Reflections ~
The Landman Hempire
Fire and Hurricane Proof Hempcrete Could Build Houses and help Save the Planet.
by Dolores Halbin, RN, BSN, contributing writer
One of the first rules of battle is“ know your enemy.” After resisting through the first season, the draw of Billy Bob Thornton and Sam Elliot pulled me into“ Landman.” In season one, episode one, Billy Bob’ s character, Landman Tommy Norris, introduces us to oil.
“ Oil and Gas Industry makes 3 billion dollars a day in pure profit. Generates over 4.3 trillion dollars a year in revenue. It is the seventh largest industry in the world, ranked ahead of food production, automobile production, coal mining, and at 1.4 trillion, the pharmaceutical industry doesn’ t even crack the top ten. The industries listed ahead of oil and gas are completely dependent on oil and gas. The more they grow, the more we grow. That’ s the scale. That’ s the size of this thing. And it’ s only getting bigger.”
The series isn’ t so much to promote fossil fuels as to educate, with an emphasis on oil workers having the most dangerous jobs on earth. I always Google any new series to make sure they aren’ t going to kill off the main characters, and we are safe so far into season two, but a lot of extras die. Throughout the series, the question of sustainability comes up.
In episode three, newly hired petroleum attorney, Rebeca, played by Kayla Wallace, is having a crisis of conscience defending something she not only doesn’ t believe in, but believes will be the death of us all, when
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Tommy gives her an education on energy production, and takes her to the wind farm.
“ They use clean energy to power the wells?” asks Rebecca.
( Declaimer: If you’ ve watched this show, then you’ ll know the actors drop F-bombs in nearly every other sentence. Be prepared.)
“ They use alternative energy,” Tommy answers. He explains how the wind farms provide electricity to the gas wells because the entire area is off the grid, and how much fossil fuel is used to build a wind farm. He continues,“ And unfortunately for your grandkids, we have a 120-year petroleum-based infrastructure. Our whole lives depend on it. And hell, it’ s in everything. That road you came in on, the wheels on every car ever made, including yours, tennis rackets, lipstick, refrigerators, antihistamines, pretty much anything plastic, cell phone cases, artificial heart valves, any kind of clothing not made of animal or plant fibers, soap, f ** king hand lotion, garbage bags, fishing boats, you name it— every f ** king thing. And you know what the kicker is? We’ re going to run out of it before we find a replacement.”
“ It’ s in the thing that is going to kill us all— as a species,” retorts the Lawyer,
“ No, the thing that’ s going to kill us is running out before we find an alternative,” Tommy replies.
Oh, But There Is …
This time last year, on the rare occasions when an advertising or educational post about anything hemp came across my news feed, I tagged folks to share it. Everything on the internet is an algorithm, and the more a post gets shared, the more the program looks for more similar posts to share.
One year later, hemp posts make up almost everything I see in my newsfeed: hempcrete, hempwood, hemp houses, hemp clothing, and diapers. Today, my first hemp-related post was from Interstellar Scientist, with the headline“ Freedom Flower, New Era Dawns for Cannabis in the USA.” This was followed by the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council, which shared the message:“ Eat more hemp.” Then, the Gospel of Hemp promoted the benefits of nourishing the endocannabinoid system.