Ecocho: You Search, We Grow Trees

Hey kids,

Check this out: http://www.ecocho.com/. This isn't the first time that I've seen a spin-off or modified manifestation of a popular search engine, but I guess I'm more than a little intrigued by this one - they'll plant 2 trees (in NSW, Australia; credits are certified by KSGW under the NSW GGAS) for every 1,000 searches, effectively offsetting 1 ton of carbon. Just think, you could offset 1/1,000 of a ton of carbon during your next search! If you drive 10 miles to work in the morning, and your car gets 20mpg (and burning one gallon of gasoline releases roughly 20lbs CO2) you'd just need to do 5 searches on echcho to offset your morning's carbon emissions!

Actually, my dorky little calculations are doing a bit of a disservice to this well-intentioned website. One of it's strengths is that within its list of simplified answers to FAQs, they admit that much more needs to be done to tackle climate change than afforestation alone, but that tree planting can certainly make a meaningful difference. It seems they've put Yahoo's technology to good use. However, they seem to stick with touting trees' carbon benefits, and don't mention any other ecosystem services. What do you all think? Is this an effective way to raise peoples' awareness in general, and create a link between climate change, trees, and environmental/human health?