Endangered World: Adopt a Species

ADOPT: Life Wall | 360 species | “Adopt” a Species | Upload Photo | Participant Gallery

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By engaging in eco-actions, participants “adopt” one of the 360 endangered animals featured in Xavier Cortada’s “Endangered World: Life Wall” at the Hunebed Center in the Netherlands’ Drenthe Province.

  • Find a small stone and mark it (paint, carve, write) with the longitudinal degree (e.g., 86E) where the animal struggles for survival.
  • Engage in an eco-action (e.g. plant a native tree) on behalf or your adopted animal.
  • Take a photo of the stone (on white background)

Stone by stone, each of us is rebuilding the Life Wall.

Participate

Xavier Cortada’s Endangered World: Life Wall is a participatory eco-art project that invites you to pledge an “eco-action” that will help mitigate the threats to one of 360 endangered animals from around the world. To demonstrate this connection, each participant is asked to help build the Life Wall by finding and marking a stone for the animal they’ve adopted.

Adopt An Animal

This site contains information about 360 endangered species—one for each longitudinal degree on the globe. This represents our “Endangered World” and the serious threats to biodiversity.

Take some time to browse through these animals in the “360 endangered species” section of this site. Read more about the animals that pique your interest. One of the main tenets of environmental activism is “Think Globally, Act Locally.”

Try to find an animal that intrigues and inspires you, or an animal that you have some connection to—maybe you share a homeland, or maybe you have traveled to the animal’s natural habitat.  By acting locally, you can help protect the habitat of your adopted animal wherever it lives on Earth.

Mark your stone

Find a stone and write, carve or paint the longitude of the animal you’ve adopted on it.  Please keep your marked stone in a place where you can see it on a daily basis (e.g., a paperweight on your desk) to remind you to engage in sustainable practices every day that support your adopted animal.

Pledge an “Eco-action”

You will be asked to make a pledge to engage in one “eco-action” that can limit the effects of climate change.

Think about the factors that threaten your animal’s survival. Since many of these animals are suffering on account of global climate change, your action may be aimed at reducing your carbon footprint—making an effort to ride a bicycle to work, or make your home more energy-efficient.

There is no action too big or too small. If you’ve never taken steps in your personal life to fighting climate change, then baby steps are welcome. We encourage you to aim high, but whatever it is, just make sure you can do it. Big projects are grand, but they don’t mean anything if they don’t get done. Make sure to make a pledge that is not going to fall by the wayside.

To see 360 examples of participants’ eco-actions please click here.

Document and connect

Document your experience following through on your pledged “eco-action.”

  • Take a photo of your “marked” stone (with longitude visible) on a white background.
  • Take a photo of yourself (with the stone in your hand) as you engage in the eco-action.

Write us a description of your eco-action and send us pictures on the Upload your photo page.