Crawl the web and save the planet. Sounds easy, right? Well, nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems, but there is a new green search engine making an effort to promote the good green word while you get to look at all your favourite websites. Ecocho (using Yahoo technology) is an Australia-based search engine that is offering to offset a ton of greenhouse gases for every 1000 searches users make with Ecocho.
The cold hard climate facts are that for each one thousand searches on Ecocho, the company buys enough carbon offset credits to remove 1 ton of CO2 from the atmosphere. This works out at five trees spending a year sucking one ton of CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow. Ecocho.com will plant the trees via official Government-accredited projects.
However, not all offsets are created equally. Some organizations and systems of offsetting are considered to be much more accurate than others. Planting trees is generally seen as less valuable than creating more wind and solar panel technologies. The David Suzuki Foundation explains that purchasing trees as an offset is problematic due to their impermanence and that this type of project does not address our dependence on fossil fuels. Planetair, a not for profit greenhouse gas emission reduction organization, explains that trees capture or sequester CO2 temporarily, they do not reduce the generation of emissions per se.
Currently, the highest certification for voluntary carbon offsetting standards is the official recognition of Gold Standard from the Swiss based non-profit foundation. Gold Standard certified carbon-offsetting projects must adhere to the criteria of; using renewable energy or energy efficiency technologies and promote sustainable development.
It is always a positive step in the right green direction when businesses and individuals make efforts to offset. The planet definitely needs more trees.
Visit: http://www.ecocho.ca/
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