In today’s world, it seems impossible to imagine a day where we do not search anything online.  Let’s think about how many searches you do per day. According to an Oberlo statistic, people make 3.5 billion searches per day, which means that Google processes over 40 thousand searches each second. However, these searches come with its costs. Google statistics have shown that each search is equivalent to 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide emissions. This means that we emit 0.7 million tonnes per day on purely Google searches. While you may now be shocked by how much carbon dioxide you emitted solely on your searches, what if there is an alternative? What if your searches can contribute to saving the planet?

One search engine that has decided to tackle this issue is Ecosia. Ecosia is a search engine that is dedicated to reforestation of our planet. When users use Ecosia, the search engine donates their ad revenues to non-profit organizations that aim to plant trees around the world. When you search on Google, you would have often noticed ads that pop up at the top of your search results. In this process, the advertised companies pay money to Google and Google uses this as a source of revenue. Ecosia operates in the same method as it puts advertisements on their search engine and profit from ad fees. 

At the same time, Ecosia claims to be a carbon-negative organization as its servers operate on reusable energy. As the searches lead to plantation of trees, each search on Ecosia would translate to reducing one kilogram of carbon dioxide emissions. Ecosia is now accessible on Chrome as well through extensions. These organizations like Ecosia show how our small daily habit can ultimately contribute to saving our planet. If you want to be part of reforestation of the environment, check out Ecosia and install it on your browser!

Works Cited

Mohsin, Maryam. “10 Google Search Statistics You Need to Know in 2021.” Oberlo, Oberlo, 14 Jan. 2021, www.oberlo.com.ph/blog/google-search-statistics#:~:text=Google%20processes%20over%203.5%20billion,queries%20every%20second%20on%20average.

Sterling, Greg. “Calculating The Carbon Footprint Of A Google Search.” Search Engine Land, Third Door Media, 12 Jan. 2009, searchengineland.com/calculating-the-carbon-footprint-of-a-google-search-16105#:~:text=Google%20is%20fast%20%E2%80%94%20a%20typical,in%20less%20than%200.2%20seconds.&text=In%20terms%20of%20greenhouse%20gases,t%20reach%20that%20level%20yet. 

Ecosia, https://www.ecosia.org/?c=en