In honor of Earth Day, the worldwide climate awareness holiday on April 22, Meta has announced new fundraising tools and educational efforts, including expanded Instagram Reels possibilities for more than 30 nations to participate in digital fundraising. It has also mentioned tackling climate misinformation, restoring water, and a few other features related to Earth Day.
In Instagram’s short-form video platform Reels, users can now fundraise directly. When using the Reels fundraising feature on Instagram, users can choose from over a million registered organizations, and all proceeds go directly to the nonprofit of their choice. This feature, called the ‘Fundraise on Instagram Reels’, has been announced by the company with the goal to allow consumers to check out the initiative and support action against climate change.
Meta also informed that they cover the donation processing fees, ensuring that all funds raised through Instagram fundraisers go straight to the charity. In addition, the company has introduced the Sustainability Media Academy, which is a joint venture with EB Impact to assist Asian journalists in developing sustainability skills.
Messenger commemorates the Earth Day celebrations event by releasing visually intriguing camera stickers made by Aran Quinn, a well-known digital artist. On the Messenger Kids app, users can find some interesting frames with Earth Day themes, as well as AR masks that encourage kids to interact and engage more. Meta is also adding in Word Effects via Earth themes, as well as some unique 3D stickers with ecologically friendly terms like climate and wildlife incorporated in them.
In conjunction with worldwide organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Meta also updated Facebook’s Climate Science Center, a project focused on educating people about the climate problem and dispelling climate myths. The page contains connections to trustworthy sources on environmental science and climate change, as well as answers to frequently asked questions and misconceptions, climate quizzes, and the most recent climate news and research.
Users of the company’s virtual reality technology Meta Quest can now participate in interactive animal conservation excursions. Since the tools’ introduction, four million donors have donated to Facebook and Instagram fundraisers addressing climate change and environmental protection, raising more than $150 million, according to Meta.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), which was founded by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, announced in February, $44 million in funding to scale and develop technologies to address climate change as part of an exploration of cutting-edge and emerging solutions, such as carbon dioxide removal (CDR).
The couple have also donated $50 million to ocean conservation research at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.
(Photo/Credit: Image Facebook Meta)
