The Talking Tree: Nature Personified May Be Best Eco-Messenger

by Amy Corr, Nov 1, 2010, 3:45 PM

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If a tree could talk, what would it say? Stop climbing me? Don't cut me down -- I have feelings, too?

There's a tree living in Bois de la Cambre, a park in Brussels, Belgium that shares its feelings and observations about its surrounding environmental state. Like most of us, the "Talking Tree" has good and bad days.

"Talking Tree" is a print and digital campaign for popular science magazine EOS. The initiative gives nature a voice on the hot topic of climate change and decreasing one's carbon footprint.

Happiness Brussels created the campaign with the mindset that readers would rather learn about the plight of climate change from the voice of nature itself.

The Talking Tree shares its thoughts through words, sound, pictures and videos via Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud, YouTube and Flickr.

This tree might possess more social media savviness than this writer.

There's even a Web site that compiles each social media element in a singular place.

The Talking Tree was equipped with a Web cam, ozone meter, fine dust meter, light meter, infrared camera, wind turbine and thermometer, enabling the tree to accurately describe how its environment changes throughout the course of a day.

The information will be processed by bespoke software and converted into phrases posted on its Facebook and Twitter feeds. Talking Tree's Twitter page has 3,590 followers, containing tweets ranging from humorous: "Us trees are the first to know when it starts raining" to educational: "In the mood for some photosynthesis. If only those clouds would let me."

"The campaign is engaging not only to EOS' audiences across science, ecology and technology but the wider global community in a debate on urgent environmental issues including climate change and ecological footprints," said Gregory Titeca, creative director and head of R&D at Happiness Brussels.

Print ads, running in De Standaard, Gazet von Antwerpen, PC Magazine and Scientific American, show a photo of The Talking Tree with Facebook's blue invitation "add as a friend" box. See it here.

EOS continues this month with a "Low Impact Month" issue where users can measure their carbon footprint and sign up to receive a roadmap on how to shrink their footprint.

The location of the tree has been deliberately kept secret, according to Titeca. However, one curious fan set out and found the Talking Tree. The fan has blogged about finding the tree's location, but has not revealed its whereabouts. The mystery remains -- and that's a good thing.

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