Ecosia, a web browser that helps to plant trees, has been around for 10 years. Throughout this time, it has become an independent and nonprofit organization, has planted over one hundred million trees, and has helped combat climate change and deforestation. 

     First off, the search engine does not directly plant trees. There is no miracle machine that simply drops a seed for every search, the process, rather, is a bit different. When a person searches on Ecosia, similarly to Google, they are usually given ads at the top of the web browser, which, when clicked on, tells the advertised company to pay Ecosia for the click. Typically, every time a user clicks on one of these ads, Ecosia is then paid 0.5 euros, which is about 60 cents in USD. This, though a seemingly small amount, builds up quickly. After about 45 searches, enough funding is available to plant a new tree. Every tree that is planted helps to take some of the carbon dioxide out of the air, thus, helping combat climate change.

      Inspiration for this, according to the creator and CEO of the company Christian Kroll, came after the young graduate traveled the world. During this time, he saw the slowly degrading environment and felt motivated to find a solution. He went on to explain that he doesn’t remember ever explicitly coming up with the idea, he just remembers a gradual understanding of it and its mechanics.  

     As of now, Ecosia helps to plant trees in 20 different places around the world (with the help of the organization of a “Tree Planting Officer” in the company) and attempts to reduce their carbon footprint as an internet browser by using their own, personal solar panel. By doing this, they are able to use renewable energy instead of other, not environmentally-friendly sources.

     In general, Ecosia, being one of the few search engines created to help reverse the effects of the climate crisis, is very beneficial. The Ecosia company puts immense effort into the ecological aspect of their search engine and making the switch is not very difficult, just go to www.ecosia.org and add the extension! (Interview used.)