2021 -THE SHAME OF THE WORLD : PLASTIC POLLUTION !
Out of SIGHT… out of MIND
!-what is going on
with plastic waste ?
We cannot ignore the problem
of plastic any longer… this is my personal journey and testimonial
and this is how I believe we can change things and fix it.
Contents of this
Tutorial
:
1. Introduction
2. Ras Abugalum
Protectroate Park in Sinai Coast
3. The Global Plastics
Challenge
4. How about other issues?
5. To Summarise
6. Plastic Armageddon.
7. How did we get here?
8. The SOLUTION:
1. The LAND
2. The Political WILL
3.The FUNDING:
A. Donors
B.Crypto/Digital Money
C. Subsidies/ grants/ Crowd
funding
4.ENVIRONOMICS:
1.
The Uncomfortable Truths.
2.
Who will buy hemp ?
3.To
Summarise: Hemp
GLORIOUS
Hemp !
5. POSTNOTE
1. Introduction :
“Empty
rivers that hold no water ...fragile fauna among harshest of our
terrains...they came from all nations lost again ...like their
fathers and mothers before them ...into this desert serene...into
this lucid dream...
amongst
these pillars of red and black of Grey and brown ...and gold and
green....
these
timeless layer-caked snaked mountains have seen many come and go...
told
many stories of those who seek and still do not know ...
yet
the winds continue to blow ...cleansing the mind of all tomorrow...
returning
to the thoughts to sea and sand ...
Ormus
beckons nomads and travelers with his Invisible Hand...
One
World Above One Below...
and
still yet another deeper to show...
with
color... and imagination ...
and
magic and miracles ...
this
is the place to let it all go -to let the tears drop and
let
it flow ...
-into
the Golden Silence between Pharonic land and pomegranate
mandarin
skies..
this
is the Desert of the Most High...
this
is... The Sinai!”
I've been coming to the Sinai
desert since 1983. My first time I traveled overland from South
Africa from Cape Town before the internet… before the golden age
of cheap air-travel and before ATM machines. I've seen how beautiful
places around the world have been destroyed by mass tourism in the
name of jobs and economic progress.
When I arrived in Sharm El
Sheikh there was only one hotel and one or two dive shops. The
Israelis had pulled out and left everything they had built destroyed.
It was a time of political transition and the Americans were policing
the desert and only the odd traveler like myself passed through.
Sharm el sheikh was an amazing
place. The coral was magnificent and many multi colored fish of all
kinds swam under the surface of the red sea. It was in fact so
incredible that I stayed for a month exploring the coast. It was a
pristine wilderness of unparalleled wonder. No people..no plastic...
In 2006 I returned to “Sharm”
to find a developed city. I swam in the same place I was in 23 years
before. The water was cloudy… boats everywhere… and the coral was
already bleached with little fish to see. I vowed never to return and
instead went up the coast to Dahab and to Ras Abugalum and the Blue
Lagoon which was still OK. I trekked into the desert on camel for
about 3 hours.
It was here that I organized
the 1st
World Healing Retreat in 2006.
We were about 600 people of
all nations from all over the world and the Bedouin kindly allowed us
to us an abandoned village to do our small gathering. We ate raw
foods for 6 weeks in the golden silence.
It was a life changing
experience for many of the people that went through this process of
cleansing and purification. And we picked up all our trash and in
fact left it in a better state than what we found it.
Sacred spaces...in sacred
places...with sacred faces and abundant graces… this is the Holy
Sinai- land of prophets and saints and dreamers and
wanderers...angels,ascetics and healers and seekers.
But wait… there's more… it
Later it became a “
protectorate “ and whereas Dahab was closed to Egyptian tourists
under Hosni Mubarrak .. it changed under President
Sisi and was opened
to the people of Egypt around 2013. Since then it has undergone a
major transformation and the place has been declared a nature
reserve.
2.
Ras Abu Gallum-
Protectorate
Park in Sinai Coast
The
starkly beautiful Ras Abu Gallum Protectorate covers 400
sq km of coastline
between Dahab and Nuweiba, mixing coastal mountains, narrow valleys,
sand dunes and fine-gravel beaches with several diving and
snorkelling sites. Scientists describe the area as a ‘floristic
frontier’, where Mediterranean conditions are influenced by a
tropical climate. With its 165
plant species
(including 44 found nowhere else in Sinai) and wealth of mammals and
reptiles, this environmentally important area is a fascinating place
to visit.
