My New Friend the Tree

One of my newest friends on Facebook is a tree. Not just any old tree but the "Talking Tree" in Brussels.

From Treehugger (where else!)...

This is begging for a "You know you're a treehugger if..." joke, the punchline being "if you have a tree as your friend on Facebook." And there is a century-old tree in Belgium that can fit the bill. It is actually a very social media-savvy tree, with a Twitter stream and Flickr account. It is part of a project that brings the life of a tree into the same daily buzz as our human lives, including leaf-eye views of what it "sees" every day.

"The tree was fitted out with all its gear with help from European magazine EOS." The feeds from the tree transmits information about particulate matter in the environment and weather conditions to researchers. "They analyze what the tree sees and senses, then translate that into updates like "Won't be doing too much photosynthesis in this cloudy weather," and "This ozone concentration makes it difficult to do my job." It also advises people to ride their bikes on days with air pollution."

Currently the Talking Tree has nearly 4,200 friends on Facebook, with more requests every day of people wanting to follow along during a tree's life.

So far, he's been a sturdy friend.