The “dehumanised” politicians and business leaders attending COP26 in Glasgow won’t solve climate change, because they cannot, says Green Revolution founder Attila Suba. He has a better idea and it can be summed up in one word: hemp.
The crop’s capacity to support food security and end the worst labour practices around cobalt mining in Africa need urgent adoption, he says.
In video
- How does hemp act as a food source?
- Why are politicians and billionaires ill equipped to solve the climate crisis at COP26?
- Watch the full interview here.
A professional blues singer, Attila Suba studied economics, social psychology and philosophy.
He says cognitive science explains the inability of politicians and business to fix climate change, “Social behaviour studies prove that when you get richer you distance yourself from society and also from your capacity to relate to human emotions.
“So your compassion disappears – that’s the dehumanisation process. It’s a huge obstacle when it comes to finding solutions because climate change is emotionally involving.
“The politicians have a different perspective than other people so they are never going to fully solve this. They can help. I want everybody to help.
“The radical change that we are proposing here is transforming how we think about business, what business is for and how we can use business to be a force for good.
“You can make milk, bread, oils, even hemp cheese. Hemp can replace fish nutritionally”
“Hemp is a great commodity. It creates more value through the chain. People in business will see this. Industrial hemp can provide lots of solutions including food and food security.
“It can clean water, revitalise land, provide food and also homes. One hundred grams of hemp seeds contains 555 calories. It is rich in proteins, fats and all the amino acids that you need.
“It contains vitamin C, D, A and E. Hemp is kind of a super food, you can live on hemp seeds. You can make milk, bread, different oils, so there are multiple ways it can be used, even hemp cheese.
“It’s an all-in food. Hemp can provide the same nutritional value as fish, to help prevent over-fishing.
“We are looking for systemic solutions and hemp can be used in regenerative agricultural practices. It enriches the soil, adding nutrients and aerating the soil.
“It can be a rotational crop. So you enhance the soil for other crops.
“When it comes to people who don’t have clean drinking water or are living in hunger hemp can be planted anywhere, it doesn’t need water, pesticides, herbicides, so it’s a natural building block of our nature solutions.
“Our goal is to raise 100 million euros in the first year through coffee shops”
The Green Revolution movement Attila Suba has founded supports this approach with hours of scientific video content – including Quota’s recent UN Food Systems Summit side event.
“At Green Revolution everything we say and do is based on sciences, when it comes to cognitive sciences, climate sciences, hemp and sustainable sciences, agriculture – it’s all a scientific method,” he says.
Now he’s looking to found a franchise of coffee shops, raising funds for climate change solutions, including the use of hemp to support regenerative agriculture and food security.
“We’re looking for 3 million euros to buy the coffee shop that we’ve found in Amsterdam,” he says.
“Then, our goal is to raise 100 million euros in the first year through coffee shops and put these funds into the areas which are impacted, where people are suffering around the world.
“We are focussing on farmers and the farming community. When we talk to farmers, they are very keen to use hemp to solve their problems.
“We will create community events explaining how to grow hemp and make your own biochar, clean your water, make your own homes.
“In 1941 Henry Ford presented a car powered by and largely built by hemp”
“You burn hemp to create biochar which is a natural fertiliser, and biofuels, which you can put into any engine. So that creates independence from fossil fuels.”
In 1941 Henry Ford presented a car powered by and largely built by hemp. That year, Popular Mechanics described the work as “a step toward materialisation of Henry Ford’s belief that someday he would grow automobiles from the soil.”
Another untapped possibility is hemp’s use in batteries to power electronics such as phones, laptops and tablets which are currently powered by lithium that requires cobalt – a mineral mined in appalling conditions and highly criticised for its use of child labour.
“We can make hemp batteries so we can stop all the lithium mining which is not just environmentally destructive but connected to wars and child labour,” says Attila Suba.
“Ninety per cent of the European Union see the climate emergency as a serious problem. Eighty per cent of people living in developing countries are ready to change the way they work and live when it comes to the climate emergency.
“People are ready to change and they are looking for solutions. Everybody is asking how, with their purchases they can contribute, how their choices can be more conscious.
“Social science explains that everybody wants to see themselves in a good light. So whenever you do something good, like you buy something that has a positive impact, you want to create that feeling again and again and again.
“We are not about promoting drugs. We are about transforming the economic system”
“So every time you use your credit card you plant hemp. That’s how consumption comes in. The coffee shop will be where people can see how much money has gone into funding these projects and connect with them. We’re going to change perspectives through consumption.
“The meeting place, the culture, and the place of change is going to be the coffee shop.
“Cannabis is a booming market and legalisation is happening all around the globe. People are shifting their perspectives on hemp, mostly the young generation. I think I have obligation, a duty to spread climate action and awareness and the best way to do this is to create a franchise. They are easy to spread. We created an international foundation franchise model.
“We want to partner up with brands that have an impact. Not just making more money for the sake of it, but where the product has a positive impact on climate, on society. We are not about promoting the use of drugs. We are about how we can transform the economic system.
“When it comes to the climate emergency we cannot solve this problem with greed. Against greed there is only giving.
“With Green Revolution I put together a solution matrix. Scientists are saying that we have to mobilise our societies, transform how we live, work, travel, eat, every aspect of our lives because we have a huge impact on the planet.
“The scientists are also saying that we need to be capturing CO2 in a very quick manner and in a fashion never done before.
“If we don’t capture CO2, restructure the way we produce, we are not going to survive”
“When it comes to building a hemp skyscraper, which is possible, it captures CO2 for the next 50 to 100 years, it’s a breathing home which is fire resistant.
“If we don’t start capturing CO2, if we don’t restructure the way we produce, then we are not going to survive, that’s what the scientists say.
“Hemp can produce 10 times as much paper in a 20 year time scale than a tree. So, hemp is going to be bigger than the computer. Nature is the best technology we have.
“When it comes to the climate emergency there are already communities being impacted by extreme weather events and hunger.
“The most immediate action will be to support relief projects in Haiti and Madagascar. That’s going to be the most important thing we do at the beginning. But we do also want to fund artists, concerts, festivals, people getting together to talk about the climate issues.
“We belong to a wonderful team of scientists, it’s not just me”
“We want the money to start flowing from the first world to the developing world where there is already a catastrophe happening.
“We have an amazing team. It’s not just me doing this. More than 60 people contributed to the Green Revolution in the last year.
“We have a great advisor Alicia Fall and her Many Voices Foundation, she’s coming to Amsterdam to support Green Revolution and hemp.
“We are part of team of wonderful scientists. We belong to XPrize – Drawdown Hemp, an international team of scientists. Our focus is agriculture. Our research is connected through many universities’ sustainability departments in the US.
“We are a member of the Wellbeing Economic Alliance. And we are also by Catalyst 2030 which is pushing for social development goals. So we have a huge network and lots of great people.”
- Attila Suba will be pitching his project at the Circular Society Connects virtual event tomorrow, October 28, organised by The EA Project. Led by Chantal Amador, these events match sustainable projects to investors, experts in complementary industries and NGOs to accelerate collaborations and the development of these projects around the globe. Attendees are also matched together depending on their needs and synergies.
Attila Suba says, “It’s a really important thing now. When it comes to the climate emergency, business knows that if we don’t change radically, we are not doing to be doing any business any longer.
“Business is waking up and looking for sustainable projects. So the EA matchmaking project is amazing and necessary.”
Attila Suba will be attending COP26, to meet up with him, email attila.suba@greenrevolution.earth.
