The end of it all

In this journey I have learned a lot about myself and the environment and how those two relate. To be honest before coming in this class I wasn’t all that concerned with the environment. I hadn’t had the proper guidance to have the understanding of what we were actually doing to the world. After the first class I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I like talking about subjects that are taboo to some people. I feel that people today get way to offended from subjects we talk about. So that I why I chose this topic of hemp.

When I first started this project I really didn’t know where I wanted to go with this. There were so many avenues I could do but I wanted it to stand out from all the other conversations dealing with this. Everyone’s first notion is associating weed with hemp when it is not the case. In that I think we failed as a society for not putting the right information out there so that this so called taboo could transform and adapt so we could utilize its potential. I felt that I have made headway into making that a possible idea. There are few groups that do and hopefully I could partake in decisions of that nature.

From start to finish this class was honestly a great opportunity to understand our world and know what we are going towards with how we treat out world. Every assignment I felt I understood what I was doing better and better. Dr. Durbin from all of his rants to our readings really installed action towards what I want to do. I almost dropped the class before taking it because I was kind of intimidated by what we had to do because I didn’t know if what I was going to do would actually matter. In all honesty I think I made a difference in myself. Just from reading everyone else’s post and seeing how you guys felt just amped me up every week to do better.

https://www.votehemp.com/news/newsv4no8.html I found this to be a great website for understanding where others come from on this topic.

(This is one song I found that ultimately explains all that I have been discussing all year)

An educational music video about the many industrial uses and health benefits of the American Hemp plant. Featuring the song “Tree of Life” by Human of the band The Human Revolution.

http://www.thehumanrevolution.org/

Cannabis sativa “hemp” can benefit all of mankind.

It is #1 for: fiber, paper, food, oil, medicine and fuel.

Lyrics:

Tree of Life

Words and Music by Human of The Human Revolution

I want to tell all a little bit about a plant I know that can save the world.

It grows long and tall and has flowers that can make your mind swirl.

It’s a sacred plant with a fiber that is resistant to rain and mold.

Its the strongest plant fiber known to man, the best rope you’ll ever hold.

 

Now the pioneers covered up their wagon train with a canvas made of hemp

Washington and Jefferson grew it on their farms and said to make the most of it.

The first stars and stripes were made on hemp the first constitution too.

It’s used around the world for fuel fiber oil medicine and food.

If you press its seeds you wont have no need for any other oil,

You can make paints and inks or run your car, grow it back next season till fix the soil.

The most nutritious seed you can put in your mouth with Omega 6 and 3

We can feed the world with the tree of life and live sustainably.

Chorus:

If we cut down all the trees, then we wont have no air to breath,

Grow a field of hemp instead; you can make your paper, build your house from it. The Goddess plant growing wild and free, living the way we ought be, gone leave my children a better world than my ancestors left me.

The flowers of the female hemp plant make the best medicines on Earth,

Helps cancer and AIDS patients eat their food, helps those with depression overcome the blues,

Glaucoma, Epilepsy, Nausea, Insomnia, Stress, Neurosis, Psychosis, Pain PMS

All the studies have been done all the doctors agree, but the corporations cant make money off this plant you see, because its free, it grows from a seed, wild and free like we ought be.

The future is growing in our backyards.

Chorus:

In this modern day when we seem to lack spirituality,

This one plant can bring us back 10.000 years in history.

To the Shiva Parthians, The Jesus The Christ, to Buddha, The Pagans, The Goddess, The Light. To commune with all the animals, be one with all the trees, to realize the god I seek is inside me.

Yeah the futures in our hands, wave got to take care of the Earth.

Because the Earth is the mother that gives life birth.

And we can heal all our relations with a single green plant

And we can start right now.

 

Inquiry #2

1. Myself out at Konza prairie.

 

I choose to use this as my first picture because a lot of what we have talked about in class in the distinction between nature and us. I felt that his scene would depict that we exist in nature and we attribute certain things to help nature develop and also tear it down. Keeping in mind that we are two separate entities that do interact in some shape or form. I look out at this open range and look at the endless possibilities that we could achieve but we are so trapped by our own ignorance that instead of using a lot of resources we limit ourselves with what we can possible achieve.

