The Right to Life for Plants... the silent species

The original post for The Right to Life for Plants is here.

Plants are the underdog of rights.
We view plants through the what-can-they-do-for-us optic:
that plants give us food, a sense of well-being, visions of beauty,
herbs for our medicines, materials for a number of goods,
oxygen for us to breathe, etc.

The common "plants are here for us to consume-as-we-please" attitude.

But this perspective distracts us from the real one:
that all species are part of a solidly-linked, complex ecosystem.

In addition, the taxonomy classification system (invented by Carl  Linnaeus in 1753)
 enforces the separation of species, rather than unifying all life as a whole.
Links are broken.
All life is separate, named and classified.

The "all life is interconnected & codependent" attitude.
(Photo credit: Hengki Koentzhoro)

I declare the Right to Life for Plants,
the silent underdog of species.
Re-consider the "weed."

Save an acre of rainforest here.
Adopt a seed, save a species, here.

The Right to Life for Plants

All plants,

for whom I speak as these life forms cannot speak for themselves,

have the right to life.

Jasmine flower and sky

Indiscriminate cutting, pruning, or harm to plants is unethical and immoral.

May all plants have the right to life.


Unfortunately, in the hierarchy of beings,
plants are the underdog,
after humans and after animals, forgotten and ignored by most.
Without eyes, legs, brain, heart,
they are such a different species than us.
Furthermore, they are defenseless.

We need to change our perspective on how we view them:
manifest destiny and conquest of the wild are 19th century ideas.
Plants are life
and we are co-dependent with them.
We must coexist.

More on the Right to Life for Plants is here.