A Greener Way To Search

I'm always looking for ways to help the Earth. I spend a good portion of my days (between naps) searching for ideas, campaigns, products, etc. that promote green living. I do a lot of web searching and while I love using Good Search, I have been looking for other ways to do the right thing.

I found Echcho the other day and it is my new favorite search engine. It is different from other search engines because it is trying to make a difference in addressing the issues of climate change. They make it possible to search the web and save the planet at the same time. How cool is that?

Started by a small group of people in Sydney, Australia, they run the business as a carbon-neutral entity. Ecocho uses the Yahoo search engine technology and for every 1,000 searches users make on Echcho, they "offset" a ton of greenhouse gases. How do they do this? By sponsoring to plant two trees via advertising on their site. The trees are grown via approved government projects and they are currently planting them in Australia. You can click on trees on their map to see the tree plantations.

How will planting trees offset greenhouse gases? Trees are the most important species in aiding the growing climate change problems. We are putting CO2 into the atmosphere at alarming rates. According to the EPA, in 2005, global atmospheric concentrations of CO2 were 35% higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution. The CO2 creates a barrier around the Earth, trapping the CO2, thus heating up our planet. This is not a good thing and in fact it is very, very bad. Trees, like all plants, use CO2 from the atmosphere. They remove it before it does harm. Since forests everywhere are being clear cut at ever alarming rates, planting trees is not only good for today, it is also good for the future.

While I am not promoting continued overuse of fossil fuels, I believe that using Ecocho will raise awareness of climate change and will hopefully encourage people to green their lifestyle. There is so much work to be done to fully address the climate changes we face, so by making this one simple change you are part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Changing the way we think and do one step at a time is the easiest way to make changes.

Using Ecocho is truly one of the easiest ways to make a positive impact on the environment. Kudos to Yahoo for supporting this business. Get your new search engine today at www.ecocho.com.