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A salty weed killer
Dear Reader,
Our Bluedot Living Canada editors recently reported on the decision of the town Terrasse-Vaudreuil to recognize trees as living beings with rights of their own, deserving of the chance to grow, flourish, and be protected.
“The town’s resolution, declared June 9, came about thanks to Quebec filmmaker André Desrochers and his film, Des arbes et des arts,” they wrote. “We know, from the work of Suzanne Simard, a Canadian forestry scientist and conservationist, that symbiotic fungal networks among trees’ root systems (think of our own neural pathways) allow them to interact with each other, sharing not just food and water, but also warning signals and messages. And older trees recognize their offspring, prioritizing their well-being. So it wasn’t much of a leap to see trees as worthy of rights, according to the citizens of Terrasse-Vaudreuil.”
Dot is cheering the resolution. Trees are climate superheroes — capturing and storing carbon and providing life-saving shade. But they’re also worthy of our love just for being, as this group of students discovered.
But there’s another interesting aspect of this story — these townspeople were inspired to lobby for trees because of a film. This speaks to the power of art to shift minds, to inspire action, something Adam Leipzig, award-winning producer of March of the Penguins knows plenty about. Don’t miss Bluedot’s Imagine If … podcast episode with Adam to learn just how pivotal his films have been in generating change.
Protectively,
Dot
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