After 28 years as a blue collar rank and file labor activist, I went back to school; degree in botany, forestry minor. Since I'd grown up in western WA forests and around Native culture, I assumed everyone knew the basics. It was a shock to find people in my classes, born and raised in outdoorsy Seattle, couldn't even identify the dominant tree species (Douglas-fir.) The colonist attitude of living on top of the land with no roots in it. No wonder we have ecological crises.
Trees grow in obligate symbiosis with fungi on their roots. Where they connect is the mycorrhizosphere, a complex area of thousands of different species interacting. With my old union and political background, it was obvious to me this alone meant cooperation was the most common mode of life on Earth, not competition. And there are many other symbioses, including in and on the human body. The text abbreviation IRL is totally appropriate here.
For a very long time biological research had strict rules about maintaining scientific objectivity as if observer weren't part of what's observed. Quantum physics said that's not so; biology has finally caught up in the last couple of decades. But there is still a warning about anthropomorphizing-- a fine line since how do we not think like humans? So the current research that seems to show plant intelligence is a huge controversy. Yet logically, no matter how much this upsets rationalists and empiricists, it can't be ruled out a priori. Then add mystical experiences, the sensing of what seem to me to be collective entities, maybe some sort of energy field of tree species and/or maybe the entire local mycorrhizosphere. I didn't say they ARE that because each of us interprets signals through our senses, brain functions, personal psychology, cultures, Mind, etc.
Point is it all adds up to some very good reasons why nature should have rights. It's not like we're external to it. Plus there's that little matter of how plants produce the oxygen we animals need to live. However, it directly challenges the the dominant econopathy, that among its many flaws is the concept of externalities--that devastation of human communities and destruction of ecosystems don't count. What does is profit. Period. Thus the disembodied, artificial "person" the corporation, which doesn't eat, breathe, feel, or care, is a monster. A warning about AI, too.
It was about 30 years ago the wise old meatcutter who introduced me to thelowdown showed me how trees and plants were turning up their leaves when they sensed rain in a dry spell. Plants do sense and react, we definitly do need them for oxygen and shade .where can they get a good lawyer ?
That's interesting! Good to know about, thanks. Was that guy locally raised? From an old farmer family and/or traditional hunters who learn to be observant? And why did you listen to some old guy?
I'd look in the green pages for a lawyer. Or "Ent Times" blog.
Seriously, though, click on that 1st link at the end of Jim's post; there's as story there about Tribal rights where attorneys are at work. And a WI legislative bill.
He was a backwoods kind of guy from w. Virginia a hunter who could make his own bullets but disliked the n.r.a. the lawyer question was more philasophical, sadly there are probably more lawyers getting paid to work against nature and nature needs more legal recources than ever. I recomend the natural recource defense council i supported them during W's term,they do a lot of court work. Also public citizen.
wonderful! and what a good idea! now to convince the three branches of government—although it seems more and more that there is a single branch—perched on by the birds of prey
Such common sense will not take hold here I fear. We can't even make a humanitarian dent in factory farming practices or something as disgusting as puppy mills. Sorry, I am having a bit of a LOD (low optimism day) ...but it will be short lived. Thanks for the heartening read Jim.
Excellent points as it is the corporate structure running the machines that see only money. We need to bring our renewable resources and sustainable development into our industry and our city empires. As long as the GNP is based on how cheaply and quickly our natural resources can be harvested our life supporting habitats on Earth are threatened. Protect and Preserve OUR Natural Resources, National Parks and Federal Lands Not for sale or lease!
Ah, but trees DO speak--extensive research has demonstrated that trees communicate with each other through underground networks, warning of invading pests, fire, and other dangers. The problem is they don't communicate with the billionaires who make the rules.
Trees also communicate through airborne chemical signals. In addition, there is quite a bit of scientifically valid research that can be interpreted as evidence for plant intelligence, much of which is available in books by researchers. Plus the testimony of us mystics over millennia.