Bedouin
of the Mizena
tribe live within the protectorate confines, fishing here as they
have done for centuries (although this is now regulated by the
protectorate). I managed to get permission from the local sheikh to
convene this first healing retreat … and later another gathering
was held in this same place in 2015 of the rainbow people. ( see
welcomehome.org )... A most difficult time for tourism in Egypt.
The
Ras Abu Galum Protectorate is near Taba and was declared
a reserve in 1992
primarily for the protection of mangroves and coral reefs. Not only
does this unique place include the world famous underwater cave
system and dive site of the blue hole but many of its coral reefs are
still not bleached white as it is in other areas of the Sinai and the
world. It costs 10 USD to enter per person and or a dollar fifty for
local Egyptians.
Daily
the south Sinai receives thousands and thousands of tourists form ALL
over the world who are drawn here because of its incredible coral
reefs . Tourism accounts for 12 % and around 80 billion dollars of
revenue and employs around 10% of its population.
3.The
Global Plastics Challenge :
Who
produces the most plastic waste ?
ExxonMobil
tops the list – contributing 5.9
million tonnes to global plastic waste
– closely followed by US chemicals company Dow and China's Sinopec.
One
hundred companies are behind 90 per cent of global single-use plastic
production.
China
produces around 31% of the worlds plastics.
The
world's first fully synthetic plastic was Bakelite, invented in New
York in 1907, by Leo
Baekeland, who
coined the term "plastics".
Plastics
are a wide range of synthetic
or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers
as a main ingredient. Their plasticity
makes it possible for plastics to be moulded,
extruded or
pressed
into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptability, plus a wide
range of other properties, such as being lightweight, durable,
flexible, and inexpensive to produce, has led to its widespread use.
Plastics typically are made through human industrial systems. Most
modern plastics are derived from fossil
fuel-based chemicals like natural
gas or petroleum;
however, recent industrial methods use variants made from renewable
materials, such as corn
or cotton
derivatives.
Over
400 million tonnes of plastics are produced each year. Wastage is
around the same if not slightly more. 90% of all plastics produced
are specifically for packaging. Each year 3-5% enter our oceans. In
1950 only 2 million tonnes annually were produced globally. In mass
this amounts to 66% of the entire populations body weight each year…
55
% of all that is simply discarded… 25 % incinerated and only 20% is
recycled. A large part of what is dumped into landfills. And finally
the highest consumer by kilo per person is austral followed by the
United States at around 53 kg per person. Germany is one of the
worlds larges consumers of plastics with around half a kilo per
person per day. Egypt has around 3% of the global waste mismanagement
total whereas China accounts for around 27.7% . Rivers input hundreds
of thousands of plastic waste into our oceans with the Yangtsze river
at around 330 000 tonnes per year. Asia accounts for 86 % of rivers
to ocean pollution. The majority of this is in the north pacific
ocean with fishing contributing most of the debris.
Microplastics
which are less than 4.75 mm are ingested by many of if not all our
sea creatures and enter the food chain through fishing. China has
banned non industrial plastic waste in 2017. Although plastic waste
in itself is a commodity traded on the open market.
Ref
https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
SO
...its a big problem. We use plastics in many ways… and both its
production and its disposal causes a bigger carbon footprint as well
as a lasting problem for the Earth and its oceans.
4.
How about other issues ?
Different
kinds of plastic can degrade at different times, but the average time
for a plastic bottle to completely degrade is at
least 450 years!!
-
It can even take some bottles 1000 years to biodegrade! That’s a
long time for even the smallest bottle. 90% of bottles aren’t even
recycled. Makes you think twice about that water or soda, right?
Bottles
made with Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET or PETE) will never
biodegrade.
And
there are even more reasons to lay off the plastic bottles: about
1.5 million barrels of oil are used every year to make the bottles,
and even more oil
is burned transporting them. Most of the time, the
water inside the bottles has more contaminants than regular old tap
water, meaning
you could be drinking some serious problems. The EPA has more strict
standards on tap water than the FDA does for bottled water, which is
something to think about when you’re thirsty! And those reusable
bottles? Make sure you’re not a collector, because those will never
biodegrade.
https://www.postconsumers.com/2011/10/31/how-long-does-it-take-a-plastic-bottle-to-biodegrade/
5.To
summarise:
1.
Plastic production requires fossil fuels. Oil. The only ones that
profit are the owners of oil companies.
2.
There is a big likelihood that nano particles of plastic waste have
entered the food chain beginning from the oceans.
3.
