Cats4earth is an environmental social media project from a research project at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. The protection of nature is our overarching goal and we want it to become a transnational viral social cause. Cats4earth collaborates with bloggers of viral cat content worldwide and organizes social media photography and video campaigns for environmental conservation and climate change awareness.
Common environmental projects often confront people with the pollution of the environment. We, at cats4earth, believe that people protect what they love. Our ambassadors are professional photographers and videographers, teaming up with environmental scientists, activists and artists to show, in numerous ways, the beauty of nature. We see our daily job in stimulating a discussion about how we can protect our environment and to raise global awareness for climate change impacts.
Finding ways to encourage people to change their consumer habits into a sustainable lifestyle is our passion.
At cats4earth, we are creating and sharing cat video campaigns about environmental protection, climate change and sustainability. Every month, we design and launch an environmental contest. Our team of cats4earth ambassadors is made up of enthusiastic, ambitious cats and owners. Together, our ambassadors have more than 3 Million followers.
We can feel the impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather conditions, almost everywhere in the world. A lot of cats and their humans suffer from heat waves, hurricanes, floods or forest fires. Therefore, we think, it is time to act now! We unite and report globally during “natural” disasters, like heat waves, bushfires, floods or hurricanes.
Let’s reduce our carbon paw print!
What can cat owners do? All felines need to eat meat. Meat production causes a range of environmental impacts, including greenhouse gases. The average carbon paw print per year of a cat weighing 4 Kg (8,8 lbs), eating around 370 cans of food or food in plastic packaging, is 2,25 tons of CO2! For comparison: the average human carbon footprint is 6,8 tons of CO2. People in the United States have the highest carbon foot print at 26,46 t/a, followed by Australia (22,41 t/a), Canada (20,85 t/a), and Germany (12,3 t/a).
Our goal is to reduce the average carbon paw print of cats from 2,25 tons t/a to 1,25 t/a.
Do you have any ideas about green life hacks or any other eco-friendly ideas for pet owners? Please post your photo or video with the hashtag #cats4earth on your instagram account and we will probably feature it on one of our partner accounts.
References: Okin GS (2017) Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats. PLoS ONE 12(8): e0181301. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181301
WHAT DO WE DO?
Cats4earth combines the attractiveness of cat content, which is among the most widely shared on social media, with a message for our planet earth. Our goal is to raise awareness for environmental protection, for endangered species and climate change.
We have seven main goals that we promote in our campaigns:
- Climate Change & Animal Rights (awareness about how animals suffer from climate change impacts)
- Reducing the worldwide carbon pawprints of humans and cats
- Organic & local food for humans & pets (campaigns to buy organic and local food to reduce carbon dioxide emissions)
- Natural, eco- and pet-friendly cleaning products
- Zero Waste (decrease waste production, increase the use of alternative packaging, raw feeding, recycling & composting)
- Clean Energy (from clean, renewable sources like solar and wind energy)
- Protection of flora and fauna, bees and other insects (no pesticides and insecticides)
At cats4earth, we are creating and sharing cat video campaigns about environmental protection, climate change and sustainability. We design and launch different environmental campaign topics, which our ambassadors post on their channels. Cats4earth uses cat video and photography content to spread simple messages and every day tips about how to protect our planet to audiences around the world.
Our aim is to stimulate a global movement and to encourage people to join the cats4earth campaigns with their own cats.
HOW TO JOIN
We are inviting all cats worldwide with an Instagram account to become a cats4earth ambassador. Cats4earth ambassadors share a love of cats and the environment. They will post on their own accounts with the hashtag #cats4earth about environmental topics, such as the beauty of the landscape, about weather conditions and climate impacts in their region. Additionally, all ideas concerning environmental protection are welcome. The cats4earth team features the best posts on the cats4earth account and across our network.
