GRASS IS NOT GREEN

Put this in your pipe and smoke it - American pot production is
producing the carbon equivalent of nearly half of Alberta's oilsands.

According to Evan Mills, a PhD researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory in California, indoor marijuana production in the
U.S. emits 17 mega tonnes of C02. That is 42.5 per cent of the
current CO2 emissions of Alberta's oilsands.

"The emergent industry of indoor cannabis production results in
prodigious energy use, costs and greenhouse gas pollution," his report states.

Mills calculated that a 1.2-square-metre grow op space uses double
the electricity of an average home. The lighting is as intense as
that found in an operating room (which is 500 times more than needed
for reading), six times the air-change rate of a biotech laboratory
and about the electric power intensity of a data centre.

From the perspective of individual consumers, Mills says a single
cannabis cigarette represents one kilogram of CO2 emissions, an
amount equal to running a 100-watt light bulb for 17 hours.

He estimates that total indoor pot production in the U.S. produces
emissions equivalent to three million cars.

The oilsands' current CO2 output of 40 mega tonnes is expected to
double by 2020, according to the Pembina Institute.

Mills make no projections of future pot use, but says more efficient
pot production could reduce its carbon footprint by 75 per cent.

Don't hold your breath on that account. Greenpeace has no anti-pot
campaign - just one opposing the oilsands.