Tyler Mruczinski ’24, Staff Writer
Our generation may be the most climate conscious generation since the 1960s and 1970s. That generation saw total overhauls of federal laws and regulations concerning conservation, pollution, and clean water and air. Today, because of that generation, there are more trees in the United States than ever before, and according to the EPA air is 78% cleaner today than it was 50 years ago and similar results were found for drinking water, fishing water, and water for recreational use. With the threat of climate change and young Americans worried over the environmental impacts of decades of war and globalization it is understandable that they wish to see a solution.
Young people feel overwhelmed by the responsibility they feel they have to protect our planet for ourselves and future generations. This anxiety can be incapacitating and may ironically lead to less environmental conservation. There is, however, a way that students of Immaculata can encourage and contribute to sustainability, greenhouse gas reduction, and aiding peoples most affected by climate change while still continuing to focus on their studies here at IU. Let me inform you of ECOSIA. Ecosia is a non-profit, 100% sustainable and carbon neutral web browser extension that can be put on to any computer or tablet or downloaded as a stand alone app on any widely sold smartphone. Ecosia does this by investing ad revenue that originates in individual searches on the search engine into tree planting sites around the world. Every forty five searches a user does, Ecosia plants a tree. So far they have planted over 159,878,000 trees.
There are more benefits to using Ecosia which go towards making a more just and ethical world. Ecosia does not sell user search data to international corporations, many of which are involved in exploitation and sweatshop slavery. The only way Ecosia makes money is ads that come up after a search is made but user data is never sold. In fact, it is deleted after a week. All searches are encrypted so your privacy is always protected. The best part: Ecosia is free. Download Ecosia today to help conserve while you study.
