Habitat loss, the “economy” and hemp
It’s an overwhelming time we live in, me and a lot of my friends are new parents, and its frustrating and helpless feeling to see our world being destroyed relentlessly by greed and politicians who willingly allow it or even encourage it like Brazilian president who has turned a blind eye to the rapidly increasing destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. “The Amazon belongs to Brazil and European countries can mind their own business because they have already destroyed their own environment” he has been quoted as saying.
And while media focus seems to be pushing our war on plastic while we shake our heads in dismay while we continue to buy plastic products that could be replaced with non plastic alternatives (myself included) what is the point of a clean ocean if we are destroying our biodiversity at an even faster rate. I’m not saying we should stop the fight on plastic but we have to see that the economy is the real enemy here. There is nothing economical about the economy, we are TAUGHT in school that we will be rewarded for using as much of the worlds resources as possible for the lowest price while using the lowest paid human labor.
How can the earth survive this model of “economy”. Now and then we see glimpses of hope with ideas of circular economy, blockchain technology and alternative products that will replace environmental damaging ones, in multiple industries.
Take the fashion industry, it is the second largest polluter in the world, there are lakes that have been completely dried out because of cotton cultivation, decimating entire ecosystems, so that we can wear something that will last the latest fashion season. Hemp produces 200–250% more fiber than cotton cultivated in the same land stretch.
The building industry would be similarly impacted by the use of hemp, In Canada, about 200,000 new homes are built each year, with an average footprint of 2,000 square feet (185 square metres). If they were all insulated to code minimum requirements with hempcrete, a total of 990,718 tons (898,764 tonnes) of carbon could be sequestered annually. If the same homes had walls with fibreglass insulation, 207,345 tons (188,100 tonnes) of carbon would be emitted to create that insulation, so the total net carbon savings for the planet is significant.
Everyday we are bombarded by the feeling we need to consume something else. What we buy and how we often we buy it affects us all.