Thread: saving the planet/alternative fuel

I've been thinking about all the things that are going on around us, and a lot of those things bother me. There's tons of debate about whether or not the greenhouse effect is in fact happening, but most of the facts point to yes. We're obviously running out of fossil fuels. The US economy is in decline. Our forests are getting cut down all over the world every day for pulp to make paper, etc. And it doesn't seem like anybody cares. That is, the people that do don't really have the pull to make things happen, and the people that can make things happen are making too much money ruining our planet.

The twist is that the solution to almost all our problems has been around for hundreds of years. Just imagine for a moment if there were an annually renewable resource that could provide the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles, meet all the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, and simultaneously reduce pollution, rebuild the soil and clean the atmosphere. Now stop imagining, cause there is.

The preceding was paraphrased from a book my father recently turned me on to, titled "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" ISBN 1-878125-02-8

The book is a thoroughly researched summary of the history of cannabis through the centuries. I know what you're thinking to yourself now... 'great, someone else trying to push to legalize pot' but I've only read a few chapters in so far, and I've been amazed by the uses of hemp.

According to this, if only 6% of the entire US (hemp will grow successfully in ALL 50 states) were used to produce hemp, only as an energy crop, it would be able to produce 75 quadrillion billion (75 x 10^24) BTUs.

Because hemp isn't a fossil fuel, while it's growing it will be converting all the CO2 that is a result of burning fuel back into O2 (fossil fuels create co2 from burning, but never create any o2 being dead fossilized minerals)

And the uses aren't just limited to fuel.
As a textile it lasts longer and is stronger than cotton, and softer than fine linen.
As a pulp it can produce the same amount of paper in a single acre as over 4 acres of trees.
Hemp is the only crop that leaves the ground healthier after harvest than when it was planted, therefore never needed to be rotated to save the soil.
100% of the Hemp plant can be used.
Seeds can be used to produce oil for cooking, lubrication, fuel...
The hemp seed is a cholesterol-lowering source of protein.
Hemp can grow to over 20 feet tall and requires no herbicides or pesticides to grow.

Furthermore, we don't have to import it.

So, if hemp's so good, why don't we legalize and grow it? You can thank Dupont, William Randolph Hearst, and Harry J. Anslinger for that. Seems that if the hemp industry took off the way it was poised to, they were all set to lose large sums of money. So the propaganda began.

Prior to the 1938 marijuana tax stamp act and many other prohibition laws, the sails, ropes, sealant, flags, clothes, and paper on almost all ships since the early 5th century B.C. have been made of hemp. The first draft of our constitution was written on hemp paper. The original Levi jeans were made from hemp canvas.

for everyone out there, I highly recommend this book. I'm only on the fourth chapter, and it's amazing how many facts are packed in. It's a really easy read, with a lot of diagrams and articles (including articles from 1938 popular science and popular mechanics both stating that this plant would revolutionize our economy, calling hemp a billion dollar crop in 1930's dollars)


I'm sorry if I've overstepped my bounds with this message, I just can't see how our nation could possibly accept the price of gasoline, being raped by rich oil executives, the greenhouse effect, pollution, and importing so much from other countries if they were aware of the alternative. I'm going to step off my soapbox now and hope that some of you take a moment of your time to look into some of the things I've posted. All facts should be able to be verified in the USDA library, and there is even a $100,000 challenge to prove any of the facts presented wrong. Studies have shown them to be true, and the government has buried them, time and again.

It just saddens me to watch as our planet slowly dies, when the solution to so many of our problems is so simple. Please read this book, and pass the knowledge on to everyone you know. We could all be driving cars that run on hemp seed oil and have crops of hemp large enough to completely reverse the greenhouse effect. That alone should be reason enough to make a change.