ABSTRACT
Granting Nature rights to flourish, which can be legally defended in court, is an expanding new movement worldwide. The concept of granting rights to Nature presupposes that Nature – and parts of Nature, such as mountains, trees, coral reefs and entire ecosystems – is a being and has personhood. Entities are granted rights in human legal systems because they are beings. But in what way is Nature a being? Does Nature have intelligence, which humans can recognise and live with in relationship? There are no definitive answers yet from the halls of modern science. But human beings have lived with the knowledge of Nature's intelligence for millennia, knowledge reflected in their religious traditions, myths and stories. Modern Western culture is no different, but since officially Nature is considered to be just a bundle of resources for human use, the exploration of Nature's consciousness has taken another form: through literature and cinema. Here we will explore how contemporary cinema has, and continues to, explore and deepen our understanding of Nature's intelligence.