As I wrote, the dominant mode of life on Earth is cooperative. Whereas the economic system, contrary to the reality every corporation functions because of all its workers, operates on the belief the only people who count are the very rich, very powerful, selfish few. Justified by the beneficiaries as the result of competition. Who also, as you said, make the the rules.
Since in the U.S. the Supreme Court deemed that Corporations were People in the Citizens United decision, then Mother Nature should definitely have a voice. A big one!
Way before that; Santa Clara (CA county) v. Southern Pacific (railroad) 1883. Not even by a court decision, merely a statement in the header (intro paragraph) that for this case the corporation will considered to have Constitutional rights as all persons do. Which set a precedent. Next was 1976 Buckley v. Valeo; money spent for political campaigns was a type of 1st Amendment free speech.
That Mother Nature, forests, salmon, don't have rights while inanimate abstractions do is disgusting. Which ones do we have to have to live?
I could not agree more that all of nature should have a bill of rights and lawyers to speak for them. The first inhabitants of North America developed this idea fully in their communities and their religion, which served them well until the Europeans invaded their world with very different notions about nature. Perhaps at least some of us Euro immigrants have lived in this beautiful & sacred land long enough to begin to understand it in a better light, and to start thinking about the rights of other life, about protection and conservation, about the future of our children unto the seventh generation, just as the indigenous Americans did.
JIM::: I have thought this same way for a number of years. You have made the "legal" argument irrefutable. EXCELLENT. (I once wrote a poem about the Missouri River in which I name her "Goddess in Chains " (the 7 damn dams which harness her!!) Also, I appreciate the Native American reference to Nature as our MOTHER. We are killing our MOTHER on whom we are utterly dependent. While the world burns we pour Carbon to make it burn faster!!
And not to mention the lifeforms (microbes, etc.) that we cannot see. Those that form the foundation of our ecosystem and food chain. We consuming humans all do damage, but some way more than others. And of course, long ago some dominant society granted itself the right to own the Earth.
Yes! To the right of nature and our fellow creatures to exist! This is absolutely foundational in guiding a compassionate and righteous path for humanity on this planet. The last mountain to be scaled in the eternal fight for life, liberty and happiness against those who wish only to exploit others, and will harm or destroy anyone or anything to serve and profit themselves.
Corporate types should get out their unread copy of John Locke's Second Treatise of Government and read his definition of "private property". Locke was a firm believer in "terra omnium". The world belongs in common to all mankind, and if you desire to carve out a portion of some natural resource for your own private use you must do so by your own labor AND (this is the critical part) you must leave behind in common as much and as good of whatever you expropriated for others to use as they see fit. So if you covet the Koh-i-Noor diamond for your personal adornment, you must leave behind sufficient diamonds of equal size, clarity and color for others to take, and they, in turn, must assure that "as much and as good" diamonds remain untouched in a state of Nature. If you are throwing a pizza party, there must always be enough pizza left over, uneaten, for some nameless wanderer to feast upon. Now trees grow and grow old, and eventually must be replaced by new trees. So if you cut down a tree to use it for lumber, you must replace it. You can't go around destroying stuff just for giggles. You are a steward of Nature. You are responsible for keeping the resources provided by Nature available to everyone else in the whole wide world. Especially the everyone else you are not particularly fond of. Remember the words in the Declaration of Independence: "... all Men are created equal ... endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." That's all people everywhere folks, including any colonists that Elon sends to Mars. Let's update Locke to "omne omnibus pertinet" - everything belongs to everyone. We all must share in Nature's bounty.
The US Constitution mandates protection of its citizens by elected officials who take an oath of office to do so.The most serious threats to our well being and health do not come from foreign invaders but from polluters of the air we breathe ,the water we drink and the food we eat.We even had entities to enforce then regulations....until the Trump administration colluded with industry,to end enforcement and shorten our lives.
After 28 years as a blue collar rank and file labor activist, I went back to school; degree in botany, forestry minor. Since I'd grown up in western WA forests and around Native culture, I assumed everyone knew the basics. It was a shock to find people in my classes, born and raised in outdoorsy Seattle, couldn't even identify the dominant tree species (Douglas-fir.) The colonist attitude of living on top of the land with no roots in it. No wonder we have ecological crises.
