3 apps that help you support a greener earth
While many of us wonder about what impact our tech-savvy world has left on the environment, we can use tech to help make the earth a little bit greener. Fighting climate change can often feel like a massive and overwhelming issue that cannot be tackled with individual efforts, but there are simple ways to support the greater initiatives fighting climate change and environmental pollution. Here are a few applications to aid you in that noble quest-
Ecosia- Browse & Plant Trees
Ecosia is a search engine browser, owned by Microsoft Inc., that you can install on your phone and/or add as an extension to your computer's default browser. It donates 80% of its profits from advertising revenue to tree plantation initiatives around the world. If you go to Ecosia's website, the exact number of how many trees are being planted thanks to its users, which was up to 95,481,205 when the author was writing this article. All you need to do is use their search engine from time to time as you are browsing through on your phone or computer. Ecosia's blog claims that each search with Ecosia removes roughly one kg of CO2 from the air, which is an amount estimated from the donations they generate with ad revenues from your searches.
WWF Together
If you are an animal lover who wants to educate themselves a little more about the species impacted by changing climate, WWF Together by World Wildlife Fund is a great app to use. The application features interactive stories of endangered animals and has 3D animations of the globe that helps you discover the distance between you and the endangered animals. It has been rated highly for the visual experience it provides you. Unfortunately, the application is only available for iOS users for now, but a similar experience can be accessed through the World Wildlife Fund's website. Android users can try using NASA's Earth Now application, which gives visualizations of recent climate data from its satellites and you can virtually explore the earth to where changes are taking place. It is not as interactive as WWF Together, and not geared towards animal conservation either, however it serves as a good dupe if you are trying to have a visual experience to stay more connected with the news of climate change around the world.
Joulebug
If you are looking for an application that will help you track your everyday eco-friendly habits, or even just to motivate yourself to do better, Joulebug is an app to use. This app will help you share your eco-friendly achievements with others who share your vision of a greener earth, an act that can motivate small habitual changes like avoiding the use of plastic or remembering to not waste energy. However, if you are looking towards a more collective effort, Joulebug Enterprise is the application to use when you are trying to encourage your coworkers or your classmates to exercise more sustainable habits in your life. It allows you to design and complete challenges. Initially marketed as an app to encourage personal wellness, it has now customizable features that you can use to design any challenges like who generates the least amount of trash in your office a certain week or who wasted the least amount of paper.