Watch a tree grow on Google Earth

You can't say there's anything wrong with paying someone to plant a tree in some corner of the Earth. But it's not exactly the most rewarding thing.

The buyer assumes the tree is out there, but it's quickly forgotten and impossible to actually imagine. But the World Wildlife Fund is hoping to chance that with a little help from Google Earth.

Your $5.50 donation will buy a tree, its lifelong care and feeding, scientific study of the forest that it becomes a part of, and the exact coordinates of where that tree is on our big beautiful planet. Linking that data with Google Earth shows the precise location of the tree on the island of Borneo, as well as the tree's hundreds of neighbors.

Unfortunately, the map resolution needs to be increased significantly before you can see your very own tree, but even now the context is nice.

You can buy trees that will be planted in Indonesia today at MyBabyTree.org. PayPal integration makes the whole thing a breeze.

I planted two of them myself and received the following message in my inbox:

Your baby tree will be planted in the next few days. Once that is done, we will mail you the exact location, and you will be able to see your tree on Google Earth.

Via Google Earth Blog and the WWF