Trees grow in obligate symbiosis with fungi on their roots. Where they connect is the mycorrhizosphere, a complex area of thousands of different species interacting. With my old union and political background, it was obvious to me this alone meant cooperation was the most common mode of life on Earth, not competition. And there are many other symbioses, including in and on the human body. The text abbreviation IRL is totally appropriate here.
For a very long time biological research had strict rules about maintaining scientific objectivity as if observer weren't part of what's observed. Quantum physics said that's not so; biology has finally caught up in the last couple of decades. But there is still a warning about anthropomorphizing-- a fine line since how do we not think like humans? So the current research that seems to show plant intelligence is a huge controversy. Yet logically, no matter how much this upsets rationalists and empiricists, it can't be ruled out a priori. Then add mystical experiences, the sensing of what seem to me to be collective entities, maybe some sort of energy field of tree species and/or maybe the entire local mycorrhizosphere. I didn't say they ARE that because each of us interprets signals through our senses, brain functions, personal psychology, cultures, Mind, etc.
Point is it all adds up to some very good reasons why nature should have rights. It's not like we're external to it. Plus there's that little matter of how plants produce the oxygen we animals need to live. However, it directly challenges the the dominant econopathy, that among its many flaws is the concept of externalities--that devastation of human communities and destruction of ecosystems don't count. What does is profit. Period. Thus the disembodied, artificial "person" the corporation, which doesn't eat, breathe, feel, or care, is a monster. A warning about AI, too.
OMG--that's one of the best pieces of writing yet! I humbly thank you.
It was about 30 years ago the wise old meatcutter who introduced me to thelowdown showed me how trees and plants were turning up their leaves when they sensed rain in a dry spell. Plants do sense and react, we definitly do need them for oxygen and shade .where can they get a good lawyer ?
That's interesting! Good to know about, thanks. Was that guy locally raised? From an old farmer family and/or traditional hunters who learn to be observant? And why did you listen to some old guy?
I'd look in the green pages for a lawyer. Or "Ent Times" blog.
Seriously, though, click on that 1st link at the end of Jim's post; there's as story there about Tribal rights where attorneys are at work. And a WI legislative bill.
He was a backwoods kind of guy from w. Virginia a hunter who could make his own bullets but disliked the n.r.a. the lawyer question was more philasophical, sadly there are probably more lawyers getting paid to work against nature and nature needs more legal recources than ever. I recomend the natural recource defense council i supported them during W's term,they do a lot of court work. Also public citizen.
wonderful! and what a good idea! now to convince the three branches of government—although it seems more and more that there is a single branch—perched on by the birds of prey
Such common sense will not take hold here I fear. We can't even make a humanitarian dent in factory farming practices or something as disgusting as puppy mills. Sorry, I am having a bit of a LOD (low optimism day) ...but it will be short lived. Thanks for the heartening read Jim.
Finally! a common sense approach to the fundamentally wrong and destructive citizens united.
Joan Ragan
"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lorax
Excellent points as it is the corporate structure running the machines that see only money. We need to bring our renewable resources and sustainable development into our industry and our city empires. As long as the GNP is based on how cheaply and quickly our natural resources can be harvested our life supporting habitats on Earth are threatened. Protect and Preserve OUR Natural Resources, National Parks and Federal Lands Not for sale or lease!
Ah, but trees DO speak--extensive research has demonstrated that trees communicate with each other through underground networks, warning of invading pests, fire, and other dangers. The problem is they don't communicate with the billionaires who make the rules.
Trees also communicate through airborne chemical signals. In addition, there is quite a bit of scientifically valid research that can be interpreted as evidence for plant intelligence, much of which is available in books by researchers. Plus the testimony of us mystics over millennia.
