Irish Examiner view: 'Robot trees' a costly gimmick?
Bating Tech With Patrick Traffic Congestion City Pollution Installed Associated Pollution Picture: First Has Five Council High And Particle Aimed Fine The 'citytrees', At Been Of Street On Dust Cork Other
If nothing else, the €350,000 ‘robot trees’, installed in Cork city centre to tackle air pollution, will get people talking and thinking about the climate crisis.
They have been dismissed by atmospheric scientist Dr Dean Venables as a costly gimmick that fails to tackle the real issue — the need to reduce emissions. He is certainly right to say we must concentrate on emissions rather than try to claw back some of the pollution after the fact, yet this is also a time for innovation and action.
The high-tech, moss-covered ‘CityTrees’ are certainly inventive. They provide high-quality seating and 40in TV screens to ‘broadcast’ air quality information. Cork City Council has said they are not intended to replace real trees. The council also plans to plant 1,300 trees, although its latest project has rightly prompted calls to plant very many more.
On the upside, the installation focuses our attention on air pollution, but we need a much more targeted plan — a root-and-branch approach, if you will — to address the real pollutants and cut down on traffic in our city centres.