�鶹��ý

Skip to content

Environment

Indoor cannabis farms in US use more energy than all other agriculture

Two-thirds of US cannabis is grown indoors, requiring lights and temperature control that produce a vast amounts of emissions

By James Dinneen

5 February 2025

�鶹��ý. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine. — An indoor cannabis farm in California
Shutterstock/Liudi Hara

Indoor cannabis cultivation in the US uses more energy than all outdoor agriculture in the country combined. This generates a large and growing emissions footprint that often goes unrecognised.

“Consumers are led to believe that this is ‘nature’s medicine’ and that it’s ‘green’ in every sense of the word,” says at Energy Associates, a consultancy in California. “There’s lots of greenwashing.”

Read more

A million years of marijuana: How cannabis became our favourite weed

More than 60 per cent of the 24,000 tonnes of cannabis grown…

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with �鶹��ý events and special offers.

Sign up

or

Existing subscribers

More from �鶹��ý

Explore the latest news, articles and features

Environment

Key ocean current is slowing at locations around the Atlantic

News

Stark photos show quest for profit cutting swathes through the Amazon

Environment

Stark photos show quest for profit cutting swathes through the Amazon

Regulars

Dust rising from combine during crop harvesting, no-till technology professional occupation.

Environment

The Iran war is exposing the huge risks in our food system

Leader

Estuaries near the coast of Guinea?Bissau branch out like a network of roots from a plant. With their long tendrils, the rivers meander through the country?s lowland plains to join the Atlantic Ocean. On the way, they carry water, nutrients, but also sediments out from the land. This natural?color image captures the movement of the sediments as the rivers move east to west. The image was acquired on May 17, 2018, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. The discoloration is most apparent in Rio Geba, which runs past the country?s capital city of Bissau. https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/the-meandering-estuaries-of-guineabissau-92266/

Environment

Oceans are darkening all over the planet – what’s going on?

Features

1

Neanderthal infants were enormous compared with modern humans

2

The biggest threat to Chernobyl is no longer radiation

3

Largest ever map of universe captures 47 million galaxies and quasars

4

Beef is making a comeback – does it fit into a healthy diet?

5

The stunning physics of Project Hail Mary go back to ancient China

6

Exclusive report: Inside Chernobyl, 40 years after nuclear disaster

7

Monkeys walk around a virtual world using only their thoughts

8

Quantum batteries could be charged by reversing time

9

Are Neanderthals descendants of modern humans?

10

How autoimmune conditions can unexpectedly drive mental illness