A Search Engine That Uses Its Revenue Towards Planting Trees Has Now Planted Its 100 Millionth Tree!

Image source: Ecosia blog

Ecosia, the nonprofit search engine based in Germany, has just succeeded in planting its 100 millionth tree. Amazingly, 50 million of those trees were planted in just the last year.

The search engine, founded 11 years ago by entrepreneur Christian Kroll, raises its funds from advertising. It then uses those funds to plant trees across the world, thereby combating climate change. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, one of the main causes of global warming, and exhale oxygen into the atmosphere. Essentially, every time you use the Ecosia search engine, you are breathing a little bit of air back into the planet and creating a more stable environment.

Ecosia has since its founding focused its tree planting on places where there is a risk of biodiversity loss as a result of declining natural forest habitats. This means that instead of planting vast amounts of trees in flat lands that were previously uninhabited, they plant trees that will allow endangered species to thrive and replenish their numbers. This has been the focus of their tree planting projects in countries such as Nicaragua, Peru, Burkina Faso, Malawi, and Indonesia.

One example of this conservationist based planting occurred in Madagascar in 2018 where, they planted 200,000 trees that created a forest corridor that helped animals safely reach the ocean. In 2019 in Borneo, they created a forest that stopped the surrounding rainforest being felled for palm-oil plantations. Bornean Orangutans are one of the many species whose habitat has been destroyed by such palm-oil plantations.

They have now even started to replant trees lost by the Amazonian and Australian wildfires.

Ecosia has released a statement marking their 100 millionth tree, stating their joy at reaching the milestone. They said in a blog post:

"100 million trees tackle the climate crisis by removing 1771 tonnes of CO2 every day, but it means so much more than that. 100 million trees means habitats for endangered animals. It means healthy rivers, more biodiversity, and fertile soil, and more fruits, nuts, and oils for local communities."

They vow to never earn private profit from the project and to never sell the company to the highest bidder.

If you would like to start using Ecosia, and helping the environment, just go to: www.ecosia.org