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ecocho -- *ecologic* search engine --

Luca [PersonRank 10]

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
16 years ago3,373 views

this site , http://www.ecocho.com/ , who search on google / yahoo promise to plant trees every 1000 search....
eco-speculation ? marketing ? or good idea?

curiosity... 2 tree x 1000 on yahoo and 1 x1000 on google·....

Mambo [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Great... if it works.

There must be some way they can make money though?

George R [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Their FAQ includes the below picture demonstrating why we can trust this program. Does it inspire your trust?

   http://www.ecocho.com/lang_en/faqs.php

http://www.ecocho.com/images/tree_hand.jpg
"We doubt you'll find a more verified, audited offsetting process"

Under "How We Grow Trees" they say
"every 1000 searches we support the growth of two trees".

Google normally pays per ad click, not per search.
Do they have a special arrangement?
What are its details? Can others get similar terms?

Unfortunately many schemes using "carbon credits" are only gimmicks.
If you plant a tree in an area where trees otherwise grow, such as a forest, it displaces the space, water, carbon, and other resources of the trees and plants that would have otherwise occurred there. This may be naturally growing trees or trees that would otherwise be replaced by man, such as from the lumber, agriculture, or landscape industries. Even if they are tearing down buildings to plant trees, those buildings are apt to be replaced elsewhere.

Ecocho may be doing good, but trading carbon credits is a questionable means toward such a goal.

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Yeah, what George R says.

Trees are carbon neutral – the carbon they absorb during their lifetime exactly equals the carbon they release after they die.

Unless, of course, the carbon gets trapped and turned into a fuel such as coal – but ecocho is not promising to do that.

And the ecocho website is filled with vagueness. For every 1000 searches, they promise to offset "up to" a ton of greenhouse gases. ("up to" could be anything including zero). For every 1000 searches, "up to two" trees will be grown (elsewhere on their site they talk about "stems" – it's very cheap to grow a stem, but more expensive to take care of trees until maturity). And they "aim" to contribute back 70% of revenue (in the same sense that I might "aim" to be more successful than Google).

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