This would mean around 500 billion extra trees, which could absorb 205 gigatons of carbon once fully grown — roughly 5 times the amount of carbon emitted globally in 2018.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could double that amount of carbon sequestration and not have to wait for trees to grow to maturity to realize the gains? What if we could gain a valuable crop in doing so and use that to replace much of what we use oil for now?
Hemp does all of that and more. In addition to doubling the carbon-sequestering ability of trees immediately, hemp offers us oil that can be used to make plastic that is biodegradable and burns like diesel fuel. It then leaves a fiber that can be used to replace wood in construction or made into a number of products now sourced from oil, including cloth that is tougher than cotton.
Hemp is naturally insect resistant and requires very little water. Most regions would be suitable to grow two crops per year, almost unattended. It even provides its own fertilizer for the next crop, so say goodbye to the chemical ag industry. Henry Ford made an entire car, except for the engine and frame, from hemp plastic and hemp fiber was the material used to make our nation’s first flag and the original Levi’s jeans. Hemp is also an alternative feed for food animals to replace corn, and that is after it supplies oil to fuel the farm implements needed to grow it.
Many farmers, including my grandfather, were contracted to grow hemp for the government during WWII to supply the miles of rope needed by our Navy. It doesn’t stretch like chemical-based fibers so it doesn’t store dangerous energy that can be deadly if the rope breaks and suddenly loses its tension. Chemical-based rope has done a lot of damage to ships and cargo from this, as well as caused many deaths and injuries.
When the oil industry produced the first oil-based fibers to replace silk it found it could also replace hemp for many uses and many people now believe that the anti-pot scare propaganda was aimed at commercial hemp’s fiber market. There is no high-producing THC in hemp, but it was included in the schedule one classification of pot due to its close genetic ties to marijuana. It is so naturally prolific and resilient that it is still called “ditch weed” in most of the midwest because it survived all efforts to eradicate it by our government and can be found along most backroads in abundance still.
