Wisdom dictates that especially when in a crisis, use effective solutions applied at the level of cause. Since our environmental problem is too much pollution, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, from Maine to Hawaii, the solution is to use strategies that effectively remove the pollution.
We all know that hemp was helpful in cleaning up the toxins around Chernobyl, and with a bit of planning by a mastermind alliance, can be used to clean up the environmental mess again.
An immediate end to hemp prohibition will allow us to use this biomass champion in a hemp phytoremediation program. "Phytoremediation can be defined as the decontamination of soil, sediment or water using plant growth. Industrial hemp, Cannabis sativa L., is renowned for its ability to grow rapdily. In one growing season, fibre hemp can yield 250 to 400 plants per square metre, with each plant reaching up to 5 metres in height. As a result, hemp has been identified as a plant with the potential to serve as a phytoremediator."
The same way hemp was used to clean up the toxins around Chernobyl, we should be using hemp to clean up the toxins from the Gulf of Mexico "oil spill" (more like a volcano) and other environmental crisis situations.
The McGraw-Hill Companies reported in 2000 "Overall, phytoremediation has great potential for cleaning up toxic metals, pesticides, solvents, gasoline, and explosives."
February, 2000: Chernobyl (Ukraine) - Using Plants To Clean Soil
"Phytoremediation is a process that takes advantage of the fact that green plants can extract and concentrate certain elements within their ecosystem. For example, some plants can grow in metal-laden soils, extract certain metals through their root systems, and accumulate them in their tissues without being damaged. In this way, pollutants are either removed from the soil and groundwater or rendered harmless."
"In 1998, Phytotech, along with Consolidated Growers and Processors (CGP) and the Ukraine's Institute of Bast Crops, planted industrial hemp, Cannabis sp., for the purpose of removing contaminants near the Chernobyl site. Cannabis is in the Cannabidaceae family and is valuable for its fiber, which is used in ropes and other products...
Overall, phytoremediation has great potential for cleaning up toxic metals, pesticides, solvents, gasoline, and explosives. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that more than 30,000 sites in the United States alone require hazardous waste treatment. Restoring these areas and their soil, as well as disposing of the wastes, are costly projects, but the costs are expected to be reduced drastically if plants provide the phytoremediation results everyone is hoping for."
To understand how to use hemp to solve our environmental problems, read the book HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION by Richard M. Davis, founder and curator of the USA Hemp Museum.
