Hemp our environmental saviour
[Applause]
i want to tell you all a secret
i’m scared
i’m scared to be living in a world where
a forest the size of 20 football fields
is cut down every minute
i’m scared to be living in a world where
rising greenhouse gas emissions
are causing a change in our climate that
we are completely
and utterly unprepared
and i’m scared to be living in a world
where so many of the people
in the highest positions of power
globally simply don’t care enough to
change
there is unprecedented pressure on our
planet to provide
its growing population which is
predicted to hit 9 billion
by 2050. the challenges that we’re
facing as a result of this
are so large and so staggering in their
nature
that business simply cannot go on as
usual
the status quo is no longer an option we
need to adapt
to change to innovate
i’m 17 years old for so many people
my age environmental activism is
ingrained
in their dna but that’s largely because
we have no other choice
the burden is on us to change the way
that we treat the environment
for not only ourselves but also the
future generations
so the question then comes what do we do
and how do we do it well here’s my name
jason
we harness the power of what we’ve
already been given in nature
in order to save it specifically we use
hemp is a plant or any part of a plant
including the seed from the cavity
that has been specifically bred to have
a minimum hydrocarbon
levels or thc levels in the leaves and
flowering hairs
meaning that it cannot produce the
psychoactive effects
essentially you can’t get higher
now before i continue i want to do a bit
of myth-busting
whenever someone mentions the word hemp
our minds we will more often than not
wander to its psychoactive counterpart
marijuana
and before i knew more about him i
thought the exact same thing
but it’s this harmful association that
prevents him from being capitalized on
for its abundance of commercial and
environmental purposes
you see the important thing to recognize
here is that while hemp and marijuana
come from the same family
they’re two completely different crops
it’s like people
take yourselves for example you each
have a family and you come from two
parents
and if you have a sibling then your
brother or sister comes from the same
parents too
but you’re both completely different
people with different purposes skills
abilities that exact same logic applies
to the relationship between heft and
marijuana
same parent different purpose
now once i learned a bit more about this
distinction between two i started
researching more and more into hemp
and i was astounded with what i found
not only could hemp be incredibly
beneficial for a number of industries
in fact it has over 25 000 commercial
uses
but there was research and statistics
and studies to show
that hep could have a hugely beneficial
impact on our environment
but what is it exactly that makes hemp
such a unique vector for climate action
well one of the industrial uses of hemp
is as an alternative material for paper
fun fact some incredibly important
historic texts like the gutenberg bible
and the american declaration of
independence
were written on hemp paper now to give
you all some context
when hemp is grown for fibre it grows
incredibly fast
in around three to four months meaning
that it produces a huge biomass
now because it matures so fast this
means that we need
less land less water and less time to
get the exact same amount of pulp that
we get from traditional forestry
in fact for traditional paper you’d need
four acres of land
and 20 to 30 years to get pulp whereas
hemp
with hemp you’d need one acre of land
and three months to get that exact same
amount of pulp
and what’s more is that hemp can be
pulped for paper with far fewer
chemicals than wood due to its low
lignan content
reducing the need for bleaching which
contaminates the environment especially
waterways now to put this all into
perspective for you
in 2016 statistics show that paper and
cardboard consumption
totaled up 413 million metric tons
that year and what’s more is that for
each tonne of wood pulp paper produced
950 kilograms of carbon dioxide
are released into the atmosphere now
brace yourselves because this is quite
confronting because theoretically
if we do the maths then that means that
there’s about 39.4
billion kilograms of carbon dioxide
being pumped
into our atmosphere each year as a
direct result of the paper and cardboard
industry alone
39.4 billion
these increased carbon dioxide emissions
exacerbate climate change
now climate change is a term that’s
thrown around a lot lately
especially by the media but what does it
actually mean for us
climate change looks like an increase in
extreme weather of
events like hurricanes floods and
droughts
that will wreak havoc on communities
across the globe
it looks like the air that you and i
bring becoming dirtier
because rising temperatures increase air
pollution through creating ground level
ozone
it looks like vertebrate species like
mammals and birds going extinct at a
rate
114 times faster than they naturally
should
be it looks like our oceans becoming
more acidic
because they are absorbing our excess
emissions
it looks like highly populated cities
like new york l.a
sydney rio de janeiro mumbai all at risk
due to rising sea levels now let’s take
a step back
let’s consider that perhaps instead of
using wood pulp for paper
we tried hemp not only would we get rid
of
all those carbon dioxide emissions but
given that hemp is a natural carbon
sequester
we’d actually be absorbing carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere
and significant amounts of it in fact
for each tonne of hemp harvested
1.62 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide
are absorbed
stored in its fiber hemp could transform
this industry
from from one of the most harmful global
industries
into a carbon neutral or even carbon
negative industry
incredible and the really unique part
about all of this
is is that that’s just one example of an
industry
that could revolutionize hemp could be
used in construction
for concrete insulation paint to create
carbon negative
buildings it could be used in the
fashion industry
to eradicate all the water wastage that
we see from modern cotton production
it could be used to improve the health
food industry because hemp is considered
an up and coming superfood
and in fact it’s one of only two parcels
of both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids
now with all of this in mind it is
observed that so many people still
believe
that the notion of using commercially is
new
untested unsafe
there couldn’t be more wrong
it’s becoming abundantly clear that we
need to rethink our mindset towards hemp
hoping and praying for a clean greener
and safer future
simply isn’t enough we need to actively
work towards creating and implementing
sustainable practices
into our leading industries hemp
could trigger an environmental
revolution
we just need to nurture it and allow it
to fulfill its purpose
we’re our precarious tipping point with
the environment where our actions and
decisions today directly affect tomorrow
and we need to make a decision about
what we want
our future to look like so let’s do it
let’s decide is this the life we want to
live
is this the way we should be treating
our planet
is this the best we can be can we be
better
smarter more sustainable
let’s decide the clock is ticking
thank you