Plastic bottled water is not contaminant free.
4.
Incinerating and recycling plastics add to our burgeoning carbon
footprint problem.
5.
Global health of all Earths beings and its nature is adversely
affecting by our insatiable desire for polymer plastics produced as a
by product of oil.
6.
Plastics can take up to a 1000 years to bio degrade adding to our
general overall pollution problems and overflowing toxic landfills
which enter the water tables over time.
7.
Increasing cancer rates and health issues are indirectly caused by
plastic waste, toxins and carcinogens not to mention more carbon and
poisons in our air, water, food, land and seas.
Is
plastic cheap?… NO!
6.
Plastic
Armageddon:
As
I walked back from Ras Abugalum to the legendary Blue Hole which is
around a leisurely 2 hours stroll.. I was amazed. Not by the
beautiful coastline and coral reef with the ornate pink skyline of
Saudi Arabia in the distance… no.
Remember
.. I was walking through a “ protected “ area of Egypt .. one
that I had just paid 10 USD to enter… a nature reserve in fact…
What I saw next totally shocked me..bearing in mind that I had been
here before in 1983… and in 2006… and 2015…
So
I guess the problem isn't trash thrown out of casino ships from
Israel or fat oil sheikhs in Saudi.. no.. these were plastic bottles
...thousands and thousands of them strewn along the beach… not to
mention other waste … like shoes and Styrofoam and rusty old
wheelbarrows and fishing lines… containers that hold fresh drinking
water.
I
asked many people why nobody paid someone to keep these beaches
clean… the answer was more or less uniform… “ the
government of Egypt doesn't care...they take the money and buy a new
car or house… its just baksheesh for some fat cat in Cairo.
Others
said yes… they do have cleanups ..the tourists mostly do the
cleanups… nobody pays them or the locals living in the camps or in
Dahab.
But
its all volunteers. And too infrequent. I continued to ask … and
what happens to this waste once it is picked up ? … “O… its
burned in Neweiba about 70 km north!”…
“or a hole is dug and its all thrown into the hole and covered
up….” But generally … its: “OUT OF SIGHT AND OUT OF MIND”-
because most of the tourists are too lazy to walk so they take a
speed boat to go snorkeling in Ras Abugalum. And definitely the
Bedouin wont pick it up if they arnt paid.
They
believe they didn't bring it ...nor will they take it away. Its not
their problem. They have bigger ones ..like feeding their large
families. Or they too may just be too lazy… and yes… there is no
education on recycling or up cycling waste … or dealing with it.
Its a throw away culture throughout Egypt like in India and most of
Africa and Asia… its a cultural natural thing to dispose of
garbage immediately.
Out
of the window of the bus or whatever… Out
of sight… out of mind…
if you cant see it… its not a problem...
In
truth… what is happening in developing countries is all part of the
plastic Armageddon the world is heading towards… as we pollute our
Earth and our oceans … ever greedy for more and ever consuming and
ever throwing away… more and more… polluting our air… our and
and our water… ignorant and oblivious and asleep…choosing not to
see..not to open our eyes...not to take responsibility...
WHAT
A SHAME! What a crying shame for all of humanity…
In
terms of plasticswaste … the stats are even more terrifying ..on
average we generate up to 1 kg a person per day. Egypt generates
around 0.2 kg and Kuwait and Germany around 0.5kg. It is quite
interesting that less developed countries such as The Republic Of
Congo , India and Madagascar produce only around 0.1 kg.
https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
7.
How did we get here?
Whilst
plastics have made possible many things of use to all of us… it has
also created many problems and challenges for humanity… but the
biggest culprits of this mess … are the very captains of
capitalism… because it was all avoidable. In fact we have an
alternative to plastics. Several. There's bamboo- clay- glass- and
hemp...
These
alternatives are 100% biodegradable.
Many are plant based and in fact for one of them… for every tonne
grown...0.6 tonnes of carbon is captured. This product has been used
for thousands of years, and in fact it has over 20 000 product
derivatives. Including plastics. What can this miracle compound be?
Before
I tell you what it is I want to ask this question… HOW did we get
here?
120
years of oil and fossil fuel production. Before that it was animal
oils like whales until 1896.
In
these 120 years not only have we progressed technologically a
thousand fold or more… we have POLLUTED our planet a thousand fold
or more- on the land in the air and in the water .
All
driven by the INSATIABLE desire for energy… power… money…
control… domination over nature by man himself. And at the
forefront of this Armageddon are our energy companies that suck out
the lifeblood from the Earth to fund the progress of human evolution…
Capitalism and profit the driving forces of this system...
