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Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

ecosia.org

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Re: Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

#71

Post by pvaldes »

wishinghand wrote: post #19
kaycebasques wrote: post #10

I was investigating massive reforestation as a means of reducing greenhouse gases a few days ago. I stumbled upon this hyper-dense technique called the Miyawaki method [1]. Sounds like it's resource-intensive upfront but might be self-sustaining after that. The guy mentioned in [1] has open-sourced the methodology here [2]. [1]: https://fellowsblog.ted.com/how-to-grow-a-forest-really-real... [2]: https://www.afforest…

I first read this article when it was linked on Hacker News. I had always hoped the method would go viral for local environmentalists, hippies, rich landscapers, and Earth/Arbor day organizers.

We need first to address the problem with organized crime that can burn decades of work in an afternoon with a low risk of being caught. There is also problems with overgrazing and stolen water. Planting trees is only the first step to have a forest.

Re: Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

#72

Post by pvaldes »

CalRobert wrote: post #32
wishinghand wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I first read this article when it was linked on Hacker News. I had always hoped the method would go viral for local environmentalists, hippies, rich landscapers, and Earth/Arbor day organizers.

Planted my first trees a few weeks ago. 2 more acres to go (more if I can buy more land...)

Feel free to ask if you encounter a problem. Now is the best month to plant a tree in the northern hemisphere.

Re: Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

#73

Post by solarkraft »

CalRobert wrote: post #63
pvaldes wrote: post #47

The big question here is "what trees?" If Ecosia are planting Acacia in Spain, as seen in their map, this is wrong. Wattle is invasive in southern Europe. Some are even in the catalogue of forbidden by law species. They displace native species and are a big problem in Portugal after fire forests for example. Some species are also poisonous to cattle and wild animals Please, left conservation efforts to professionals.…

They're behind efforts to preserve existing forest as well "Hambach forest from coal mining" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/09/berlin-startup... Also, I'm not sure it's fair to lump them in with well-meaning but ignorant weekend arborist.

Thanks. That's amazing.

Re: Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

#74

Post by 3into10power5 »

Looks like a wrapper around Bing? Microsoft has an API to do that or this is a custom business relationship between them?

One of my search engines ideas is one which eliminates all sites with login/paywalls. Just one which only presents sites which are a joy to browse. Not sure where to get the initial index. (I am bootstrapped, so can't even use common crawl).

Re: Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

#76

Post by CalRobert »

pvaldes wrote: post #72
CalRobert wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Planted my first trees a few weeks ago. 2 more acres to go (more if I can buy more land...)

Feel free to ask if you encounter a problem. Now is the best month to plant a tree in the northern hemisphere.

What's the best way to source hundreds or thousands of saplings for native irish trees on a budget? How much growth per year can I expect? How can I provide symbiosis with the nearby protected raised bog and its birds?

Re: Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

#77

Post by CalRobert »

pvaldes wrote: post #72
CalRobert wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Planted my first trees a few weeks ago. 2 more acres to go (more if I can buy more land...)

Feel free to ask if you encounter a problem. Now is the best month to plant a tree in the northern hemisphere.

Also, what can I plant to hopefully enjoy a nice small forest to walk in in about 8-12 years? What fruit trees would work? (I already have some apple trees). Can I get away with planting seeds or do I need saplings? Will trees effectively stop large undergrowth to the point where I can walk around?

I'm already in my mid-30's, will I be able to enjoy this for any reasonable portion of my life?

Re: Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

#78

Post by pvaldes »

CalRobert wrote: post #76
pvaldes wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feel free to ask if you encounter a problem. Now is the best month to plant a tree in the northern hemisphere.

What's the best way to source hundreds or thousands of saplings for native irish trees on a budget? How much growth per year can I expect? How can I provide symbiosis with the nearby protected raised bog and its birds?

> What's the best way to source hundreds or thousands of saplings for native irish trees on a budget?

Just pick up your own seeds, either plant it or let the nature do gladly the hard work for you.

https://www.nordgen.org/en/jay-expert-planting-oak/

There will be always much more seeds than the ones that will survive at the end. You can rescue seedlings growing in unsuitable areas (next a road for example) that would not survive the lawnmower.

> How much growth per year can I expect?

It depends a lot on the tree and the area, the water available etc. Fast growth is tender and not always desirable. Oaks and other long living trees will put their best efforts to grow under the surface. Don't expect a lot to see the first years but after this phase they will suddenly accelerate. You need first to know what trees are good for your area

If you want fast results, a common technique is to use fast growing / short lived trees and shrubs first (birch or rowan for example). Then seed or wait for other species to reach the area and slowly unfurl.

> How can I provide symbiosis with the nearby protected raised bog and its birds?

Plant fruit shrubs, let dead wood decay in place, use holly and blackthorn to encourage nests...

Avoid spreading invasive Rhododendron in any case.

If you have a bog near your home, the soil could be very poor and acid. This will determine what you can plant and what not. Not all trees can stand a high phreatic level. Willows can, and are easily grown from free cuttings. Rowan are excelent also in acid soils. Most trees will avoid the bog.

Re: Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

#79

Post by misterman0 »

thekyle wrote: post #28
misterman0 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> the lack of a verifiable link graph I hadn't heard about YaCy even though I'm in their game. I too run a search engine that doesn't use a link graph for scoring relevance. My bet is on semantic relevance over PageRank, because I think our understanding of language models have become so sophisticated we can start relying on them solely. Also, it's harder I think to game a language model when compared to a page rank…

> maybe I misunderstood b/c it says here YaCy _has_ a link graph: https://yacy.net/en/API.html That link graph being referenced is the local nodes one, not a global one. So it only yields links that have been discovered by the node you are sending the request to. You could send a request to each node individually and aggregate the results, however, you have no way to verify the nodes are being honest without actually…

Ic. Thx!

I'm working on a project similar to the YaCy one. The main difference is that I do not want or even require that each node trust each other. I let the user decide who they trust.

https://github.com/kreeben/resin

Re: Ecosia – the search engine that plants trees

#80

Post by misterman0 »

thekyle wrote: post #28
misterman0 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> the lack of a verifiable link graph I hadn't heard about YaCy even though I'm in their game. I too run a search engine that doesn't use a link graph for scoring relevance. My bet is on semantic relevance over PageRank, because I think our understanding of language models have become so sophisticated we can start relying on them solely. Also, it's harder I think to game a language model when compared to a page rank…

> maybe I misunderstood b/c it says here YaCy _has_ a link graph: https://yacy.net/en/API.html That link graph being referenced is the local nodes one, not a global one. So it only yields links that have been discovered by the node you are sending the request to. You could send a request to each node individually and aggregate the results, however, you have no way to verify the nodes are being honest without actually…

>> it only yields links that have been discovered by the node you are sending the request to

Wait! YaCy is a little bit hard to understand. I don't mean that in any way other than in an extremely encouraging way.

What do you mean exactly? A YaCy node will interrogate the "swarm" of data and that interrogation might yield more links compared to if you interrogate another node?

What's that all about?

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