Carbon credits are a tradable permit scheme. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by giving them a monetary value. International treaties set quotas on the amount of greenhouse gases countries can produce.

Countries, in turn, set quotas on Industrial emissions. Industries that exceed their quotas must buy carbon credits for their excess emissions and Industries below their quotas can sell their remaining credits. By allowing credits to be bought and sold, a business for which reducing its emissions would be expensive or prohibitive can pay another business to make the reduction for it.

This minimizes the quota's impact on the business, while still reaching the quota. In addition to the burning of fossil fuels, major industry sources of greenhouse gas emissions are cement, steel, textile, and fertilizer manufacturers.

The main gases emitted by these industries are methane, nitrous oxide, hydro-fluorocarbons, etc, which increase the atmosphere's ability to trap infrared energy. Our addiction to fossil fuels, coal & oil, has changed the quality of our air, water and earth. Our health is affected by toxic-related cancer.

The cost of production, transport and storage of our food requires energy. Energy in solid, liquid and electrical form in ever increasing amounts. Coal fired power stations are trying to clean up their efficiency. Nuclear power has negative issues. Wind, solar, hydro, tidal, geothermal and plant material (biomass) have all become more viable as the price of crude oil rises and supplies diminish.

HEMP is ENERGY (E=hempseed squared)
Biomass from food crops and their byproducts is used to make Biofuel. Bast fibre crops include such species as Flax, Kenaf, Sun Hemp and Industrial Hemp. The “hurd” is the inner woody core of the bast fibre plant’s stem. In general bast fibre crops produce the greatest amount of usable bio-mass, over the shortest period, for the least amount of water.

Bast crops are a highly efficient mop crop and can use most types of waste or even brackish water. Between 1.7 and 1.9 tonnes of carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere for each tonne of bast crop cellulose produced. We typically grow 10-14 tonnes of crop straw per hectare. Another 2-3 tonnes of cellulose mass is produced and stored in the root system.

So each hectare of hemp could immediately sequester some 22 tonnes of greenhouse gases. Bast crops are able to sequester more carbon than trees in a short 150 day season cycle and yet leave arable land available for food and other crop production in the remainder of the year.

Pyrolytic Conversion
Organic plants are converted into pyrolytic fuel using a thermo-chemical process. Using the same technology as fossil fuels, the conversion of plants into renewable energy is the most efficient method of producing charcoal, pyrolytic oil, gas or methanol.

Pyrolysis occurs whenever solid organic material is heated strongly in absence of oxygen, e.g. when frying, roasting, baking, toasting. The process also occurs when burning compact solid fuel, like wood. An ancient industrial use of anhydrous pyrolysis is the production of charcoal through the pyrolysis of wood.

More recently, pyrolysis has been used on a massive scale to turn coal into coke for metallurgy, especially steelmaking. Anhydrous pyrolysis can also be used to produce liquid fuel similar to diesel from solid biomass or plastics. Pyrolysis of wood for charcoal was a major industry replaced by coal during the 1800’s Industrial Revolution.

HEMP versus PROPAGANDA
A campaign was begun to discredit hemp. Playing on the racism that exists in America, Hearst used his newspapers to apply the name "marijuana" to hemp. Marijuana is the Mexican word for the hemp plant. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the psycho-active constituent of Cannabis. Associating anti-social and criminal behavior of non-white immigrant labourers with marijuana smoking portrayed them both as evil.

This application along with various "objective" articles created fear. By 1937, these industrialists were able to parlay the fear they created into the Marijuana Tax Act. This law started the demise of the Hemp Industry in the US and the negative effect on the biofuel and many other industries.

HEMP versus SOYBEANS
Soybeans are high in protein in a form that needs to be balanced for human consumption. The complete protein and the essential oils contained in hempseeds are in ideal ratios for human nutrition. Protein content in hempseed is in the form of globulin edestin (65%). The readily available protein in hempseed contains all the essential amino acids that create immunoglobulin or protein antibodies for your immune system.

Hempseeds are the highest plant source of EFA (Essential Fatty Acids. Omega-3: alpha-Linolenic acid. Omega-6: gamma-Linolenic and Linoleic acids.) Hempseed has no THC.

HEMP versus DISEASE
People with nutrition-blocking ailments like tuberculosis receive maximum nourishment from Cannabis seed protein. These essential oils support the immune system and guard against viral and other insults to the immune system. These essential oils, linoleic and linolenic acids, are responsible for the lustre in your skin, hair, eyes, and even your thought processes. They lubricate (clear) the arteries and are vital to the immune system.

These essential fatty acids are used to successfully treat “terminal” cancer patients, as well as those suffering from cardio-vascular disease, glandular atrophy, gall stones, kidney degeneration, acne, dry skin, menstrual problems and immune deficiency.

HEMP versus WOODCHIPS
Paper made from hemp is stronger and less likely to tear. It has more wet resistance than wood pulp and is 7 times as recyclable. It is also grown from an annual plant thus saving forest resources. It can produce a wider range of papers, whilst only using a fraction of the dangerous chemicals. No dioxins are produced and less energy/water used. Cannabis can be mixed with other fibre pulp for strength.

Hemp produces many times the cellular fibre of trees and is perfect for hemp bricks, concrete framework and particle board. Hemp is very long lasting and highly flexible. The Bible and US currency will both be printed on hemp again as they were before.

HEMP versus MONEY
When Hemp or Cannabis is a listed commodity on the Stock Market alongside Gold, Crude Oil, Coal, Soybean, Corn and Cotton then the benefits to our health, wealth, air, water, earth and fertility will create a better future for us all. Creating carbon credit from cannabis? Hemp has hope.