Understanding plants and animals

Tree branches whisper in a summer breeze, or creak in an icy winter wind, and I wonder if they are talking to each other.

A wolf howls from a far-off hill and I wonder if it is mourning a loss. Perhaps a mate is sick, or a member of the pack has gone missing.

It might seem far-fetched, but there is growing belief that plants and animals have feelings and are capable of expressing them. It is a belief found in a number of recent books.

In his bestselling The Hidden Life of Trees, German forester Peter Wohlleben writes that forests are social networks in which trees communicate with each other. They share food, help members that are struggling and warn of dangers such as invasive insects.

He supports that view with scientific data showing that trees exchange information, nutrients and support through their large and intricate root systems.

In The Wisdom of Wolves, filmmakers Jim and Jamie Dutcher share their observations from living among a partially domesticated wolf pack. Their observations told them that wolves, the world’s most despised and feared animals, are social beings with emotions. They show concern and compassion for other pack members, and even demonstrate grief at the loss of a pack member.

The 400 people attending the annual Forests Ontario conference in Alliston last week heard similar views about plants and animals having feelings. A most interesting view came from Tom Longboat, director of Indigenous studies at Trent University.

Longboat, a Mohawk, said science is beginning to understand that trees and plants are living beings that have spirit and feelings. That’s an understanding that Indigenous people have had for centuries.

“Look at them as creations not just natural resources,” he said in the conference keynote address. “Think of them as relatives. We need them.”

“We live in the most complex time in human history,” he said. It is a time that demands collective efforts to achieve a balance between our lifestyles and the environment.

Combining science and cross-cultural dialogue is one way to achieve that balance. In other words, combine what we learn from science and technology with Indigenous knowledge gathered over centuries.

I take that as a call for more diversity to achieve the balance needed to save our planet. More diversity in forests, animal populations and our own societies.

Diversity is hampered when we try to eradicate species we don’t like or fear, such as  mosquitos and wolves. It is hampered when we reforest with single tree species or when we try to wall off people from other cultures and other countries.

Trees and animals may not have the intellectual abilities of humans but somehow seem to know that diversity is critical to balance in nature. Acres of pines planted in rows do not a forest make because they discourage other plant growth. A mountain range without wolves allows overpopulations of elk and deer to wipe out plants and leafed trees.

The world’s forest area decreased from 31.8 per cent of all global land area to 30.6 per cent between 1990 and 2015. Scientists say that deforestation now is the second leading cause of climate change after burning fossil fuels.

The world needs more trees, plus a better understanding of what they are and why they are important to all forms of life.

Urban areas in particular need more trees, plants, and greenery in general. Studies have shown that not  only do trees and plants absorb urban pollution, they provide relief from the mental fatigue of living in the city.

Roughly 50 per cent of the world’s population lives in urbanized areas yet many of those urban areas have too few trees.

For instance, Myles Sergeant, a Hamilton physician, told the Forests Ontario conference that his city has only 19 per cent tree cover, far below the 30 per cent recommended for cities. He said Hamilton needs one million more trees.

There is evidence of a growing understanding of forests and their importance to all forms of life. There also is some evidence that the rate of world deforestation is slowing slightly, hopefully because of a growing understanding that trees and plants are much more than just a resource.

Positive signs, not just for plants and trees, but for humans.

Police and the Value of Sharing Information

In that bizarre movie Jane Mansfield’s Car, well-known actor Robert Duvall, a nosy citizen, arrives at a traffic accident scene and confidently walks through the police line. He chats with the cops about how the accident occurred.

That scene would never occur in Ontario where police have expanded and tightened their no-go perimeters at investigation scenes. This is disturbing because it is part of a trend by governments to squeeze the public’s right to information.

There are some examples from our own Haliburton County this summer.

There was that fatal shooting at a house on Highway 118 in which the OPP closed off a long section of highway. A media photographer trying to do his job was not allowed to go further than the road shoulder. 

Another OPP officer stonewalled a reporter by saying he couldn’t tell her anything. He brushed off the reporter by saying there was no media relations officer to handle any questions. In other words: get lost.

There also was an OPP investigation on Highway 35 at Saskatchewan Lake. Again a long section of highway was closed while OPP checked out an abandoned car suspected to have been involved in a Lindsay death. Anyone travelling north or south between Carnarvon and Dorset had to detour via the Kushog Lake Road.

Also on 35 just south of Dorset the OPP investigated a fatal car crash and closed the highway so tightly that anyone travelling from Dorset to, say a St. Nora Lake cottage, had to backtrack along Highway 117, go south on 11, then east on 118 and then north on 35. That is a detour of one and one-half hours.

In all three incidents the police gave little or no consideration to public inconvenience or the needs of the news media, which reports to the public.

One of the most ridiculous examples of police over-controlling a situation occurred last fall in Hamilton. Corporal Nathan Cirillo of the Hamilton-based Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders was shot and killed at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

He lived in east Hamilton and Hamilton police sealed off several streets in his neighbourhood. No threat was involved and Cirillo’s killer already had been shot dead on Parliament Hill.

Hamilton police, when asked why such a large area had been sealed off, said it was out of respect for Cirillo’s family. They didn’t want media and citizens in the neighbourhood where the family lived.

Wouldn’t a couple of officers posted on the street outside the home have been enough?

Last month a Toronto police superintendent was found guilty of unnecessary exercise of authority in the arrest of more than 1,000 protesters at the 2010 G20 summit in downtown Toronto. The presiding judge said the superintendent lacked an understanding of the public’s rights.

We all understand that police work is difficult and that there are good reasons for controlling investigation scenes. The problem is that police over control too often, not considering public inconvenience or the public’s right to know.

The real concern here is not about a cop at a crime or accident scene having a bad day, or getting puffed up and over exercising his or her authority. Cops at the scene get their orders and their attitudes from their commanders. Their commanders get their orders and their attitudes from the top police brass. And, of course, the top police brass get their orders and attitudes from the politicians.

Our politicians are masters of media manipulation and of controlling what they want the public to hear and see. Police brass take their cue from the politicians, or in some cases are simply told what to withhold or manipulate.

Increased police control of what we see and hear is only a small part of a wider and more serious Canadian problem: lack of genuine freedom of information.

Canada in many ways is a closed society because so much of its information is controlled by politics. A truly open society is controlled by knowledge and our knowledge never can be complete until we learn the true value of sharing information.