You might want to check my calculations but I reckon that if hemp produces as much energy as ethanol and the figure I found of hemp producing 207 gallons per hectare is correct then we would need to plant about 22,000,000 square miles of hemp to satisfy US energy demand.
For reference, the area of the USA is less than 4,000,000 square miles.
I think we're realizing that no matter what we use, we will never be able to keep up with the demand. Instead of looking for new sources to produce more and more energy, we need to change our lifestyles before the Earth changes them for us.
This isn't a viable solution. What you just argued is the envirofascist argument, that Westerners must give up a Western lifestyle.
The world's food supply is dependent on energy use. It runs the Haber process to make nitrogen-based fertilizer. If we were to lose that, we'd lose the ability to feed about half the world's population. The reduction you're talking about comes with mass starvation on a scale humanity has never seen before.
Energy is used to run everything in our economy. Every time you see a computer or hear the world digital, all of that runs on energy. We don't make things by hand anymore and haven't for longer than I've been alive. You get rid of this and you destroy the information economy we depend on for prosperity. You get rid of hospitals' ability to operate. You get rid of our ability to mass produce things.
Now, keep in mind, this is what we will experience: total destruction of our way of life. But if you're one of the 3ish billion who make up half the world's population living at or below the real poverty line, the net effect to you is that if you survive the famine, you will be doomed never to ever live the kind of prosperous life that Westerners take for granted. We all go back to subsistence farming. And it won't be a peaceful transition. It'll look like social collapses always look, with warlords and organized criminal gangs (ie cartels) taking over to fill the power vacuum.
This is where we're headed with the Green New Nightmare and the Build Back Broke plan. This is what's going to happen. They're doing the "lifestyle change" right now in Europe. No hot showers. Highly limited AC/heating. It's not even scratching the surface. Factories are going to shut down first because they're private sector and the capital investment just won't be there. No one's talking about the data centers and the hospitals yet, but they will be. And while the famine will be manageable in year one, when there's no fertilizer for year 2 and 3, that's when things are going to get really spicy.
We're sitting on a literal sea of energy. We have access to cheap, reliable, nuclear energy, and we're told we must use neither of these technologies because green psychopaths want people to "adjust their lifestyles."
I always like to use nuclear energy as a litmus test for any self-proclaimed 'environmentalist'. If they are against it, their opinions are worth less than the air they breathe uttering it.
Difference is that I can't also use the same crop to use as materials for making houses.
So many things are made of plastic, which is made of petroleum, that it is laughable to suggest that hemp is a more useful product than petroleum.
Regarding making houses: asphalt shingle roofs, vapor barriers to keep out moisture, vinyl siding, wiring, plumbing, fixture coverings, lighting coverings, counter tops, flooring, just to name a few. ALL made from petroleum.
Petroleum occurs naturally within the Earth's crust, and the Earth will never stop producing it. We might use it up at a faster rate than the Earth can produce it, but so far there is no evidence that is actually happening.
Other than water, petroleum is easily the most useful natural product that man has to utilize.
I always know that I am "debating" a dishonest person when they completely ignore a point made that destroys their argument.
You have ignored the point made that it would take 22 million sqaure miles of hemp production to fuel the US economy alone. Clearly, that is impossible.
If something about your argument is impossible to do in the real world, then your argument is wrong, by definition.
I'm not saying that hemp cannot have some use, because it can. But it clearly cannot replace petroleum.
And because you refuse to acknowledge the points made that destroy your position, I have no use in discussing this with you any further. You are not honest.
You might want to check my calculations but I reckon that if hemp produces as much energy as ethanol and the figure I found of hemp producing 207 gallons per hectare is correct then we would need to plant about 22,000,000 square miles of hemp to satisfy US energy demand.
For reference, the area of the USA is less than 4,000,000 square miles.
I think we're realizing that no matter what we use, we will never be able to keep up with the demand. Instead of looking for new sources to produce more and more energy, we need to change our lifestyles before the Earth changes them for us.
This isn't a viable solution. What you just argued is the envirofascist argument, that Westerners must give up a Western lifestyle.
Now, keep in mind, this is what we will experience: total destruction of our way of life. But if you're one of the 3ish billion who make up half the world's population living at or below the real poverty line, the net effect to you is that if you survive the famine, you will be doomed never to ever live the kind of prosperous life that Westerners take for granted. We all go back to subsistence farming. And it won't be a peaceful transition. It'll look like social collapses always look, with warlords and organized criminal gangs (ie cartels) taking over to fill the power vacuum.
This is where we're headed with the Green New Nightmare and the Build Back Broke plan. This is what's going to happen. They're doing the "lifestyle change" right now in Europe. No hot showers. Highly limited AC/heating. It's not even scratching the surface. Factories are going to shut down first because they're private sector and the capital investment just won't be there. No one's talking about the data centers and the hospitals yet, but they will be. And while the famine will be manageable in year one, when there's no fertilizer for year 2 and 3, that's when things are going to get really spicy.
We're sitting on a literal sea of energy. We have access to cheap, reliable, nuclear energy, and we're told we must use neither of these technologies because green psychopaths want people to "adjust their lifestyles."
No.
I'm not talking about cutting off the food supply. I'm talking about walking back our excessive lifestyles.
I always like to use nuclear energy as a litmus test for any self-proclaimed 'environmentalist'. If they are against it, their opinions are worth less than the air they breathe uttering it.
People are too materialistic to give up that life. Even people on this board care more about stuff than they do other people.
Difference is that I can't also use the same crop to use as materials for making houses.
So many things are made of plastic, which is made of petroleum, that it is laughable to suggest that hemp is a more useful product than petroleum.
Regarding making houses: asphalt shingle roofs, vapor barriers to keep out moisture, vinyl siding, wiring, plumbing, fixture coverings, lighting coverings, counter tops, flooring, just to name a few. ALL made from petroleum.
Petroleum occurs naturally within the Earth's crust, and the Earth will never stop producing it. We might use it up at a faster rate than the Earth can produce it, but so far there is no evidence that is actually happening.
Other than water, petroleum is easily the most useful natural product that man has to utilize.
GTFO with your hemp nonsense.
Hemp can replace petrolium for plastic in it's entirety.
Sorry for your feelings, but take out the state of the affairs of hemp and oil and oil will lose.
I always know that I am "debating" a dishonest person when they completely ignore a point made that destroys their argument.
You have ignored the point made that it would take 22 million sqaure miles of hemp production to fuel the US economy alone. Clearly, that is impossible.
If something about your argument is impossible to do in the real world, then your argument is wrong, by definition.
I'm not saying that hemp cannot have some use, because it can. But it clearly cannot replace petroleum.
And because you refuse to acknowledge the points made that destroy your position, I have no use in discussing this with you any further. You are not honest.