 

In Cronans article he talks that we only can achieve certain qualifications in our world that we could consider wilderness. With how our world is moving now a days transferring into the Anthropocene we are going to look at other forms of land differently by distinguishing whether or not they are considered wilderness. In my opinion I feel that any place that habitats plant and animal life could be considered wilderness. The determination of wilderness is an endless change and over time it’s going to change on what is considered a wilderness.

 

2. Batteries

 

For my second picture I chose batteries that I found out in the Konza Prairie I chose this because I feel it in a sign of neglect for those that come to this part of nature and confuse it for a dump. I feel people today don’t have the appreciation for nature as there once was. Apart of that is the super advancement of technology where now today you don’t really even have to leave your house to get anything. Technology has taken a front seat to all which devalues nature to people in this time frame.

 

This relates to me with “loving your monsters” we created this drastic change in the world relating to technology. This has been a daily use in our lives for a couple of decades now and we have to live with what it has caused. As moving forward in the Anthropocene I feel that our monsters need to take a back seat to what is ultimately going to help out world and save us from a long binding despair of what our nature/wilderness could turn into. Time to defeat our monsters.

 

3. Green revolution flyer on campus

 

This was most interesting to me because I had seen so many of these flyers around town in my hometown that I saw that same one on campus. However the one that I saw was torn and beat up with stains all over it. Looking at this brought a picture to mind that I felt was adequate for what I was looking at. We as a society are so caught up in what is trending that, which is all we care about. I see someone walking along holding this flyer imaging what good they could do by changes they could make. Then realizing what work that would take and just tossing this aside like its yesterdays new. I know that this seems like a low point of view but just from what I’ve seen in the world from how people actually react to changes that would benefit they only want to be apart of the group and participate whenever it was convenient to them.

 

When learning how to die in the Anthropocene this is statement made about leaving marks on a world after you leave, and what marks you want those to be. When looking at our world I think there is a lot of talk about what they could do to leave behind a better world then what they had. Although the effort to take action is lower then the actual ideas created to do such things.

 

 

“What do you want your legacy to be”

my optimistic journey

During my trip to the wonderful state of Colorado I explored many different avenues of what they have to offer. Their exciting city features, the nightlife, and all that you can encompass while being there. Obviously that was just the icing on the cake for me. I went out there to try and find a few answers to some of the questions I still have about the hemp culture and that I feel most people today still want answers on since it is not a widely discussed topic. When I first got there I was able to link up with some old friends of mine who moved out to Colorado before the big boom of legalization of marijuana. Still keeping in mind that hemp and marijuana are two separate things, this was just the steppingstone to greater achievements. Once I was able to meet up with them we went out and I grilled them for about an hour or so about what they had seen since the rise in the hemp movement popularity. Simply put they all had the same answer, they say that when it became more widely talked about around where they lived they felt that wanted to play a part in it. They ended up quitting their other jobs and went to work for a hemp-clothing store that is on the rise with more and more orders coming in everyday. It’s becoming a well-known store in the city of Denver and has clothes that you would find at any designer retail store.

That was just the first leg on my journey my next step was to try and talk to a curator of a hemp field and see how they have been affected by this climb in need for hemp related items. However like I said in class it was kind of poor planning on my part. I was not able to talk to the curator of the field but I ended up getting to talk to someone who works the fields out just outside of Denver. My main question for him was how much has you guy’s grossed income wise since the rise. How have you have to adapt to the need of hemp. From what I took away there really is not a change needed for this type of increase. He said that these hemp fields produce so much that sometimes that actually have too much of it. Crazy I know, I couldn’t get the exact number on how much they procure but it was an outstanding number.

