Greener Living
As Drought Threat Grows, a ‘Dead Tree’ Emoji Is On the Way
First pitched in 2022 to promote environmentalism, the “leafless tree” is one of eight new emoji that will be available on phones next year.
A dead tree on the shores of Phoenix Lake during a drought in Ross, California, in 2021.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Avid texters will soon have a new way to talk about the growing impacts of climate change: an emoji depicting a tree without leaves.
Approval of the emoji was revealed in an update earlier this year from the Unicode Consortium (of which Bloomberg is a supporting member.) The leafless tree — also known as the “dead tree” or “dying tree” emoji — was first pitched in 2022 by Brian Baihaki, who saw a gap in messaging graphics that touch on environmentalism.