Thanks to “Climate Desk” for pointing out this gem of an article.
These factoids are from the earth-friendly “Mother Jones” magazine “24 Mind-Blowing Facts About Marijuana Production in America”, referencing several federal data sources.
A few of those points:
- 80 percent of all marijuana grown in the USA comes from California, Tennessee Kentucky, Hawaii, and Washington. The vast majority comes from California.
- In 2013, California authorities seized 329 outdoor pot grow sites with: 1.2 million plants, 119,000lbs of trash, 17,000lbs of fertilizer, 40gal. of pesticides, 244 propane tanks, 61 car batteries, 89 illegal dams, and 81 miles of irrigation pipe.
- During California’s growing season, outdoor grows consumed roughly 60 million gallons of water a day – 50% more than is used by all residents of San Francisco.
- In California, indoor pot growing accounts for about 9% of household electricity use.
- For every pound of pot grown indoors, 4600lbs of carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere. California’s production equates to emissions of 3 million cars.
- The energy needed to produce a single joint is enough to produce 18 pints of beer, and creates emissions comparable to burning a 100 watt light bulb for 25 hours.
Source: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/marijuana-pot-weed-statistics-climate-change
References: Jon Gettman (2006), US Forest Service (California outdoor grow stats include small portions of Oregon and Nevada), Office of National Drug Control Policy, SF Public Utilities Commission, Evan Mills (2012).
I’m sure eco-activists will jump right on this trash-making climate-killing water-sucking pot problem we have here in California and include it right up there with the urgency of the proposed statewide plastic bag ban and banning fracking by chartering buses:
Mitchell explained that as San Diegans living at the end of the water pipeline, it is even more critical that we participate in this rally to convince Governor Brown that water is a precious natural resource more necessary than fracked oil and gas. “This awful drought effects us all and we need to stop wasting that water on fracking,” she said.
Yeah, but dude, pot is a life necessity.
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Dave? Dave? Dave’s not here.
Yeah, but dude, pot growing is to a large extent an illegal alien enterprise – therefore it gets a pass.
Ohhhhh…. that explains the water shortages in California….
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“POT. It’s not just for breakfast any more.”
I’m always slightly amused by all those “Celebraties” who lend their voices in support of green causes, when most of them stuff their noses & veins full of such ethically produced products as cocaine & heroin.
Anthony, the headlilne does not read smoothly. should it be …..”grown”……
The point is rather devestating to the position of the greens: they would deny us things that we can eat in order to save water, and make our power grid unstable and over priced all to ‘save the planet’, yet seem to accept without hesitation the water and CO2 footprint of a favored herb.
Why would an eco-activist try and elimate their personal source of “a poor man’s Nirvana?”
I have a hard time believing that indoor growing uses 9% of household electricity in the state. There are 38 million residents in this state.
Pot, meet Kettle.
goldminor says:
March 17, 2014 at 12:25 pm
I have a hard time believing that indoor growing uses 9% of household electricity in the state. There are 38 million residents in this state.
Difficult to measure since most of these residential operations “jump” the meter. Perhaps they simply took total power on grid minus the power measured by the meters and assumed all the missing power went to pot growing. Must be a new computer model at work.
goldminor @12:25
Growing indoors requires a lot of electricity . Given the amount of pot that is grown in CA , 9% sounds reasonable .
Don’t forget the ancillary damage: gasoline-burning midnight runs to the 7-11 for munchies, the proliferation of plastic baggies, dastardly paper production,….
Who says plants can’t think. They found a way to cultivate humans in order to benefit and expand themselves via chemical manipulation, even indoors in protected environments at great expense.
The article’s claim that one pound of pot burned produces 4,600 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere is patently, wildly and laughably absurd. That can’t possibly be true. That would mean that matter would be created by burning pot. It would be created to the tune of 2.3 TONS of CO2 for every pound of marijuana! That’s way too wild of an exaggeration to even be remotely plausible. Was someone writing this while smoking a joint, and in his mary-jane high just added 3 or 4 more zeros because he couldn’t tell the difference between his right hand from his left?
REPLY: Not burned, the PRODUCTION of. a far different thing. This takes water transport, fertilizers, electricity etc into account. – Anthony
If you drive up and around Northern California and wounder why people are driving brand new 4X4 trucks with all the bells and whistles ($$$$$) and have ‘Earth First’ or ‘GreenPeace’ and ‘Love Animals don’t eat them’ bumper stickers it’s not because they are growing grapes. I will give you 100 guesses BUT the first 99 don’t count.
Candy’s dandy,
Liquor’s quicker,
Pot is not.
–Ogden Nash
About that title …
“For every pound of pot grown indoors, 4600lbs of carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere. California’s production equates to emissions of 3 million cars.”
Can anyone tell me how much CO2 is in a pound and what is the volume of 4600 lbs of CO2. Let us assume it is at a temperature of 80 F but maybe someone else would know what would be the optimum temperature to grow the stuff.
California energy policy is coming full circle. They have to work extra hard to pay for the sky high grid prices and overpriced rooftop solar systems and then they have to de-stress with energy-intensive pot in their limited free time. At least they have a low carbon future ahead of them from premature death. Oh wait, they energy-intensive cremations too.
I hope this causes some cognitive dissonance in certain quarters.
Oh THAT sort of green energy 🙂
Is this so much greater than, oh, I dunno, EVERY OTHER GREEN PLANT ON EARTH? Is it even remotely comparable to the megatons of CO2 pumped out by volcanic activity every year. Do you really think I’m that stupid?
Sheesh.
Raining now, but I think that when it is dry again a few Carbon footprint camp fires are in order.
Church hypocrites can’t shine against California fruits and nuts.
We live on a carbon planet, who cares.
Is it possible that a lot of these costs relate to the production of illegal pot? For example, you may choose to grow it in your basement, but then you’ll have to provide UV light. You also have to use piped-in water. After legalization the need for these measures would be reduced. Of course, you may still need semi-automatic weapons and electrified fences, but, hey, one step at a time.
You cannot smoke tobacco anywhere in the vicinity of another living thing, yet you can destroy the planet with the evil weed and be made a hero for it.
Only in California. (and Colorado and Washington).