“It
is a wish to build a giant tower of Babel into the sky to meet with
God -and spit in his eye!”
As
a result of oil and the invention of fertilizer our
population has grown 7 fold…
we not only derive plastics and fertilizer as by products of from
oil^ gas ( fertilizers contain nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium)
but pesticides… and we treat new diseases despite our general
increase in age…
we
rely on scientific breakthroughs in medicine and therapy to sustain
our lives … and because we consume more fish… more hormone
INJECTED animals we are taller ..bigger and YES fatter !…
also
mostly due to our sedentary lifestyles after the invention of the
internet and smart phones and remote working and NETFLIX.
And
once the metaverse kicks in… obesity will be rampant. Unless of
course we balance our lives between work and play.
Yes..
we have as a species progressed in 100 years… but we have also
regressed at the expense of our habitat. Not to mention how many oil
wars have been fought …
And
the main drivers of this economic revolution was the United States of
America particularly people like Du Pont and Henry Ford…
Rockefeller and Hearst… and Mr Rothschild.
Capitalism
WORKS… for
the few…
but not necessarily for the many…
and even our governments who act as our our overlords and made it
easy for business to grow and flourish have become democratic
dictatorships… (corrupting what was and IS in our best interest as
human beings)… PROFIT was put before PEOPLE -and misinformation
-and fake news before truth and responsible
journalism. In the name of jobs we so easily discard our
environmental duty as the caretakers of this planet. Health and
ethics are second place in the priority list of the heads of states
and captains of industry. Its justified with the saying : ‘ We
don't have a better alternative that works!”
By
definition capitalism is all profit driven not people driven.
In
America people use the vote to elect officials into government to
rule over them in their best interest..and yet… legal bribery under
the guise of lobbying is used to undermine the sovereignty of
lawmakers. How is that right..anywhere?
That's
the dis-
ease of capital- ism…
a centralization of capital
in the hands of the select few… who have decided what we think …
or believe or feel…
And
yes… we have all been lied to… BADLY!
The
reptilians truly live… and they use us like cows milking us of our
integrity and humanity by indifference and dis empowerment
propaganda. We are ALL collectively responsible for the state of our
world and the demise of the natural world and the Equilibrium that
governs it. That must surely change and change PDQ ( Pretty damn
quick)
It
all began with the Marijuana
Tax
act signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1937 which made hemp
production expensive and commercially unprofitable. The aim of this
was to push it out of the market… why? Cannabis as it was known
before this act came into being was used to write the American
Constitution on… In fact George Washington the first president
encouraged its cultivation by all and grew it himself.
As
did Thomas Jefferson.
The
Gothenberg bible was printed on hemp or cannabis paper. The sails
used to transport the first pilgrims to the new world ..were all made
of hemp… and all of this clashed with powerful media and business
interests that sought to monopolise a new synthetic fiber market and
petroleum oil. In 1883 Hemp was the primary source of paper in the
world… and it was required by law in the 16th
century England to grow hemp. It can produce 4 times the amount of
paper than trees with pulp and doesn't damage the environment in the
process. It was used to reduce toxicity around Chernobyl and meets
EVERY single one of the UN 17 sustainable goals. Whats more its much
faster growing than pulp trees. It takes around 90 to 120 days in
fact to grow from seed.
Unlikely
Chief supporter of hemp was Henry
Ford who
produced a hemp vehicle with the material that was harder than steel.
He claimed he didn't need this new oil from the ground but could run
his cars on
hemp oil.
Think about that for one moment… Hold that thought…
One
hectare of HEMP OIL can grow 1 metric ton of seeds which translates
into 1000 liters give or take… and that in turn can fuel just about
any diesel vehicle. This is not news. Its been done.
The
object of capitalism is to win by any means possible and to dominate
the market by any means possible… and in the old days… that's
what they did… through lying ..through bribery , cunning,
corruption and collusion… it didn't matter.. just as long as your
product dominated the competition… that's the problem with
capitalism ..even today.
Its
UNETHICAL. This
is HOW we got here.
Being
GREEN & CLEAN didn't sit well with the owners of big oil
companies or chemical companies … or media giants… who owned
paper mills and plantations of trees…hemp would have put them out
of business.
https://nzhempbrokers.com
And
if this isn't true then there's no conspiracy..But the facts say
otherwise….oil companies weren't just invested in oil but their by
products… and together that meant they could dominate the world
markets in energy production… fertilisers… plastics… and
pesticides… all off shoots of the oil cabal. Its logical they would
take advantage by kicking out the competition and destroying its
reputation. Technologically, there was NO reason whatsoever to not
allow help to be innovated into a material that could create over 25
000 products or more.