After leaving there on my drive home I had a lot to think about. The fact that what I saw was a big benefit to our world and so few people know about it. Most people do not have the resources that those groups have that are able to manufacture it. It blows my mind that people can sit and watch our world crumble from what we use on a daily basis and not feel the urge to get up and make a drastic difference. If we were to work with companies that would hire farmers to go out and curate hemp fields then a lot of states would see how beneficial it really is and start to make a change that would not only benefit them as a state but our world as whole.

http://denverhempco.com

 

I feel optimistic that our world will change no matter how long it takes I feel we will get there someday. Am I going to be alive to see it more than likely, no. But I want to be apart of the generation that starts the revolution to a cleaner better world. This class has opened doors for me that I never knew existed and push me to do better by myself and for the world at large.

misconceptions and reality

From the feedback I have been getting on my comments one really stood out to me that I had not yet addressed in my blog post. When most people hear the word hemp they immediately attribute it to being weed. When in reality those are two separate parts but with similar backgrounds. Its important to know that the push I am going for is far separate from the marijuana movement even though that is a major kick-starter for the hemp industry. When I started this blog I didn’t feel that this was as important as getting the right facts and movements to you. After talking to people on campus I felt that this was a major key point that everyone needs to be aware of.After talking to people on campus I felt that this was a major key point that everyone needs to be aware of. Just expressing the knowledge that i have i feel I’m doing my part by giving knowledge to others that they might not have know before hand.

When thinking about this I came up with another question that could be the main question of my process. What could hemp be a predecessor for, what could this evolution bring next to which could be a better resource than hemp. Another thing to look at is what can it do for industrially. I’ve been ranting about only what it could do for our environment but time to see what industrially it could do for us.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNxpCHDyVjA

Medical benefits that hemp can bring to the table.

Fieldwork:

This weekend I had made the choice to go out to Colorado and see for myself what all has been done. Responses from the people who live there is great but personal experience trumps all. My hope is to visit hemp fields and hopefully talk to the curators of the land to see what has transpired with hemp in the last couple of years. With this I hope to gain a better sense of just how useful it really is.

After oil:

Is it really worth it? Gaining money but destroying the earth. When reading after oil I saw a glimpse of what our world is really coming to. We have indulged ourselves in this greedy capitalistic country and only care about commerce. What is it going to take to see that what we are doing is just ruining us instead of helping? Act before it’s too late. This is one thing that I incorporate with the hemp movement. Why use this toxic plastics, and materials that have hazardous effects on the producers and consumers. Hemp has been one of the most underutilized resources we have just because of its link to marijuana even though they are separate entities. Another thing that is a possible set back is those that are running our country still believe in the old school ways of life and attribute any type of hemp as a taboo. Its time for new fresh minds and ideas to come up and change our direction because where we are headed is to a place that no one wants to be in. Not to say that other issues are road blocked by this because in most cases this is true.

 

 

 

Regenerating Confidence

During our class Wednesday night I was worried about where my project was actually going. To be honest I was kind of clueless on to what I wanted to do next. However, after hearing what everyone had to say and after Dr. Durbin gave some insight on how to make project better I got a clearer sense of where I was going to head now. I raised questions that I previously hadn’t asked myself yet, that I thought were very adequate questions to raise. One is how does hemp make it easier in the anthropocene, and also what place does hemp have in the Anthropocene? When going through my previous blogs I knew that I had skimmed the tip of the iceberg when revealing what hemp can do for the world. From what I had seen personally and encountered in the media. I recently talked to a couple of buddies on mine out in Colorado after not being able to receive and email back from officials and also the website creators of the paper hemp website. I talked to them about what they had seen in the change of hemp being legalized regarding hemp production for household products and also energy efficient gases and or also liquids. In example, lotions, creams, medicine, etc.

From what I got through our phone call was that since the legalization, there has been an abundance of people moving for the hemp production of more household products and medicines. They told me that in their own home most of what they use is hemp based, there are stores that are hemp based in Colorado regarding many household appliances. This includes hair products, skin care; almost anything they own is some hemp lineage. When listening to them rants on why they believe the movement should be pushed forward with more velocity. I got a sense of just where hemp was making its mark in the lives of people it affected directly. Hemp is a movement that is swept under the rug for most people and its obvious why for most of the country because this is a delicate topic. Just hearing from those that had seen the movement and had been directly affected by it showed me that it can make lives easier for those in the anthropocene it takes on so many shapes and forms that it is inevitably going to makes a mark in this world and last until the end of time. Why do I believe this because it is so hard to ignore with all that it can do that we would be ignorant not to use it for its greatest uses and get over the fact that it is labeled as a controlled substance regarding its natural state.

