Wesley Smith writes for National Review Online about another bizarre action from a government north of the border.
In Quebec, a small town has granted “rights” to trees. From the CBS story:
“A small town west of Montreal has decided to officially recognize trees as living beings with rights of their own, in what an environmental organization describes as a first in Quebec and Canada.
“A resolution adopted by Terrasse-Vaudreuil city council on June 9 declares that trees are worthy of protection, ‘including the right to life, to natural growth, to integrity and to regeneration.’”
Does a “right to life” mean they can’t be cut down? Does the “right to natural growth” mean they can’t be trimmed or cleared for fire safety? Does the “right to regeneration” mean that saplings must be allowed to grow in place and seeds left unimpeded to germinate? It sounds ridiculous, but those words have meaning.
As usual in these cases, the argument supporting such nonsense is irrational:
“Mayor Michel Bourdeau says Quebec filmmaker André Desrochers inspired the community to take action. He said Desrochers’ film, called Des arbes et des arts convinced citizens that trees are living entities that breathe and communicate with each other through their root systems.
“‘A tree is like a human being,’ Bourdeau said. ‘It breathes, it lives, it takes in water. It protects us from all sorts of things.’”
Of course trees are alive. But they have very little else in common with human beings beyond consisting of carbon molecules. Tree “communication” is a purely chemical phenomenon, without moral consequence. They are plants. They are not sentient. They don’t intentionally protect us — or intentionally hurt us when one crashes on a house, for that matter. And contrary to the mythology of Lord of the Rings and fairy tales, trees are oblivious of our existence.
