搜尋引擎在您查詢資訊的同時種植樹木

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本文發表於《大眾科學》的前部落格網路,反映了作者的觀點,不一定代表《大眾科學》的觀點。


有些人喜歡在探索網路時使用 Google。有些人喜歡 Yahoo 或 Bing。但現在每月有超過 250 萬人正在使用 Ecosia,因為他們每次點選“搜尋”都會幫助種植一棵樹。

Ecosia 將其收入的 80%(扣除費用後)捐贈給在非洲播種樹木的專案,這令人印象深刻。根據 Ecosia 發言人 Jacey Bingler 的說法,這些資金(每月高達 75,000 美元,大部分來自廣告)負責每分鐘種植四棵新樹。這比我首次撰寫關於 Ecosia.org 網站(於 2009 年上線)的文章時,每分鐘一棵樹有所增加。

這個總部位於德國的組織一直在資助巴西的一個植樹專案,但去年十月,它開始資助 WeForest 在西非布吉納法索的森林恢復專案。這是在非洲乾旱地區推廣綠化的更大努力的一部分。Bingler 在電子郵件中指出,該專案也有更大的目標。“它旨在恢復遭受乾旱破壞的景觀,培育、教育和賦能人民,減緩疾病的傳播,甚至降低極端主義和暴力衝突的可能性。”


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Ecosia 的目標是在 2020 年前種下 10 億棵樹。最初,它希望在今年達到這個水平,但種植成本很高,使用者沒有迅速湧向該搜尋引擎。這一切都在今天開始加速發展。“我們在 2014 年 11 月慶祝了第一百萬棵樹,在 2015 年 5 月就慶祝了第兩百萬棵樹,” Bingler 指出。而且在布吉納法索的成本約為每棵樹 30 美分,而不是之前的 1 美元。

Bingler 指出,該搜尋引擎不斷改進;搜尋速度現在比去年快了 34%。它主要由 Bing 提供技術支援,並透過 Ecosia 自己的演算法和技術進行了增強。使用者還可以點選“Google”按鈕,該按鈕會提供該搜尋引擎對同一查詢的結果。Bingler 補充說,Ecosia 是大型搜尋引擎的重要替代品,“因為它使使用者無需花費一分錢就能做好事。高度抽象的日常任務,例如搜尋網路,可以帶來像新樹這樣具體的東西。”

Mark Fischetti has been a senior editor at 大眾科學 for 17 years and has covered sustainability issues, including climate, weather, environment, energy, food, water, biodiversity, population, and more. He assigns and edits feature articles, commentaries and news by journalists and scientists and also writes in those formats. He edits History, the magazine's department looking at science advances throughout time. He was founding managing editor of two spinoff magazines: 大眾科學 Mind and 大眾科學 Earth 3.0. His 2001 freelance article for the magazine, "Drowning New Orleans," predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. His video What Happens to Your Body after You Die?, has more than 12 million views on YouTube. Fischetti has written freelance articles for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Fast Company, and many others. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti is a former managing editor of IEEE Spectrum Magazine and of Family Business Magazine. He has a physics degree and has twice served as the Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism, which celebrates a career of outstanding reporting on the Earth and space sciences. He has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many news radio stations. Follow Fischetti on X (formerly Twitter) @markfischetti

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