Climatologists, ecologists and various scientists say that planting trees is one of the best possible ways to undo some of the damage done in the last century. Now, you don’t have to physically go out and plant trees in order to plant trees. You can just do it on apps, a video game or right on your laptop.
Tree planting is all over the place. It’s being talked about a lot more on social media and on streamed shows. But this is more than just a cause of the moment or a trendy fad. Trees are a highly effective way to reduce the impact of carbon emissions. A single hectare of trees can consume 400 tons of carbon. This is because trees store carbon and replace it with oxygen.
They are nature’s solution to a problem created by humans. Nature can repair itself, but it needs a little help to do it. Here are some apps and programs designed with the same goal in mind: helping reverse climate change.
Ecosia
The next time you’re looking for something online, search for it with Ecosia. This is a search engine that will donate money toward planting trees for every single search you do. The tree planting efforts are funded through ad revenue. The search engine is easy to use and contains suggested search terms, like another famous search engine that gets a lot of use. Do a search a day on this site and you will be the reason that a new tree is planted somewhere in the world.
Forest
Do you use your phone too much? Get Forest. This is an app that rewards you for not using your phone. You’ll rack up points for the time you don’t spend looking at the screen. These credits are used to plant trees all over the world. You can play the app like a game and create a virtual forest while you help get actual trees planted in real forests. You can actually have fun while you save the world.
Flora
When you’re ready to seriously unplug for some quiet time, turn to Flora. This app blocks social media, games and disruptive notifications so you can take some time for you. This is a perfect app to use if you’re going to meditate or take a bubble bath. Maybe you need some quiet time or just a few moments to sip a glass of wine. While you’re having some me-time, a tree will be planted on the app. It becomes a fun game where you can win extra trees and complete goals to get more trees planted.
Tab-a-Tree
Add the Tab-a-Tree extension to your internet browser and you can plant trees just by looking around on the internet. Tab-a-Tree will plant a tree every time you open a new tab. The new tab also opens ads that will generate the revenue to plant the trees. There will also be an Ecosia search bar, so you can plant more trees by using this additional feature. This actually allows you to plant two trees at once.
Treeapp
Treeapp can help you plant a tree in less than 60 seconds. This is a European-based app that makes it super easy to help put more trees out into the world. Pick a reforestation project, take a look at your tree’s sponsor and plant one tree every day for free. You can actually measure your carbon footprint and view your global impact right on the app to literally see how you’re affecting change all around the world. If you plant four trees a week, you can offset the average carbon emissions created by an EU citizen.
Our Forest
Our Forest allows businesses to add tree planting automatically when a sale, service or new subscriber occurs. The trees are $0.33 each. Our Forest even comes with a toolkit that makes it easy to feature the service on a website or social medical account. Each tree is trackable through a QR code, so customers can truly see the fruits of their efforts. Customers can even choose where to plant trees or allow Our Forest to choose where they are planted.
Play and Plant Program
PlayStation even got in on all the fun with their Play and Plant Program, an initiative introduced through the game “Horizon Forbidden West.” By unlocking the “Reached the Daunt” trophy before Arbor Day, players unlocked the ability to plant a tree as part of three different reforestation projects. Part of the larger Play4Forests campaign, it raised awareness and promoted involvement in reforestation. The gaming community is vast and proving its ability to create world change digitally.
Images via Pexels