So
this syndicate… ( William Randolph Hearst(Newspapers), Lammot Du
Pont( Nylon fibres), Andrew Mellon( Banker), Harry Anslinger
(Government representative to the UN)… and others..
Carnegie..Rockefeller and Rothschild.. they all decided to get hemp
out
of the way and re-branded it as a drug…
in fact a Popular Mechanics story in 1938 stated hemp to be the
billion dollar crop that could create just
about anything…
this of course would mean billions of lost revenue for this small
club of cigar smoking capitalist...and incidentally Du Pont is today
still in the top 3 producers of plastic waste… Nothing has changed.
What
happened next ..right after Du Pont patented nylon… Theodore
Roosevelt passed the Marijuana act which taxed it to hell.. and in
1961 .. 150 nations banned hemp altogether… through ignorant
subservience and dishonest lobbying using false information.
Yes
my friends...
that's
how we got here…
GREED.
8.
THE SOLUTION!
So
we now know the challenge.
Not
only does big business in collusion with big government have a
specific financial interest in keeping the status quo as it is… (
remember the state gets billions in taxes from the oil companies and
their by products) . And who controls the minds of the people? The
big media companies and even the big tek companies.. and the kicker
of course is ..who sells the drugs and the medicines for the ones
that get cancer and other oil related diseases… ? Big business
once again. Its a racket. A closed circle. A mafia.
Fortunately,
they are not stupid enough to jump off the cliff… and that is why..
suddenly out of the blue… electric vehicles are becoming the norm.
Entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk have changed the game. And more are
coming up as we begin to understand the algorithms and the new
economic system we must embrace globally.
By
2035 no gas vehicles will be made in Europe seriously cutting our
carbon emissions. But do not think steel or plastics will stop out of
goodwill. Hemp steel can replace conventional cars and they are
lighter and stronger. It will begin with the massive production of
hemp fields as carbon sinks.
Hemp
can grow in deserts… anywhere in fact… and it doesn't need
fertilizers or pesticides… not in the amount we currently use.
But
there are other alternatives to plastics… what are they and how do
they compare?
Stainless
steel – glass-wood – bamboo- paper- cardboard-beeswax cloth-
seaweed- banana leaves-papyrus- mushroom-bagasse ( sugar cane
byproduct)-corn starch-chitosan ( fish waste and prawn shells ) _
casein or lactose ( milk protein ) - silberboard and of course HEMP!
Most
of these are too
expensive and energy or water inefficient except
of course hemp. It ticks all the boxes.
Labour
is also another challenge.
In
India clay cups are used for once only containers of hot tea and
tossed out the window to be reintegrated into the Earth… but the
advantage of a plant based plastic is that you have the added
advantage of CARBON sinking… a BIG plus with our climate crisis
issues. You win with the crop and you win with its growth. It is in
fact more efficient as a carbon catcher than trees. Its faster
growing and has an immediate impact on our carbon bank.
So
out of these only 5 meet this criteria… bamboo- papyrus – bagasse
-corn or maize and hemp… but the only problem with the others is
that a lot of water is required to grow them. So once again hemp
comes out on top. THAT'S why it was banned by the oil and gas cabal.
It wins hands down.
So
what is the solution ? How can we reverse and re-wild our habitat not
only mitigating
the massive carbon commission problem but also stopping plastic
pollution?
1.
THE LAND
:
Hemp
can grow anywhere even in a desert if its irrigated. In Sudan the
biggest sugar cane project in the world was created next to the Nile
river… Millions of hectares of semi arable land exist all around
the world. Hemp can not only be grown on them but also it is a crop
which can in some climates be grown 3 times a year! Not ONCE...not
TWICE ...but THRICE! It takes around 90 to 120 days to grow a crop
of hemp on one hectare of land. And there's so much land available to
grow this crop that land is not the problem. One hectare of land
creates up to 20 metric tonnes of product – including one ton of
seeds which can be used in diesel engines or for other purposes. One
hectare of land @ 150 - 250 USD a ton produces in one crop around 7
tons of fibre.
