stefano mancuso
LA NAZIONE DELLE PIANTE

Stefano Mancuso is a skillful communicator, but this book of his was a (partial) disappointment. It reads easily and quickly because each of the arguments that form a hypothetical "statute of the nation of plants" becomes the starting point for a series of intriguing historical and scientific digressions around a fundamental principle: in the universe, there is only one earth with necessarily limited resources, and it is the common home of all living organisms, without any pre-established hierarchy among humans, animals, and plants. There are a ton of news and information explained in an accessible way, somewhat as if it were—in book form—a special episode of Superquark dedicated to the plant world: just to mention a few, the “filter bubble” theory on the self-referentiality of our information sources is explained, and the Dunning-Kruger effect on the cognitive dysfunction of those who overestimate their competencies in a certain sector is cited; the Meadows report on the limits of growth and the disasters of improvised interventions on the ecosystem are mentioned to eventually affirm a universal right to migration as the "essence of life itself" for humans as well as for plants. From a divulgation perspective... everything is nice and interesting: however, I would have expected Mancuso to go all the way with his conclusions. For example, I believe there is no alternative to a significant demographical containment of humans if one wants to find a balance with the other two "nations," that is, animals and plants. This involves—for humans—the end of the myth of uninterrupted economic development and a cascade of other (unpleasant) consequences, as it is unlikely to be a happy degrowth. Mancuso avoids the problem and stops much earlier, concluding by hoping for cooperation and mutual support as the «first tool for the progress of communities». Too easy and too convenient.