The Instagram trend has been doing the rounds on what seems to be everyone’s stories this week - but who is planting the trees?
This week Instagram has become a dog lover's dream, with literally millions of adorable pet photos being shared on the platform thanks to an anonymous viral trend promising to help save our environment. As each day we hear news stories about the COP26 climate summit, it's no surprise that a sticker trending on Instagram stories asking users to simply share a photo of their pet, and in exchange, a tree will be planted, got a lot of attention.
For such little effort on your part, it sounds like a great deal right?
Eagle-eyed Instagram users will also have noted that counter showing how many times the anonymous sticker has been shared has surpassed more than 4 million shares.
So, like us, you might be scratching your head thinking how on earth are 4 million trees going to be planted - and who is going to plant them.
Although the sticker remains anonymous, Plant a Tree Co has taken credit for the idea in a post shared to their page on Monday evening, claiming they quickly realized they'd made a huge mistake. In fact, the company is now seeking donations on Instagram to "actually plant 4 million trees."
The post reads: “We posted the new “Add Yours” story as a fun tree planting campaign where we can show off our awesome pets!
“We immediately realized the post would grow too big and that we didn’t have the resources to plant that many trees, so we deleted it 10 minutes later.”
The post goes on to say that even though the sticker was deleted on their end, the stories “continued to spread out of our control” with credit for the sticker being removed because of an apparent Instagram bug.
It continued: “We want to use this awareness for lasting impact, so we created this fundraiser. It is raising money towards @treesforthefuture which is an organization that we love, who is dedicated to planting trees.”
Mystery solved!
Although Plant a Tree Co said it is not affiliated with Trees for the Future, they have asked that those who shared the sticker also share and donate to the fundraiser so that the resources are available to plant the 4 million promised trees.