Add
to that the seeds and less costs of growing and you can count on
around 3000 USD per hectare or more. In fact I see a future where
governments will subsidize growing of hemp to offset carbon. For
every ton of hemp grown 0.6 tons of carbon is offset. To translate
that into easy terms … per capita carbon emission in the USA is
around 16 tonnes. One hectare will sequester 3 persons carbon
footprint per year. Why not have a carbon tax and grow hemp ? Farmers
will be encouraged to grow hemp throughout the developing world and
it will create MILLIONS of jobs… so yes… there is an argument
both ways. To reduce pollution and reduce carbon emissions.
And
yes… we have enough empty land to do it.
2.
POLITICAL WILL
“tipping
point”
: the
point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes
significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.
“ critical
mass
“ a size, number, or amount large enough to
produce a particular result
To
reach the tipping point , we need to reach critical mass . To do this
it must come to the forefront of the political agenda – and yes…
there are other problems in the world that may or may not be more
important. But unless we deal with our shit...human beings are
parasites ..a virus on the planet and we will eventually destroy
ourselves if we carry on this way. Some call it the 6 th extinction
but I prefer to call it common sense. The evidence is overwhelming
and besides that… its human waste. It isnt in sync with the
equilibrium of the planet. Its a case of convenience above care.
So
yes… we accelerate the consciousness and we give everyone the data
and we do something about it. We need to decriminalize all cannabis.
In fact there is a strain of cannabis or hemp that is THC free. We
need to lobby the United Nations like the cabal lobbied them to ban
it world wide in 1961. We need to reverse this edict.
In
fact one company has managed to create a THC free strain ( THC is the
element that is used to make you high) Legal standards cannot exceed
0.3 % of total.
https://www.healtheuropa.eu/panakeia-strain-first-thc-free-cannabis-seeds-to-be-distributed-in-us/96138/
By
offering good solutions for climate change and plastic pollution and
joblessness in the developing world… we can change the political
will collectively . But we need to start right now.. GROW HEMP ! SAVE
THE PLANET!
3.
FUNDING :
A.
Donors
: Elon Musk once “twittered” come up with a way to deal with our
carbon emission problem and we will offer you a 100 million dollar
prize. This is it. Its so simple yet so effective. It solves many
issues on many levels both on an environmental level as well as a
sustainable level. It provides jobs- employment as well as reducing
and replacing plastic dependency and .. its a super effective carbon
removal tool. And besides Mr. Musk there are many people around the
world who care about our planet and its future. They dont have to be
billionaires...they can be anyone. Even you.
B.
Crypto/Digital
Money :
Crypto
coins can be issued on proof of ethics as an airdrop and traded. Also
this new digital economy can incentivise the use of products and its
creation. With the advent of the metaverse a whole new field of
possibility is possible. Crypto tokens that are ethically based could
be used in the metaverse when real estate is bought or sold and
virtual hemp grown. Carbon removal is in itself an activity which
should be rewarded. This is how we empower everyone.
C.
Subsidies- grants and crowd funding :
Sequestering
carbon and creating jobs globally especially something that doesn't
require a university education is profitable for everyone. Millions
of migrants try every year to get into developed countries in Europe
, the United States and Canada -not to mention Australia and New
Zealand. Creating a global development fund will ensure we make
poverty history especially in Africa where half of the people do not
have access to electricity and running water and live on less than 2
USD a day. Brazil which is the size of Europe could cultivate hemp
crops instead of cutting down the rain forest for cattle and timber.
The Amazon forest produces around 25% of the worlds oxygen and fresh
water yet the rest of the world does not pay its fair share for the
air they breathe. Perhaps one day we will pay OXYGEN tax *or
CARBON tax on all the products we consume. This should factor in any
forward planning of any government big or small. Much of this funds
could go towards creating hemp plantations.
Investing
in carbon sequestration and job creation in developing countries can
solve many of the challenges facing the world today including mass
migration. It empowers everyone both producer and consumer. Also
crowd funding is a useful tool in raising finances for projects such
as these. This new green economy I call :
4.“
Environomics”
“Environocism”
looks to the needs of
both humans- and the environment without compromising either. “It
is a complete decentralized system of pananarchy and sovereignty
based on proof ethics and the 7 algorithms of human co existence with
all sentient beings to maintain the Equilibrium that sustains all
life on planet Earth.”**
The
Term was first coined after the RIO Earth Summit in 1992 by
environmentalist writer/ rainbow warrior P.
R Denton in his
unpublished treatise “Universal
Concepts. “
The
aim of this economy is to shift the old ways of thinking towards the
new. It is the new in the shadow of the old and aims to compost or
transform the old with the newer more ethical ones.