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Community outreach

My idea for my community outreach is to acquire those hemp notebooks, pass them around campus and inside place facts about hemp regarding our atmosphere in relations to carbon with using trees for paper and showing how hemp can be a better source.

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Reading: Nadar, Barriers to thinking new about energy

When reading this I could just see how this was in relation to my topic on the fact that most of the people who had differences with her wouldn’t even give up there stubborn ideas to even listen to her which is a part of the problem with hemp today. Most people that grew up seeing it as a taboo have had that thought installed in them for so long that they are stubborn to the fact that there are good uses in hemp not just what the media shows of it. With people having limited personal experience with the pros of hemp it is easy to see how people are blind to the fact that there are more uses then what they know of. I could feel what Nadar was going through when in her line of work, when you have a message but people wont take the time to listen to you its discouraging and almost disrespectful because all you want to do is help. With the movement becoming bigger now since the birth of legalization I hope people don’t stay blind to the fact that there is more good then bad when it comes to hemp.

 

Hemp vs. Oil

In the movies we watched this week I couldn’t help but compare how similar these are to people. They both involve tons of money and benefits those that are associated with it. Yet the one that is doing the worst amount of damage is and has been legal since it was discovered. Yet hemp is illegal because it can outlast all the other resources we have and do less damage if any to our earth. With reference to trees which is where my main argument about hemp began. We use show much paper from trees its horrendous. Yet we know that hemp can make just as much and even hundreds of times more paper then trees can. We still dont care we would much rather put tons of carbon in the air and endanger species everywhere and ever our own human population because of ignorance. Our world is so caught up with money it makes me sick. Money is there and then it is isn’t you won’t have it forever. This world is what we have, this is way more important then some piece of paper that was deemed worthy of some value. Our world is priceless and we need to take much better care of it and use resources that are truly beneficial and not just because we want to line our pockets with money. The movement is coming and its going to be big because this is the time where everyone can lend and voice to make our world a much better place.

Where I am and where I want to be

So far in my long journey through this class I have come to see that my progress so far has not been what I had intended for it to be. Its hard to put my voice out there and get a message across with such a touchy subject as marijuana/hemp is a hot topic as of late because of the legalizations and there still being fought with by the federal government. Over the past few months I have reached out to Colorado officials such as the treasury. I wanted to ask her questions about what has happened to their revenue since the legalization and if that in it self has caused other revenue streams to up rise because hemp can be interchanged with many items people use everyday. Frankly it would cost a whole lot less to, for the producers and consumers. I also have tried to reach out to company in Colorado that turns hemp into paper. I sent it out about 2 weeks ago and am still hopeful for a reply. Even if I don’t get one I wont see this as a failure this class really opened my eyes to what delivering a messages means. It might not be to hundreds of people but by spreading it around to others has the effect to make change.

This is where my plan of attack is making its turn instead of talking to people of high stature in areas where hemp is legal I have friends that live in Colorado and actually contribute to these funds to make hemp available for all of their household products and even beyond that. Hearing from the locals on the change that it brought not only for their state but also for themselves. Authenticity in my opinion means way more then statistics and numbers. Getting a real reaction from someone who has the ability to make this movement possible. So god willing this next post will be with positivity from hearing from some of my friends and their local friends out there.

