Ecosia Aims to End Deforestation One Search at a Time

Eco-friendly Internet search engine Ecosia says it's literally growing by the minute now that its user base has expanded. The German operation, which donates 80 percent of its revenue to a deforestation operation in Brazil, said Tuesday it is using its revenue to plant a new tree every 60 seconds.

The company's representatives report that in the past 10 weeks more than 100,000 trees have been planted on its behalf.

The news comes at a time when global CO2 emissions are projected to soar to an all-time high this year, posing challenges to the United Nations goal of curbing global temperatures from rising by 2 degrees Celsius.

Ecosia finances its tree-planting operation by donating 80 percent of its advertising income to The Nature Conservancy's "Plant A Billion Trees" program, which aims to restore the Brazilian Atlantic Forest by planting one billion native trees.

Ecosia founder Christian Kroll said in a statement that deforestation accounts for 17 percent of worldwide CO2 emissions. Deforestation in Brazil's rainforests has also spiked, up 28 percent this year after four years of decline.

"We have 2.5 million users worldwide," Kroll said of Ecosia's user base. "If Ecosia had as many users as Google, we could have the chance to end deforestation once and for all."

Internet users worldwide query Google, the most used search engine on the world wide web, more than 3 billion times per day.

While Ecosia is leagues behind Google in terms of users, Kroll said the operation is growing in a good way.

The search engine is on its way to reach its goal of planting 1 million trees in 2014, and as an official partner of The Nature Conservancy, has already generated more than $1.7 million for environmental causes, Kroll said.