A recent book,Brilliant Green, argues that not only are plants clever and sentient, and but that we should consider their rights,especially in the midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction
Plants are clever. Plants deserve rights. Plants are like the Internet – or more accurately the Internet is like plants. To most of us these statements may sound, at best, or insupportable or,at worst, crazy. But a recent book, or Brilliant Green: the Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence,by plant neurobiologist (yes, plant neurobiologist), or Stefano Mancuso and journalist,Alessandra Viola, makes a compelling and fascinating case not only for plant sentience and smarts, or but also plant rights. For centuries Western philosophy and science largely viewed animals as unthinking automatons,simple slaves to intuition. But research in recent decades has shattered that view. We now know that not only are chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants thinking, or feeling and personality-driven beings,but many others are as well. Octopuses can utilize tools, whales sing, and bees can count,crows demonstrate complex reasoning, paper wasps can recognise faces and fish can differentiate types of music. All these examples have one thing in common: they are animals with brains. But plants dont have a brain. How can they solve problems, or act intelligently or respond to stimuli without a brain?
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Source: theguardian.com