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.
An initial fracking job will generally use up to 3 million gallons of water, depending on the area, size, and characteristic of the target reservoir. That means up to 20 wells could be fracked each day in Cali if we didn’t have to compete against the homegrown pot heads….
Now green climate austerity is not so funny any longer dude 🙂 ….
re: Khwarizmi says March 17, 2014 at 1:24 pm
Cannabis–a life enriching therapeutic plant that was once the fabric of our lives (hence the word CANVAS)–was outlawed worldwide for the benefit of Du Pont..
Same story as CFCs.
Can it be asked – Are the potheads with their own ‘select’ myths out again? BTW, on the issue of CFCs and the ‘DuPont’s patent was about to expire‘ myth, see:
1) Discussion – http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/11/at-agu-nasa-says-cfc-reduction-is-not-shrinking-the-ozone-hole-yet/#comment-1498239
2) Discussion – http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/11/at-agu-nasa-says-cfc-reduction-is-not-shrinking-the-ozone-hole-yet/#comment-1498299
3) The R-12 patent: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/12/11/at-agu-nasa-says-cfc-reduction-is-not-shrinking-the-ozone-hole-yet/#comment-1499679
Publication date . . Jul 9, 1935
Filing date . . . . . Feb 24, 1931
Priority date . . . . Feb 24, 1931
Inventors . . . . . . . Henne Albert L, Midgley Jr Thomas, Reed Mcnary Robert
Original Assignee . . Gen Motors Corp
https://www.google.com/patents/US2007208
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
The ‘patent’ on R-12 had well expired by the time CFCs were banned.
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i scrolled through the comments and didn’t see any about dr. robert brown’s article here a few months ago. frankly, big government is the enemy when it comes to climate change and prohibition. being skeptical of outrageous claims on the former is just as advisable as being skeptical of outrageous claims on the latter.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/08/22/how-global-warming-research-is-like-pot-research/
Then … (the governing bodies said) let there be LEGAL BHO (Butane Hash Oil) … MJ’s big (quick-acting, double-assured to ‘please’ and works *every* time it’s tried) intoxicating BIG brother:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/01/17/the-southern-california-colby-wildfire-and-climate-change/#comment-1539403
Quoting from the post linked: The ‘next’ devolutionary step? – Refinement into ‘Honey Oil’ also known as hash oil or Butane Hash Oil (‘BHO’ oddly enough). Take 30 to 40 ‘hits’ all day long with each as effective as the previous vs simple ‘weed’ tokes which fail to ‘reward’ after a bit. Meet the new republic; much like the old opium dens of China …
There are several vids accessible on the subject at that link as well.
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WOW…Anthony Watts or Moderator………you don’t like being called out on changing the original article, do you?
Again, this is one of my favorite sites, I come to see the news here daily. I use the arguments laid out here constantly. Now I see that you are, for whatever reason, purposefully changing one of the first points of the article in question and you wont even own up to it.
Truly unbelievable. And you moderate out a comment made to someone regarding this factual change that you have made. For what reason do you insist on keeping “80% of all marijuana grown in the USA comes from Cali” when the article that you are referring to clearly indicates that 80% of all marijuana grown in the USA is from 5 states? Have you no shame?
REPLY: Honestly no idea what you are talking about regarding some “moderated comment”, where? As for the article it has been updated. – Anthony
“Don’t believe us; go read Junkie by Sam Burroughs; he’s the expert and he’ll tell you the same thing that I can tell you, namely that MJ , especially unexpected flashbacks a day later, switch off your 3D perception while driving from one moment to the next, and good luck if you’re in dense traffic. Happened to me, 30 years ago; and convinced me that a driving license and MJ are not friends so I stuck with the driving license.
MJ users are time bombs when behind the steering wheel.”
Damn Dirk that must have been some good shite you were smoking to turn off your 3D a day later!
: )
One of the stories out of the Pacific NW 20 years ago is that the push to shut down logging there was more due to the desire to grow pot in the national forests than anything else. The spotted owls were just the excuse. Shut down the loggers, and there are far, far fewer people blundering on a growing area. Cheers –
It is true that the combination of illegal growing for the black market and quasi legal growing for medical use is environmentally destructive. All the more reason to bring it all into the light of day and make it legal. There could be organic or low impact farms in the Sacramento Valley along side I-80.
This is the most ridiculous report ive ever seen
[Reply: we would love to hear your reasons. ~mod.]
_JIm,
” CFCs and the ‘DuPont’s patent was about to expire‘ myth, see:”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
why don’t you and/or Mooloo go and rewrite the history of the CFC ban at wikipedia to make it concordant with your corporate view:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorofluorocarbon#Regulation_and_DuPont
.
As discussed earlier–but you seem to have a conveniently short memory (see U.S., patent 6630507 to fix that problem)– the DuPont patent was for the process of manufacture, not the molecule.
So the expiry date on the patent for R12 is irrelevant, as you already knew.