I’m illegal why

There is no reason to hide

I am here to stay

Consider a few more facts about hemp: 
• Hemp does not require herbicides or pesticides. 
• Hemp can be grown in a wide range of latitudes and altitudes. 
• Hemp replenishes soil with nutrients and nitrogen, making it an excellent rotational crop. • Hemp controls erosion of the topsoil.
• Hemp converts CO2 to oxygen better than trees.
• Hemp produces more oil than any other crop, which can be used for food, fuel, lubricants, soaps, etc.
• Hemp nut is a very healthy food, being the highest protein crop (after soybean) and high in omega oils.
• Hemp can be used for making plastics, including car parts.
• Hemp makes paper more efficiently and ecologically than  wood, requiring no chemical glues.
• Hemp can be used to make fiberboard.
• Hemp can be used to make paint.
• Hemp can produce bio-fuel and ethanol (better than corn).
• Hemp can be grown more than once per year.
• Hemp fibers can make very strong rope and textiles.

These facts brought to you by: http://www.hemp-technologies.com

These are just a few of what hemp can do for us and save our trees. Also possibly our world.

Music of the Anthropocene

This assignment was more challenging then I thought it would be. It really took time and research to figure out what qualified as a good album/song/band about the Anthropocene. From what I heard most of the music I came across was more rock and alternative type of music. It really stunned me at first just from preconceived notions that I had in my head about what I thought this type of music would be. I must say that I am an old head when it comes to music I love 90s music and how vibrant and out of the box most of it was. Those same feelings are what I feel about this album. The album that I have chosen is from a band called “Being” The title of their album is “Anthropocene”. It is an 11 track album all discussing the problems and solutions to the worlds problems. In this they also talk about single beings and what it can do if you make changes just one by one.

My overall view on this album is that they are trying to say that it is simple task and all it takes is one to make a difference. With relation to the song DNA they refer to everyone being a single being and making their own choices to better themselves and the world. Also dealing with the overwhelming burden of what we are doing to the world and with vary little action. Looking at the collaborations with this band I can see how music really puts a message out there that you have to listen and think about its not just a straight forward message. It takes a while to understand what all they are saying but with research and going to ends to meet the criteria of the music. This band has something special to say and it really resonates with me.

From where I started at the beginning of this class to where I am now I feel that my understanding for the world and why things happen really makes a lot more since. Seeing how we overuse our resources, how we deplete the ones, which are crucial to us and have abundance of resources that either hurt or do nothing for us. The journey I am on is a slow moving process because even my understanding of things is still at a prelim level. But I feel that this album really speaks to where I am and how I feel about certain aspects of our world and the things we do to get here. Mary phipher made a dramatic impression on me with the green boat. I feel that reading her post and watching her video made me realize that actual doing and genuine emotion really pulls people to you to start a movement and with this album I feel that have acquired many followers that understand their message and want to spread it. Another person that made a dramatic impression on me was Klein, his readings about our world and what we do to it without cohesive knowledge really just angers me because we see what were doing but still move slow to act. Thinking about his policies and views I immediately picture him when listening to this album because they discuss all the problems but still there is little movement.

Being-Anthropocene

0:00 – Cosmonaut (Misha Monsoor – Periphery) (Into song that details problems in the world and what there is that we can do to stop it)

5:00 – DNA (Referring to all people and trying to show that change is necessary and it only takes one act for another to follow up)

10:20 – Mindflay (Brian Wade and Josh Clark – Vestascension) (Talks about the older you get the worse the problems are unless you have someone to guide you)

13:44 – Story for a Muse (Your love for the world should triumph to make the choices to make this place better)

18:08 – A Part, Apart (Brian Kohlhoff – An Obscure Signal) (Being there in the world while also being detached from it)

22:48 – Perpetual Groove (Movements to make changes and step in the right direction to become better)

29:56 – Arcane Acedemic (Gabriel Riccio The Grabiel Construct; Travis Orbin; Justin Gosnell – Vestascension)

37:40 – Escape (Patrick Purves – Life on Repeat; I.V. and Royal – The Fresh Republic) (Relating to the world that most want to escape from the scrutiny, the shame and the doubt things will change but it takes time and patience to realize things will happen if you make them happen)

44:04 – Sorrow (Andy Gruhin) (The guilt that most talk and feel is felt by many)

49:09 – Air Atlantic (Spencer Sotelo – Periphery)

53:20 – The Singularity – Terrans I

59:15 – The Singularity – Cosmists II (Kento Watanabe)

(The last two songs are mirror images of each other discussing the fact that it only takes one man/women to make a difference and being one that is singled out in doing so shows that even though its only one person that it still makes a big difference).

