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Imagining a Plant-Based Democracy

What if plants could vote? How would they vote? And how would we vote, knowing that these other species had a say? KCET has partnered with the Civic Paths working group at the University of Southern California to explore how addressing the climate crisis and other environmental challenges could benefit from an expanded view of political decision-making — one that recognizes the rights of nature.

The trunk of a palm tree wears an "I Voted" sticker as it stands tall against a blue sky with white puffy clouds.
Article

An Election Season Thought Experiment: Imagine a Democracy Of the Plants, By the Plants, For the Plants

White light trails spell the words WHAT IF? across a paved road that runs through a forested, green canopy with fallen leaves littering the shoulders.
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In Conversation: An Experiment in Changing Our Thinking to Help Address the Climate Crisis

A green, dewy succulent plant with red edges wears a round, red and blue sticker that reads "I VOTED" in white typeface in multiple languages
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A New Ecology for Democracy: How To Enfranchise Non-Human Species, And Why We Should

A pair of hands in soft focus presses dark, moist soil into a planter around a green stalk that's sprouting green leaves
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Challenging What We Take for Granted in the Plant World: A Conversation With Gardeners and Other 'Plant People'

Plant Activities

A blank notebook lies splayed open on green and brown grass with a blue ballpoint pen resting on the lefthand-side page, under soft lighting with a blurry border
Imagining With Plants: Activating the Civic Imagination
A close-up shot of the robot WALL-E, whose expressive machine eyes reflect the camera flashes and a crowd of humans as it stands in front of a pink-colored background.
From Spinach-Sent Emails to 'WALL-E': Where Plants and Technology Intersect
An AI-generated image in sepia tone of a man wearing a hoodie facing away from the camera appearing in silhouette as he looks out over a scorched-earth landscape of skyscrapers and rubble with smoke billowing up into an orange, glowing sky
Plants With a Vengeance: What Happens When We Take More Than Our Fair Share?
Looking up from the ground at a large-trunked tree covered in moss and surrounded by lush greenery including ivy, ferns and the canopy of other trees' leaves
Immersive Seeds: What We Can Learn From a Sensory Journey as a Rainforest Tree
The sun meets the horizon as it shines through a spare tree and its bare branches, appearing in silhouette against a dusty blue sky.
How We Talk (And Write) About Trees Is a Reflection of Ourselves

Latest

A buffalo stands quietly with its eyes dropping as a brown bird with a red beak and yellow eyes pecks at its right ear
Toward the More-Than-Humane: Why People Need To Embrace The Values of Nature
To be humane is not enough. We need to recognize the goodness of animals and plants, and to practice their ethical values ourselves.
A human figure made of particles walks down a painted alley towards the right of the fram
'I Am An Ecosystem': Recognizing the Rights of Nature Without Humanizing Non-Human Life
OPINION: Granting rights to nature doesn't have to mean recognizing it as a "person." Perhaps we could look at how humans are already like ecosystems and level the playing field accordingly.
Masked protesters gather outdoors on the streets between tall buildings while holding a homemade protest poster that reads "SOS" with a drawing of plant earth as the "O" and yellow, orange and red flames creeping up from below.
By the Planet, for the Planet: How To Formulate the Law in the Grammar of Nature
Plants and animals don't speak our language. Why should laws that impact their wellbeing be written in English?
Four abandoned building pilings are arranged in a square in the middle of a wildflower-filled, grassy field with a single-track dirt trail running through it, under a blue sky with blue mountains visible in the distance
The Case for Rewilding Our Government
Is our loss of connection with nature the root cause of our environmental crisis? It's time to start making momentous political decisions in the great outdoors.
A plant with four green leaves and a green stem sprouts out of the center of a book lying open on a table in front of a black chalkboard with formulas written on it in white chalk.
One Health for One Planet: Ecocentric Policy for Personal and Planetary Wellbeing
The American Veterinary Medical Association has a plan to control the transmission of diseases such as COVID-19 from animals to humans. To succeed — and to thrive — we need to renegotiate our relationship with all other species.
A slightly wrinkled U.S. dollar bill sits nestled in a grassy meadow, as seen through a blurry, greenish filter
Ecology Is Our Economy: A Naturalistic Approach to the Wealth of Nations
If you think the economy is confusing, you're not alone. Most life on Earth is confounded by our economic system.
A herd of mule deer grazes on a green, grassy meadow in the foreground with a pool of water, low green shrubs and tall evergreen trees behind them with snow-capped mountains visible in the background
The Genius of Trees: Learning How to Learn From the Forest
To really understand ecology, we can't just study ecosystems. We need to collaborate with them as intellectual equals.
A clock with roman numerals and hands pointing to the time 6:55 is painted on the inner wood of a tree trunk where the bark has been removed
The Most Accurate Clock Is A Tree: Keeping Time With Nature
Growing on remote mountaintops, the oldest living bristlecone pines have been tracking time for 5,000 years. Their annual rings have much to tell us about past climate conditions. Could they also calibrate our future actions?
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