outside.”
–
Another suggestion, how about transitioning to all green energy?
Or, another idea below.
It would behoove us to appreciate that as a consumer-driven mass producing society we will never achieve 100% green. There’s trade-offs all the way down the line ~ hemp is a far better product for the atmosphere but cannabis can do its part … it’s certainly one way to, ahhh, deal with it …
Aieee!
There was a clip of someone throwing a lit butt into the grass!
The hemp house video didn’t address the flammability or structural integrity compared to a wooden house (or one made of bamboo).
Most of the designs I’ve been looking at involve some core framing with wood and/or thank you very much no one else noticed bamboo. Steel is just fine, as a structural component. Flammability is a non-issue ~ more accurately no more of an issue than any other framed and finished house; less-so in the most popular designs which are essentially hemp-crete
I once broke a guy’s finger for flipping a lit cigarette into the weeds. Got in trouble with the law …
I heard the dope industry likes indoor-adapted varieties because they’re stronger – and for the same reason, they don’t like low power LED lights.
Think about all the energy saved when the police no longer drive around looking for people to arrest. Think about the energy saved when people are no longer sitting in prisons for a non-violent soft drug offense.