DuPont’s patent on Nylon was threatened by a resurgent hemp industry, so the simians in the fascist government of the United Snakes of Captivity made part of nature illegal for DuPont and Hearst.
http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/chapter-three/
I didn’t make that story up, as you imply.
Don’t worry about the CO2…. when the MJ is burned it makes enough “aerosols” to make things cool man…..
Kary Mullis. There’s also a certain Watson . . .
Suppose that you drink a lot of coffee because…you like coffee. While you know that it does contain the addicitive psycho-active substance caffeine, you also know that consumption of the drug is only associated with significant health benefits and no significant risks. You would like to flaunt your addiction proudly, like alcoholics can and sometimes do (especially when they “quaff”). But coffee is illegal for some irrational reason (nothing to do with science or democracy or anything like that), and it therefore costs around $10 on the black market for enough beans to make just one decent cup.
So you decide to grow some coffee beans in the privacy of your own home under artificial lighting for your personal use only, because you want some dignity (like you get when you buy alcohol or tobacco), and because you want a higher percentage of your hard-earned wages to spend in the real economy (perhaps on those deadly but legal luxuries such as alcohol or tobacco).
But on the very day when your crop of beans has finished drying after months of invested effort, just when they are ready to be roasted and ground and made into espresso and tasted, 3 carloads of police arrive and turn your home and your life upside-down, seizing all your dried coffee beans, every scrap of plant material, and all your lighting and pumps.
They then parade you in front of your neighbors in handcuffs before driving you to the local station to be interrogated and charged.
That’s what happened to me on November 4, 2012.
> “Where did you learn how to grow coffee?”
>> “Well, when I was 5 years old, my mother took me outside and showed me how to press a seed into the dirt. Didn’t anyone ever show you that trick, constable?”
I still have the recording of my interview.
I was eventually fined $200 for cultivating and possessing 1.8kg of dried “coffee beans.”
And that, coincidentally, is about the same price I paid for the ~750KwH of electricity that was required to grow them.
Oh, man, now THAT is funny. I wonder how the greens in Colorado and Washington are reacting to this piece!
So how CO2 is it for Cocaine production then
Put a few ethically aware Yuppy ,Celebrity ,Ghetto Crack head noses out of joint
philjourdan
1) gaelansclark’s figures are approximately correct.
2) RGB referred also to “medical cannabis”, but you didn’t subject RGB to the accusation of “liar”
3) Cannabis was outlawed for the benefit of DuPont & Hearst, to the detriment of humanity.
Show some scientific studies that demonstrate the brain damage that you claim you can just “see” with your magical x-ray eyes.
What – you can’t find a single legitimate study?
What’s that you say…that the U.S. government owns a patent of cannabinoids for protecting the brain?
You say that research demonstrates that cannabinoids stimulate neurogenensis?
Of course you didn’t say those things, because you aren’t interested in the truth.
I am disappointed in Mother Jones for this article and in people who don’t question it. The numbers are exaggerated and some of the references are suspect. It is true that growing marijuana indoors uses a fair amount of energy, but growing it outdoors doesn’t. The legalization of marijuana will help eliminate high energy growing practices and provide a crop that can be taxed, and that has medical and recreational purposes. There is also the issue of considering the amount of resources used for other agricultural crops; why should this be more heavily scrutinized. This is stupid.
Far out, man!
Did someone ask for Mann? Dave’s not here.
For the numpties objecting to the title, a marijuana grow is a location where marijuana is grown. It’s a slang noun, commonly known. Except to numpties.
#1 – Show me where I was contesting his figures.
#2 – The article talks about MJ,not MMJ. While they are the same substance, there is a lot less of the latter than the former. And the issue is NOT the same. As you see from his comments, he apparently uses it like everyone else drinks beer. It is not medicinal, so drop the charade.
#3 – I do not care why it was outlawed. Non Sequitur.
There is no such thing as recreational use. You are all self medicating. Recreational Use is Taxed at a higher Rate. You can’t grow your own in Co or WA. So POT is “legal” (are you sure?) in those states as long as the Government is the DEALER? In California POT has been medically legal since 1996. Basically it works like this. You smoke pot. It brings you some type of alleviation. Be it stress relief, increased hunger, loss of nausea, or whatever. To” just get stoned” is just a general “catch all” term for multiple things, and means so much more. POT is not cheap. $460.00 per oz in the CA. Clubs and you can’t buy more than 1 ounce. Try telling a cigarette smoker that they can only by 5 packs at a time. RIDICULOUS Another thing. Here in California it might be legal. But the city’s and town have passed local ordinances prohibiting marijuana outdoor growing. The reason is the smell and the attraction of thieves. Well Thieves are being eliminated by neighborhood cameras springing up to catch the residential burglars, but if you were to raise the fence line to 7 feet. It is quite difficult for a 5’6″ person to climb over a 7 foot fence. Make Smartcars not drive when the driver is determined to be intoxicated. Give them a warm “time out”, Rename the local court building in your town to a neutral corporate paying sponsor. Family named buildings establish a “good old boy” rank structure dictated by the progressive movement communists in order to obtain a control based on name not merit. Renaming the building takes that power away.