MANY, MANY THANKS GOES TO ECOSIA AND THEIR FOUNDER CHRISTIAN KROLL WHO FUNDED THE MANY, MANY TREES IN OUR LAND AUSTRALIA THIS YEAR 2020. IT WAS A ROUGH START FOR US AND ECOSIA MEMBERS WORLDWIDE FUNDED 26,446 TREES IN ONE DAY JANUARY 23 - EVERY 45 SEARCHES ON ECOSIA FUNDS THE PLANTING OF A TREE SOMEWHERE IN THE WORLD OF WHICH WE HAVE BEEN GRATEFUL RECIPIENTS!!!
About this time last year, I made one of my Best Discoveries on the Internet ever - ECOSIA! I refer to it as the Search Engine With A Heart because it isn't just tech and profits. 80% goes to Planting Trees and Reforesting Countries in urgent need equipping them for Climate Change and also providing Fruit Trees to Feed People in Needy Lands. Christian majored on Tech Studies at University and wasn't sure what his next move would be. It was on a holiday to a country at that time, who were planting lots of Trees he was Envisioned with the Concept we now know today as Ecosia - he could start a Charity Search Engine and channel Profits into Tree Planting, Hey? Unlike Google, our Searches are Private. EVERYONE WINS!
I will place two of their articles early this year here that relate to Australia.
On Thursday, January 23, all Ecosia searches will plant trees in Australia. We will use 100% of our profits to help regenerate the country’s ecosystem by planting native, subtropical trees in the Byron Bay area, which is a biodiversity hotspot that has been badly affected by wildfires. With your help, we can plant trees that clean the air, bring down temperatures, support biodiversity, and attract rain in Australia.
What’s happening in Australia?
An area the size of South Korea has gone up in smoke since September.
That’s 50% more than what burnt in the Amazon last year. 27 people have lost their lives, more than 2300 homes have been destroyed, and a billion animals have been burned or choked to death. Some species are even feared to be extinct. The air quality is also terrible:
last week, Melbourne’s air quality was deemed “the worst in the world”.
Bushfires occur every year in Australia, but not at this scale.
Heatwaves and droughts caused by climate change have made these fires much, much worse. In short, we’re facing a man-made crisis at an unprecedented scale. Australia is the living example of what happens when governments don’t take environmental action.
What is Ecosia doing about the bushfires in Australia?
On Thursday, we’ll use the revenue from your web searches to kickstart a crucial reforestation project in northern New South Wales. To do so, we’ve teamed up with a local NGO called ReForest Now. We have long-term plans for working in Australia, but need your help on Thursday to make this project a reality as soon as possible.
How does planting trees help Australia?
The 100+ different tree species we want to plant in Australia would not just restore what has been lost, but also make the area more resilient against future fires. This is because the trees will increase rainfall, lower temperatures, clean the air, sequester some of the carbon emitted by the fires, and provide much-needed habitat for wildlife.
Don’t the trees regenerate naturally?
After a bushfire, Australian landscapes usually regenerate naturally. But the intensity of the current crisis poses a challenge to natural regeneration. Even eucalyptus trees, which are well-adapted to fires, might not all survive.
The subtropical region Ecosia will aim to restore is different from the rest of the country, and even more vulnerable to fires. The rainforests there are not supposed to burn –ever– and need our help to regenerate quickly. In addition to restoring burnt areas, we’ll restore land that has been cleared for agriculture, but is no longer used for farming.
On Thursday January 23, we called on the Ecosia community to help Australia.
So many of you used Ecosia and asked your friends to do the same. The result? We are now able to plant 26,446 trees in the Byron Bay area in New South Wales, which has been affected by the bushfires.
We will immediately begin to plant these trees with the NGO ReForest Now! We also have longer-term plans to restore this subtropical landscape by reforesting cleared land that is no longer used for agriculture.
Unlike other parts of Australia, rainforests in New South Wales struggle to regenerate naturally, which means your trees are desperately needed. They won’t just provide a habitat for wildlife—of which 1 billion have been lost, and many more forced out of their environments—but will also sequester some of the carbon released by the bushfires, clean the air, attract rainfall, and lower temperatures.
The planting will start in February in the Byron Bay area. If you live in that area and would like to help with the planting or nursery work, please contact ReForest Now.
We’re overwhelmed by the response we’ve seen over the last few days, and can’t thank you enough.
Let’s keep up the momentum and reforest Australia, and the whole world, together.
ONCE AGAIN, A BIG THANKS ECOSIA!
I Do A Lot Of Independent Natural Health Searches On This Search Engine - It's GOOD!