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Plants Really Do 'Scream'. We've Simply Never Heard Them Until Now (www.sciencealert.com)

submitted 7 months ago by rikudou@lemmings.world to c/science@lemmy.world

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[-] IMNOTCRAZYINSTITUTION@lemmy.world 203 points 7 months ago

By contrast, stressed plants are much noisier, emitting an average up to around 40 clicks per hour depending on the species. And plants deprived of water have a noticeable sound profile. They start clicking more before they show visible signs of dehydrating, escalating as the plant grows more parched, before subsiding as the plant withers away.

someone smarter than me should get to inventing a device that listens to plant clicks and tells you when it needs water

[-] rikudou@lemmings.world 82 points 7 months ago

That's actually mentioned as one possible use case further down the article!

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 17 points 7 months ago

They have that now:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90983510/this-new-wave-of-startups-is-using-ai-to-decode-plants-secret-language

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 132 points 7 months ago

Vegans: .. uh.. now what?

[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 130 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Vegans consume fewer plants than anyone else. It takes a LOT of plants to raise a cow, pig, or chicken. From an economic point of view, meat is a way of refining mountains of cheap, plentiful, safe plant products into a scarce, harmful and addictive luxury product. This comes up a lot, you'd be amazed how many plants rights activists your average vegan runs into.

[-] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 39 points 7 months ago

Vegans: we'll have only a little vegetable cruelty, as a treat.

Whatever keeps the high horse fed.

[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 39 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

You're going to have to unpack this a bit more for me.

Edit: Ohhhh, you're another one of those plant rights activists. Buddy, I eat plants for breakfast. You know what? Now I'm going to eat twice as many plants, just because it upsets you.

[-] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 8 points 7 months ago

Lol your reading comprehension.

[-] SupraMario@lemmy.world 11 points 7 months ago

Unless you count grass and non-human consumables and non-potable water...sure...until then that's bullshit.

[-] oce@jlai.lu 51 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

How is that bullshit? I am not vegan, but that's just a scientific consensus and a major reason why plant diet is way lower carbon than a meat diet. If you need to grow plant food for your animal food, eventually you have to grow way more plant food.
Most animals raised for meat consumption are fed with crops, notably soy, not wild grass.
Thinking animals raised for meat only consume resources (land (first cause of biodiversity loss), plants, water, energy) that would not be useful to humans anyway is undoubtedly wrong.

Researchers Poore and Nemecek are a great source of meta-analysis information about those subjects. Check this summary here for example: http://environmath.org/2018/06/17/paper-of-the-day-poore-nemecek-2018-reducing-foods-environmental-impacts/

Let me know if I misunderstood your point.

[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 17 points 7 months ago

It's less important that such arguments be factually accurate than that they are superficially convincing enough to distract the person giving the argument from thoughts and feelings they are unwilling to process.

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[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 37 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

What figures are you basing your ignorance off of? The majority of the plants humans grow through crop-based agriculture are fed to non-human animals. Animal ag is one of the largest consumers of fresh (ie "potable") water. There are ten animals living in human possession for every human on Earth. Without intensive plant agriculture, we could not possibly feed them all. Grass and run-off is not what is producing your food.

And since we are specifically discussing the hypothetical suffering of plants, why wouldn't you count grass? You're triggered.

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[-] NFord@lemmy.world 22 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Are you saying grass aren't plants? Why would it matter if the plant is consumable by humans if vegans are trying to minimize suffering?

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[-] Pieisawesome@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

…addictive?

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[-] inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 75 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

If you think pigs, chickens and cows have the same level of awareness and perception as broccoli, tomatoes or potatoes than you're the potato.

Humans have to eat and with the exception of a few minerals like salt, everything edible to humans is alive on some level. Vegansisn is making an ethical choice about reducing what causes the most pain fear and suffering in another. If I were to develop cancer, a tape worm or a virus should I also allow those living things to thrive as well or does "Uh, now what?" also apply to antibiotics?

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[-] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 11 points 7 months ago

Haha as always, you do what you can

[-] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

Won't someone think of the plants feelings?!?

[-] heraplem@leminal.space 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

What? The fact that plants physically react to being cut has absolutely no bearing on whether they have conscious experience.

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[-] babybus@sh.itjust.works 82 points 7 months ago

Well, sort of. Not in the same way you or I might scream. Rather, they emit popping or clicking noises in ultrasonic frequencies.

Another "science" community with clickbaity bullshit.

[-] rikudou@lemmings.world 43 points 7 months ago

Eh... What? It's an interesting article. The screaming is in quotation marks. So as far as I'm concerned, the title is fine.

[-] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 53 points 7 months ago

Mowing my lawn must be a fucking nightmare for everything involved. ☹️

[-] grue@lemmy.world 29 points 7 months ago

!fucklawns@lemmy.world

[-] misterdoctor@lemmy.world 16 points 7 months ago

Imagine if instead of a podcast or audiobook or symphonic power metal you had to listen to the screams of your lawn as you mowed its life short

[-] otp@sh.itjust.works 10 points 7 months ago

It gets worse -- that doesn't kill the grass. It just mutilates it.

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[-] superkret@feddit.org 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

You know why freshly mown grass smells so nice?
The smell is the grass's defense against grazing animals, as it attracts predators.
It smells nice cause it tells your predator brain there are prey animals you can eat nearby.
So the grass is literally snitching on the animals that are eating it, announcing their presence to their predators.

Evolution is fascinating that way.

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[-] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 23 points 7 months ago

Hasn't this study been done before? Feel like I've heard of grass "distress signals" from years back

[-] rikudou@lemmings.world 9 points 7 months ago

Yes, remember that one as well, but this is a literal sound, not only a "plants communicate stress in some way" (if I remember the previous research correctly).

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[-] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Nah, the pops and clicks are just plant language for, "I give my consent to be your food. Namaste."

[-] egerlach@lemmy.ca 17 points 7 months ago

I hear the screams of the vegetables (scream, scream, scream)

Watching their skins being peeled (having their insides revealed)

Grated and steamed with no mercy (burning off calories)

How do you think that feels? (bet it hurts really bad)

Carrot juice constitutes murder (V8's genocide)

Greenhouses prisons for slaves (let my vegetables grow)

We have to stop all this gardening (it's dirty as hell)

Let's call a spade a spade (a spade is a spade is a spade is a spade is a...)

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[-] Hackworth@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Remember that Mythbusters (Episode 61 Deadly Straw) that re-created Cleve Backster's primary perception experiments to show plants can sense malicious intent and totally re-created his results? I had to re-watch it to make sure I was remembering correctly. They totally just alter the experiment until they break it, then sweep it under the rug and call it busted. Totally.