I Want To Plant Trees

As a guy who has spent as much of his life as possible outside, I rather enjoy trees. It's very hard to understate the importance of having enough trees in the world. They shield us from excess sun and wind, keep the soil stable so we have less land slides and such, provide food for us and many useful critters, let us build houses and such fairly cost effectively, and they also turn our waste carbon dioxide into oxygen. That last bit is fairly important in the grand scheme of things. I like trees.

While scrolling through the various apps that I could install to this very website, I came across Ecologi. A company, with an app here, that claims to take money from businesses and convert it into newly planted trees. I'm always quite skeptical of this sort of thing, due to the obscene corruption involved with many charity operations. It's a sad fact that bad people will always find their way to "easy" money by stealing it. If I'm going to give up part of the money earned, which could be dumped back into the business, I want to make sure it's actually going into new trees. When I die, and this business closes down, at least there might be some nice trees left for others to enjoy. I can live with that.

My initial research into Ecologi shows some sort of potential carbon offset scandal with the BBC covering it with a documentary. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to research it further right now, or to get in contact with Ecologi to verify where the money goes. Since I can't be quite certain that the money would ACTUALLY be spent on new trees and the overhead required to plant them and run a business, I won't be using the platform just yet. The app is installed, the account set up, and the research is on the to do list. It sucks to have to go through so much vigorous verification, caused by a few people ruining it for the rest of us, but it's important. I try not to waste resources, and would rather just sit on the extra money until I find a worthwhile cause I can be sure isn't absurdly wasteful or a scam. I don't suspect Ecologi is a scam or anything, but I need to make sure it's the right place to funnel some extra money. The world has limited resources, so beat not to waste them.

I've found that the easiest way to do something is often one of the least effective ways. One of the easiest ways to help offset the insane negative environmental impact of selling electronics is to just throw some money at someone else to make people feel better about everything. The hardest way is to go out and plant the trees yourself. I'm leaning towards planting trees myself. I'd actually love to do that some day, assuming I ever have enough free time and my body can still handle it. For now, I'll just keep searching for good uses of money and sit on some extra to put a little good back into the world. If we all did that, the world would be a much nice place. A rising tide raises all ships. One of my favorite sayings. 

This blog post is just some thoughts I have on using this little business to do some good. This is a one person operation, without anything to sell at this time, but I'm looking ahead. Just in case things do take off, I'd like to have a plan in place to make the world a little less crappy to live in.