#innovation
Grow hemp not trees to fight climate change.
The common misconception that stops a rapid carbon capture crop become our mainstream carbon capture tool.
The world is waking up to the need to address our carbon impact on the planet almost everything we do in the modern world has some carbon footprint 👣Â
The go to public flag waving is by governments activists and businesses to plant trees as a way to help capture and lock up carbon in a way that has a public recognisable form.
Unfortunately trees take up and lock valuable land that often sees productive farmland lost to the new forests planted as a flag waving gesture.
The reality of the planting of trees in the global battle to lock away carbon is that trees we would need to Planting a billion hectares of trees that would require a massive global undertaking in reforesting an area the size of the United States and Canada combined covering 1 to 2 billion hectares. This could take between one and two thousand years, assuming globally we plant a million hectares a year and each hectare has at least 50 to 100 trees.
Once the trees are planted, it still will take them about a century to reach maturity. It will then take time for new forests to absorb atmospheric carbon.
Tree planting is often cause greater soil respiration and lower levels of carbon locked in the soil.
The loss of soil carbon cancels out the increase in the tree’s carbon over decades.
trees need to remain growing for a long time to be effective carbon stores. The planting of saplings to create a new forest not only requires years to achieve a tree that is capturing carbon. But the sapling planting will inevitably see many saplings planted that perish.
And the initial growing of saplings on a commercial scale and the planting can have its own carbon footprint that quickly turns the forests carbon capacity into a negative value:
the carbon a tree and forest contains mist then be maintained in a multi generation endeavour to prevent the carbon locked into the tree quickly going back into the atmosphere when it rots or is burned. Either as the actual tree or as crop where timbers are used from the trees that over time can be lost to fire or rot.
We need to look beyond the forest full of false hope and start looking to quick to deliver productive carbon capture crops that can enable productive farmland to continue to benefit the global needs for raw materials and food at the same time acting to make positive carbon capture happen.
A crop that can do all that and more is already available and have many full crop usage in our daily lives.
A common misconception about the crop is probably the single biggest roadblock and needs a social change in perception about Hemp to unlock the global potential in a 100% sustainable and organic carbon capture crop.
The production of Hemp is carbon negative. This means it absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere during the growth cycle of the crop than is emitted by the equipment used to harvest, process and transport it.Â
One hectare of industrial hemp can absorb 22 tonnes of carbon per hectare.
Hemp's natural rapid growth to around 4 metres in 100 days makes it one of the fastest carbon to biomass sustainable conversion tools available in the global battle to capture our carbon footprint.
Hemp crop carbon capture and rapid carbon 2 Biomass capture makes it more efficient than carbon capture forestry.Â
The hemp crop has many applications for the hemp plant with 100% usage for each plant from root to flower the crop can 100% be consumed with applications for the crop including construction materials, high protein foods and beverages, food supplements, composites, textiles, paper products, biofuel, graphene substitutes as a few usage option for what can be a carbon capture cash crop for farmers that enables productive land usage at the same time as the enabling carbon capture.
If regenerative farming is also used the natural soil carbon capture and locking can further increase the carbon capture potential of hemp crop growing.
The single biggest obstacles in Hemp potential been unlocked is public misconceptions and government policy’s restricting the growing under licence only of Hemp.
The single biggest action with rapid deliverables of carbon capture government could take is the removal of restrictions and the need for licences.
The UK could become a global leader overnight in sustainable carbon capture and green sustainable raw material used form clothing to constriction to bio fuels.
All it needs is a change in perspective and a bold government to unlock the potential of our natural resources of our farmland and enable farmers to grow a sustainable carbon capture cash crop.
