The finger-wagging miserablists of the Krazy Klimate Kult love to lecture us about the wickedness of such planet-killing pastimes as driving to work or taking a plane ride, even playing video games. Industry regularly comes under fire, too, for its “carbon footprint”.
But they’re notably selective in what they choose to condemn. The gargantuan carbon – not to mention environmental – footprint of the wind turbine and solar industries is conveniently overlooked by the otherwise gimlet-eyed zealots of the Church of Gaia.
It seems that another “progressive” industry has also been getting an undeserved free pass.
Legal cannabis production in Colorado emits more greenhouse gases than the state’s coal mining industry, researchers analysing the sector’s energy use have found.
Despite the ostensible excuse of “medical marijuana”, the living reality is that the recreational industry has all-but overwhelmed the medical one. Colour me surprised. Not that I care if anyone was to get baked, but the hypocrisy is palpable.
And so are the carbon emissions.
Hailey Summers and her colleagues at Colorado State University have quantified and analysed the greenhouse gas emissions produced by cannabis growers.
They found that emissions varied widely by state, from 2.3 to 5.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per kilogram of dried flower produced.
In Colorado, the emissions add up to around 2.6 megatonnes of CO2e, which is more than that from the state’s coal mining at 1.8 megatonnes of CO2e.
Those are pretty staggering numbers. By comparison, that’s equal to about a week’s worth of New Zealand’s total emissions.
“The emissions that come from growing 1 ounce, depending on where it’s grown in the US, is about the same as burning 7 to 16 gallons of gasoline,” says Summers.
Most weed in the US is grown indoors, in energy-hungry climate-controlled environments with high-powered lighting systems.
But, as is so often the case, money trumps environmental conscience.
“One of the challenges associated with this is that the profit margins are so huge that you don’t have to be making super energy-conscious decisions,” says team member Jason Quinn[…]
The carbon footprint of the cannabis industry is even larger than this study indicates, says Evan Mills, formerly at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, as the team didn’t look at emissions associated with storage and processing.
Illegal cannabis production is also likely to be more highly emitting, he says. “The energy profile of black-market production is distinctly different in that it frequently involves on-site diesel generators, which are often less efficient and more polluting per kilowatt-hour than grid-purchased electricity.”
New Scientist
So, is it “go green – get off the green”? Try selling that prescription to the Greens.
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