As I wrote, the dominant mode of life on Earth is cooperative. Whereas the economic system, contrary to the reality every corporation functions because of all its workers, operates on the belief the only people who count are the very rich, very powerful, selfish few. Justified by the beneficiaries as the result of competition. Who also, as you said, make the the rules.
Since in the U.S. the Supreme Court deemed that Corporations were People in the Citizens United decision, then Mother Nature should definitely have a voice. A big one!
Way before that; Santa Clara (CA county) v. Southern Pacific (railroad) 1883. Not even by a court decision, merely a statement in the header (intro paragraph) that for this case the corporation will considered to have Constitutional rights as all persons do. Which set a precedent. Next was 1976 Buckley v. Valeo; money spent for political campaigns was a type of 1st Amendment free speech.
That Mother Nature, forests, salmon, don't have rights while inanimate abstractions do is disgusting. Which ones do we have to have to live?
I could not agree more that all of nature should have a bill of rights and lawyers to speak for them. The first inhabitants of North America developed this idea fully in their communities and their religion, which served them well until the Europeans invaded their world with very different notions about nature. Perhaps at least some of us Euro immigrants have lived in this beautiful & sacred land long enough to begin to understand it in a better light, and to start thinking about the rights of other life, about protection and conservation, about the future of our children unto the seventh generation, just as the indigenous Americans did.
JIM::: I have thought this same way for a number of years. You have made the "legal" argument irrefutable. EXCELLENT. (I once wrote a poem about the Missouri River in which I name her "Goddess in Chains " (the 7 damn dams which harness her!!) Also, I appreciate the Native American reference to Nature as our MOTHER. We are killing our MOTHER on whom we are utterly dependent. While the world burns we pour Carbon to make it burn faster!!
And not to mention the lifeforms (microbes, etc.) that we cannot see. Those that form the foundation of our ecosystem and food chain. We consuming humans all do damage, but some way more than others. And of course, long ago some dominant society granted itself the right to own the Earth.
Yes! To the right of nature and our fellow creatures to exist! This is absolutely foundational in guiding a compassionate and righteous path for humanity on this planet. The last mountain to be scaled in the eternal fight for life, liberty and happiness against those who wish only to exploit others, and will harm or destroy anyone or anything to serve and profit themselves.
Nature surely should have that right. So what do we do about this? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/climate/endangered-species-act-harm.html
Apparently, this rule change totally guts the Endangered Species Act.
TY Hightower, you absolutely know I'm sharing this one 🙂💚🌾🌵🌴🌳🌲🏞️
Corporate types should get out their unread copy of John Locke's Second Treatise of Government and read his definition of "private property". Locke was a firm believer in "terra omnium". The world belongs in common to all mankind, and if you desire to carve out a portion of some natural resource for your own private use you must do so by your own labor AND (this is the critical part) you must leave behind in common as much and as good of whatever you expropriated for others to use as they see fit. So if you covet the Koh-i-Noor diamond for your personal adornment, you must leave behind sufficient diamonds of equal size, clarity and color for others to take, and they, in turn, must assure that "as much and as good" diamonds remain untouched in a state of Nature. If you are throwing a pizza party, there must always be enough pizza left over, uneaten, for some nameless wanderer to feast upon. Now trees grow and grow old, and eventually must be replaced by new trees. So if you cut down a tree to use it for lumber, you must replace it. You can't go around destroying stuff just for giggles. You are a steward of Nature. You are responsible for keeping the resources provided by Nature available to everyone else in the whole wide world. Especially the everyone else you are not particularly fond of. Remember the words in the Declaration of Independence: "... all Men are created equal ... endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." That's all people everywhere folks, including any colonists that Elon sends to Mars. Let's update Locke to "omne omnibus pertinet" - everything belongs to everyone. We all must share in Nature's bounty.
The US Constitution mandates protection of its citizens by elected officials who take an oath of office to do so.The most serious threats to our well being and health do not come from foreign invaders but from polluters of the air we breathe ,the water we drink and the food we eat.We even had entities to enforce then regulations....until the Trump administration colluded with industry,to end enforcement and shorten our lives.