The Joshua Tree

It wasn't just a tree: why it feels so bad to lose the iconic Sycamore Gap tree and others like it

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, October 4, 2023

The famous Sycamore Gap tree was felled last week, prompting global expressions of sorrow, anger and horror.

Key Points: 
  • The famous Sycamore Gap tree was felled last week, prompting global expressions of sorrow, anger and horror.
  • But for many, the tree felt profoundly important.
  • That is, they contribute to ontological security – our sense of trust that the world and our selves are stable and predictable.

What makes a tree iconic?

    • This sacred fig would become known as the Bodhi Tree.
    • U2’s hit 1987 album The Joshua Tree has inspired fans to seek out the tree on the cover in the United States’ arid southwest – a potentially dangerous trip.
    • The location of the world’s tallest tree – a 115-metre high redwood known as Hyperion – is kept secret for its protection.
    • The death of the enormous tree – 87 metres tall, with a 19 metre girth – drew “national and international” media attention.

What is it to lose a tree?

    • If your favourite tree in your street or garden dies, you mourn it – and what it gave you.
    • But we mourn at a distance too – the Sycamore Gap tree was world-famous, even if you never saw it in real life.
    • As one interviewee, Leon, told me:
      These places should be left alone, because in 10,000 years they could still be there.
    • Read more:
      Sycamore Gap: what the long life of a single tree can tell us about centuries of change

Loss of connection

    • It’s more than okay to talk about what this does to us – about how the loss of this thread of connection makes us grieve.
    • It is useful to talk about this - and to remember the many other beautiful and important trees that live on.
    • Read more:
      Photos from the field: capturing the grandeur and heartbreak of Tasmania's giant trees

U2 ACHTUNG BABY 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Retrieved on: 
Monday, November 15, 2021

"[Achtung Baby] U2's daring descent into darkness" - Robert Hilburn, LA Times

Key Points: 
  • "[Achtung Baby] U2's daring descent into darkness" - Robert Hilburn, LA Times
    Thirty years ago, Bono described Achtung Baby as "the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree" while Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote that "stripped-down and defying its old formulas, U2 has given itself a fighting chance for the 1990's".
  • Recorded over six months at Hansa Studio in Berlin and Windmill Lane in Dublin, Achtung Baby is U2's seventh studio album.
  • Produced by long-time U2 collaborators Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno with Steve Lillywhite, Achtung Baby was engineered by Flood and released on November 18, 1991.
  • For more information, visit :
    Achtung Baby (30th Anniversary Edition) is available on Standard black vinyl and Deluxe color vinyl on November 19, with Achtung Baby (2018 Remaster) and Achtung Baby (Unter Remixes) also available digitally that day.