If you're interested in solarpunk, you might be interested in reading Ways of Being Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence by James Bridle. The author just doesn't look at ways in which plants and animals exhibit intelligence, but how technology can be used to help us understand them so we can meet their needs and sustain the biodiversity we need to survive.
The book starts and ends in Greece, where the author first visits an island where the ecosystem is under threat due to a search for fossil fuels, but later visits a farm where plants purify metals from the soil. In between, we look at the different ways animals perceive the world, how plants communicate with each other and even learn in response to their environment, non-neural computers, the importance of randomness, and inter-species communication. All of this is to remind us that we are connected to the rest of the planet and that there are other ways of knowing besides ours. The last chapter in the book is called "The Internet of Animals," where Bridle discusses how by tracking animals, we gain a better understanding of their needs and how they travel. For example, by pinpointing the exact spots where wildlife cross highways during migration, we can build wildlife bridges that prevent collisions.
Some parts of the book are easier to follow than others. For me, I found the chapter on non-binary machines the most difficult to digest. Other readers may balk at acknowledging the legal rights of animals and rivers, even though there is legal precedent. But if you want a book quote that encapsulates the ideals of solarpunk, I suggest this one: "The enemy is not technology itself, but rather inequality and centralization of power and knowledge, and that the answer to these threats are education, diversity, and justice." I recommend checking it out.