The
purpose of environomism
is to rethink and redo how we do business with each other. It
includes ethical consumption.Environomism is based on permaculture
principles. ***
For
more info go to earthoceans.org or synergiehub.ch
*(That
being : Air- Water-
Food- Energy- Medicine-Ubuntu/ Community & Love/ God/ Great
Spirit.)
**
Also in Universal
Concepts and the Theory of the Equilibrium
***Fair
to the Earth, Fair to the people ...and Fair share!-An glocal
economy that
rewards ethical consumerism.
1.
The Uncomfortable
Truths
: THE NUMBERS:
1.
400 million
tons of plastic is
produced each year-50% is for single use alone.
2.
43 billion ( 2019 figure) www.theworldcounts.com
is emitted by human activity each year… this includes agricultural
and industrial emissions. Or 36 billion according to
www.statista.com. Oceans
absorb around
30%
of that leaving 24 billion
tonnes.
20 to 25 %
is absorbed by trees and plants leaving at best leaving 15 billion
tons still in the air. The figures on this are not accurate as some
say forests account for one third oceans another third so at best we
still are left with 10 to 15 billion tones of carbon each year to
deal with.
Www.iucn.org
wri.org
states there are some other
ways
to capture more carbon . We submit that on land hemp can be grown and
on the oceans seaweed could increase carbon capture rates.
Even
10 billion tons of carbon per year in the atmosphere is too much. We
need to consume less and reuse more.
There
are many other innovative technological ways to capture carbon but so
far nothing has proven more effective than plantlife. ( carbon
mineralisation- atmospheric loss-direct air capture and filtering or
storing ...biomass using photosynthesis and soils. However, the best
way is to increase global biomass and thereby increase photosynthesis
which converts carbon into oxygen .
This
is the solution but do the numbers add up ?
3.
There are 1.4
billion hectares of unused land
fit to grow on.
70
% of the Earths surface is unused for any kind of farming,
With oceans you can farm 3D . On the surface kelp and below fish.
This is still a pioneering business.
If
ALL the unused land were to be used to grow hemp we could capture all
the carbon and still be left with over 19 billion tons to spare.
Around 28 billion tons could be captured. On the oceans we could
capture even more.
Theoretically
it is possible to clean up the air by utilising every used hectare of
land on the planet. But that is not feasible . At best we could
reduce our emissions from 36 billion to around 6 billion tons on land
and another 6 billion on our oceans . This would cancel out our
excessive emissions. But there is another solution. Creating carbon
removal machines.
Or
utilise near space satellites to transport our waste into space.
Satellites orbit ting Earth that convert carbon into oxygen… NASA
has been experimenting with a machine it intends to use on Mars
called MOXIE www.wired.com To
create such machines would require more innovation and tek which we
currently do not have nor can we deploy ….but in the next 10 years
the technology will be here to mass produce these “carbon
converters” and
to send them NEO ( near Earth Orbit ) like big vacuum cleaners in the
air.
To
give you some idea of the urgency
of this problem… in the last 20 years atmospheric carbon has
increased by 11 % - www.climate.nasa.gov. Thats a lot.
4.
From 7 to 15 metric tons of hemp can be grown per hectare. Minimum
of two times a year.. that's 14 to 30 tons per year… x times amount
of hectares … www.ers.usda.gov
At
around 260 USD per ton that is nearly 8000 USD per hectare per year.
A
million hectares is worth around 80 billion dollars. That's just the
hemp … with subsidies and carbon capture points… you can add on
another 20 billion . If 0.6 tons of carbon is captured per ton that
works out to 9 million tons or 9 to 1 for every hectare under
cultivation. T hats just an approximation because I've not taken off
the costs to grow it...Conservative figures say that after expenses
profit will be around 1250 per hectare. Either way everybody wins.
Add carbon rewards or credits … that another 600- 1000 USD per
hectare.
These
can be sold to companies with high carbon emissions. In total there
is no reason why profits of a minimum of 3000 USD a hectare target is
not feasible. You will have to factor in as well haulage to port.
2.
WHO will
buy Hemp?
In
short those companies who produce plastics right now. China – the
factory of the world produces around 31% of all plastics Around 60
million tons annually. ( statista.com ). But other countries will
once demand is there start refining hemp for multiple uses.
Raw
hemp can be refined in factories and produce over 25000 products.
Hemp
seed can be resold or reused. Biodiesel. CBDs. Paper . Cloth.