 

The observation and plan

I sit and observe what we do in class every Monday and Wednesday we come up with ideas and think of ways to make the world we live in better. We are so powerful with our words and honestly if people outside of this class could observe you would see an increase in people actually inputting their position on climate change. Ways they would be is obviously and most forthcoming is this class. The other week we had a student sit in this class that didn’t pay for it, didn’t have an association to this class or anything of that nature. If you didn’t notice he stayed nearly the entire time and took and interest in what we all had to say, because we all showed enthusiasm and that there showed him that there is a voice of who he could put input. This really showed me that voices could make a difference. Maybe that next day he recycled his cans maybe took a shorter shower. These are things that he could of done just because of this class.

This made me think that what if I could talk to public officials of Colorado and the other states and see what groups that have popped up in their states with the hemp legalization and how much they’ve done. What could I do to contribute to that? In every post that is one thing I feel I am missing I need a source to which I can get my voice out and relate to people in other states like Kansas and show that even though the officials view what they see as right as wrong it doesn’t matter voices speak volumes to those that can follow.

“Marijuana plant is a hemp plant
It’s used for many other things than just smoking’
One acre of hemp produces four times as much paper than an acre of trees”

These are rap lyrics from the pot influenced rap group cypress hill, when you think of rap you probably think of thugs just smoking and drinking talking about drugs and gang violence. At least in the media that’s what they want you to think. This group originated in the late 80’s and early 90’s and was speaking on this when climate change was a scarce topic and they were speaking through lyrics that people thought of as profane and derogatory. The point of this post is that there are so many outlets that allow you to show a voice I asked the question of what could I do but I feel that my question is already answered I just wanted to show that there is always an answer regardless of what

outlet you use a voice is a voice and today that means something.

My plan I hope to implement is a seminar or active awareness program that can be established with other tree hemp movements and hope to correlate with them and extend what they do to other places obviously where we live but hopefully it catches fire in other areas.

As of right now Colorado has most if not all the power on this movement with where it is geographically. Also even though this is a double-sided statement the tree crisis from the bugs out in Colorado right now is causing problems for our atmosphere with relation to carbon but this now opens up the door for a relief with the hemp paper solution which could string line into being a permanent use which then helps us in the long run with deforestation and preserving the lands we use to have before the destruction of it.

 

 

Putting the right foot forward

Klein’s book really painted a good picture for me in the sense of what a community or even a country can do to put themselves in the right path to make a difference in an otherwise dwindling world. She paints the picture of a Germany coming together to make a change in terms of their energy source. They strayed away from privatization after the country had sold them out in the 1990s. It came to a vote in 2013 and from there it has been nothing but change, especially in cities like Frankfurt and Munich, which she specifically cites in her book. I look at this and feel optimistic that there can be change. All it takes is a voice and a willing collective group of people willing to make all their goals one.

Looking at our forest you can see them depleting. You can see them rotting away in vast tree graves yards. However, there is hope. Taking a look at Colorado and the success that the state has stumbled upon, which might be one of the biggest moves made since the legalization of marijuana. The state has now put its own stamp on hemp paper and has a website – treefreehemp.com. This is the state  coming in and taking advantage of what is readily available, which brings me to this question.

(Why fight something that brings a solution for the trees but is still somewhat viewed as taboo?

Does big government deserve to put a hand in this? There are so many pros and cons to this situation that now its just a side in which you stand on. I personally feel that this would hold us back because with the government, it is never a straight forward deal. I see a lot of money being used for the wrong things and exploiting the money faucet that is ultimately on full blast right now. It’s a slippery slope when you think about government helping with something they are fighting because of the money and also the war on drugs. Over time, government help would be good but ultimately relying on them would be foolish and send us back into the same state we are now.