Unpacking the Instagram trend that says someone will plant a tree if you post a pet picture

In the last few hours, Instagram has been flooded with people posting a cute picture of their pet with the aim that someone will plant a tree. But the thing is, no one actually knows who is planting these trees. So it’s all a bit confusing. You’re probably thinking where the hell did this trend come from, who started it and who is supposedly going out to plant all of these damn trees? Here’s an explanation of everything you need to know about this trend:

Okay so the plant one tree for every pet picture Instagram trend is fake

If you click on the “add yours” sticker that everyone is attaching to their story, you won’t see who started the trend. But you will see everyone you know who has participated in it. It’s went viral pretty quickly (probably because of the cute pets) but sadly it is just a bait trend. There’s no real intention behind it so…thanks for the dog pictures I guess.

When you Google the trend all you get is random YouTube videos uploaded recently showing you how to participate in the trend. The comment sections are full of people asking the same thing: who is planting the trees? Well now they know, no one is.

People on Twitter seemed to crack the code quite early one. One person tweeted a video of someone planting and captioned it: “The girl who made the ‘post a photo of your pet and I’ll plant a tree’ planting over half a million trees right now.”

Another person pointed out the obvious and said: “You’re all very silly posting your pet photos on Instagram thinking someone is actually going to plant a tree for you” – They’re not wrong, though, are they?

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Petition to keep James Corden out of Wicked musical movie has over 25,000 signatures

• We asked a relationship expert to explain why women find men like Pete Davidson so hot

• This YouTuber has created his very own Squid Game and is offering the winner $456,000