Perhaps only by observing the phenomenon from above, from the distant eye, alert and objective of the satellites in orbit, is it possible to really realize what is happening in the Amazon. The lung of the Earth burns and the local authorities seem almost literally to add fuel to the fire, to the point of refusing (fortunately then changing its mind) the aid proposals that have come from all over the world.

Let us leave it to others, able to do it better than us, the minute-by-minute chronicle of the tragedy, because it is tragedy. On these pages, more accustomed to stories that have some sort of link with the online landscape and with the universe of technology, we believe we can find a place that perhaps in a somewhat illusory way we could label as a hope.

Stop it, with Ecosia

The initiative is the one put in place by Ecosia. The Ecosia search engine, born from the idea of ​​the German Christian Kroll now a decade ago, certainly does not boast the same popularity or the numbers of Google, but to characterize it is a peculiarity that makes it unique.

It is an eco-friendly service, not only for the supply of renewable energy to supply the infrastructure: you perform an online search, your team plants the trees necessary for reforestation in the areas of the planet that need it most, investing almost all the proceeds from advertising. Those destined for Brazil will be three million: the first million announced last month will be joined by two more, the result of intense traffic recorded over the weeks on the platform.

Let’s write it clearly. Is Ecosia benefiting from what is happening in the Amazon in recent weeks? Yes, if we consider that the environmental disaster underway has led many to question how even the small daily actions of everyone can have an impact on the global ecosystem. The same search engine claims to have recorded + 1,000% of app installations in the last week.

Fires in the Amazon and online searches

Is Ecosia using fires in Brazil to advertise itself? No, his activity has continued unabated since 2009, always with the same purpose. To date, the planted tree counter on the homepage has exceeded 65 million.

Will this be enough to solve the problem and deal a decisive blow to climate change? Certainly not, but a signal is a signal and in the era in which messages propagate on the Net driven by social dynamics and viral sharing, we hope the same can happen for a food for thought on how even a simple and very personal online search can have a positive impact for everyone.

Ecosia is among the search engines reported in the ballot screen recently introduced by Google in Android and could be included in the first part of next year among those to be set by default for the operating system. It is reachable from desktop interface at ecosia.org, as well as on mobile devices with applications for Android and iOS.