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Why This Plant Could Save the World

Provided by: Our Changing Climate |Published on: April 27, 2021

Videos

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Synopsis

This video from Our Changing Climate explains how hemp, a non-psychoactive strain of cannabis, can sequester large amounts of carbon, improve soil quality, and be used to produce a wide range of products.
Students will learn that American farmers stopped growing hemp in the early 1900s because of its association with psychoactive cannabis use.
Hemp farming is now on the rise again, but some fear that the surge in interest will lead to unsustainable farming techniques.

Subjects: Economics, Civics, History

Authors: Our Changing Climate

Region: Asia, Europe, Middle East, North America, United States

Languages: English

Positives

The video is broken up into labeled sections, making it easy to navigate.
The video description contains a link for "further reading and resources", offering a wide variety of articles and videos that will help students learn more about the topics covered in the video.
This in-depth look at hemp covers history, economics, science, climate justice, and human rights topics.

Prerequisites

The video contains commercials or ads.
The content of the video ends at 10:52, and the rest of the video is sponsored content.
Students will need to be familiar with the terms psychoactive, cannabis, weed, sequester, crop rotation, commodities, and regenerative farming.

Differentiation & Implementation

Social studies and history classes can make a timeline (digital or paper) detailing the history of hemp farming.
Science and math classes can learn more about carbon sequestration using Trees From Thin Air, a video and activity that quantifies the amount of carbon a tree can sequester by measuring its circumference.
Economics and ethics classes can discuss how the cotton and nylon industries played a role in the destruction of the hemp market.
Social studies classes can learn more about the Tribal Hemp Initiative and the positive economic and environmental effects that hemp farming could have on Indigenous communities.
Other resources on this topic include this Hot Mess video on the importance of soil and this experiment about soil and the carbon cycle.

Scientist Notes

Teaching Tips

Standards

Resource Type and Format

All resources can be used for your educational purposes with proper attribution to the content provider.