Textiles. The list is endless and yes… PLASTIC. Polluting compnies
must pay their fair share for the carbon they use and they will pay
the farmers who produce hemp or seaweed after necessary certified
calculations of carbon reversal are made.
THIS IS ENVIRONOMICS!
This
is part of the algorithms required for proof of ethics in this new
blue green economy. We can rebalance or
“ UNFUCK” or reconfigure our
planet IF
we believe it TO
BE so.
3.
To summarise: HEMP
GLORIOUS HEMP!
Is
it possible to GROW ourselves out of this problem of too much carbon
in the air and too much plastics in our oceans and in our food chain?
The
answer is YES! DAMN
RIGHT!
We
need to make the GROWING
of hemp, bamboo and seaweed a priority to offset this challenge and
save the planet from a climate disaster or God forbid… an
extinction event.
We
can rewild the
Earth.
Existing
landfills can be returned to the Earth through special fungi that eat
plastics. But the solution is not to make plastic for single use in
the first place.
Finally,there
is a THC free strain of hemp and there is no reason why it cannot be
grown. It is time to tell the oil and gas...the fertilizer and
pesticide companies and the plastic companies to retool
& reconfigure
and get with
the programme…
or
go out of business! Its time to heal the Earth.
We
still need fossil fuels for a few more years , but we need to start
reducing our consumption dramatically of them. There is a solid
solution to stop the shame of humanity… Our pollution of this
beautiful work of art we call Earth...
GROW
HEMP!
I
thank you
Aslan
La Vega
aslanvega@protonmail.com
Whatsapp
+ 447423714007
5.
Postnote:
After
making this decision to do something about it ...to take
responsibility I put these words into action. The following weekend I
created a facebook event to pick up all the thousands of plastic
bottles on the sea shore from the Blue Hole to Ras Abugalum. I got
over 35 people who said they were interested in participating but
only one showed up. I managed to recruit another person by word of
mouth and the three of us set off with 25 bags. We litterpicked for
around 3 hours. Along the way another person joined us and by sundown
we had covered half of the shore. The next day we were 7 people and
we picked up another 25 bags of plastic cleaning up around 85% of the
shore.
The
following day I was discussing the outcomes of the first workshop and
felt a little deflated because I was told all they do is BURN the
plastic at the local dump. Our plan was to pick up the bags the
following weekend with camels and boat and drive them to the dump.
Then I realised there could be another possibility based on the
concept of UPCYCLING.
This
is a method of turning trash to treasure.
This means you create something useful or artistic from junk. So then
the vision came to create a TREE OF LIFE as a plastic sculpture and
exhibit it and other art pieces which could become an outdoor
exhibition at a later date.
All
of this required more and more energy, resources and commitment
...and once again I felt deflated because I saw how difficult it is
to motivate people to come and do the job. Many are called but few
are chosen… and at the end of the day … some negativity always
comes from parties who are cynical about doing anything.
Gandhi
once said ..” At first they laugh at you (thinking you a fool)…
then they fight (you because nobody likes to change their negative
behavioral patterns)… and then you win( or lose or give up) … so
yes… it is a battle. The BIGGEST battle of course is in your own
mind. You have to first motivate yourself and ask ..”
WHY
am I doing this? -
is it my ego ...is it my self righteousness? … is it for fame and
fortune? Or is it simply to make a difference?- I like to think the
latter. It must be first for yourself. And you have to be ready to go
the extra mile to get things done. Its not easy. But I know it has
been with the support of friends working collaboratively that we can
turn the tide. Whatever you do it for … it must first be for
yourself.
For
the exercise… for the pure
desire
that you want to see a beautiful place remain beautiful. It is with
inspiration that we find our motivation...but it requires
perspiration too. And persistence. Nothing worthwhile doing is easy.
But when its done you have that personal satisfaction that you didnt
fall into the trap of apathy and indifference.
There
is a lifetimes work ahead for anyone that wishes it to clean this
planet up. But I take courage and strength from the fact that in this
dream … I am not alone!
“What
I find in a long walk to a specific destination is that it happens
not with knowing how you will get there but knowing that deep
inside you know you will get there.
You
see it ...you visualize it...you believe it.. and you simply KNOW it
without knowing HOW it will happen. And then this desire to get there
gets stronger with each small step.” ALV
GO
HEMP!- GO PLANET!
GROW HEMP! –
GROW PLANET!
……………………………………………………………………………….
Start a local REWILDERS Club
where you live. Start local think Global.
