Meet Mr. Beast — YouTuber Raising Money To Plant 20 Million Trees To Save The Planet
This is freaking awesome!
Instagram YouTuber Mr. Beast, also known as Jimmy Donaldson, started the initiative #TeamTrees on October 25th after reaching his 20 million subscriber milestone. The 'Team Trees' initiative was created to commemorate his milestone by setting an online goal to reach enough donations to plant 20 million trees by next year.
According to Business Insider, 'Team Trees' has already raised over half of his goal currently at $10.7 million. The initiative started by Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson and Mark Rober has captured the interest of many top influencers including Elon Musk who can do no wrong and recently donated a million dollars! Donaldson is best known for creating viral videos by putting 100 million Orbeez in a pool or donating tens of thousands of dollars to streamers. Rober is a former NASA mechanical engineer turned YouTuber, who worked on the Curiosity Rover for seven years, so his content is science-based. He told Newsweek that he "tries to get people pumped about science and education through monthly videos that often involve some kind of build."
The Team Trees team has since partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation where fans can donate $1 (here) for each tree to be planted. What an awesome cause to be initiated for the sake of our planet. Hopefully, Team Trees can continue making a great impact and influence others to make the world a better place. Who is Mr. Beast?
1. #TeamTrees started as a petition on Reddit
The Team Trees initiative came about when a Redditor shared a Lisa Simpson meme with the words "Petition for MrBeast to plant 20 million trees for 20 million subscribers special," displayed on the board. From here, the post must have gone pretty viral because Mr. Beast saw it and took it upon himself to put the idea into action. A Reddit sub for the organization, r/teamtrees, has also been created amid the initiative and currently has over 20,000 members with news and updates on the cause.
2. Ecologist Thomas Crowther said trees are what could help fight climate change
In February, ecologist Thomas Crowther told The Independent that trees are “our most powerful weapon in the fight against climate change” because they suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Increasing the number of trees on Earth by about a trillion would be enough to counteract a decade’s worth of human emissions, Crowther predicted.
It's crazy to think 20 million trees seem like an insane number but not when compared to a trillion; however, it is a huge deal that so many people are coming together to help the Earth and this cause is definitely making a huge impact! It was a big move for Mr. Beast to take it upon himself to bring light to such an important issue, impacting many to act.
RELATED: 40 Best Environmental Quotes To Inspire You To Do Your Part To Save The Earth
3. CEO Tobi Lütke one-upped Elon Musk’s donation (literally)
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke made a pledge on October 30th for a million and one dollars, shortly after Elon Musk's donation of one million. The CEO shared his donation on Twitter and the caption (in response to #TeamTrees) reads: “Good idea. OK Boomers, on behalf of 1,000,000 Shopify merchants and my own defunct snowboarding store, I‘ll donate 1,000,001 trees. @MrBeastYT @elonmusk.” Elon Musk even responded to congratulate Lütke for his donation and success with Shopify.
4. Rober is blown away by how much money Team Trees has already made
According to Newsweek, Team Trees made $5 million from over 20,000 people in just 48 hours! When asked what Rober thought about the success of the organization he said, “I'm blown away, none of us had any idea he would go that big. (Musk) is already doing so much for the future of our planet, so it makes sense he would want to be part of this."
5. Rober wants this initiative to leave a lasting impact on everyone
Rober knows that this initiative won't solve climate change but that has never been the goal of Team Trees. According to Newsweek, he said, "The purpose of this whole thing was to have a constructive and positive way to send a message to the policymakers that this issue matters," Rover said. "As influencers by definition we have influence, and we're using ours to make taking care of Mother Earth cool."
6. The trees will be planted beginning in January 2020
According to the Team Trees website, “Trees will be planted throughout the year starting in January of 2020 and completed no later than December 2022. We treat your donation with the greatest respect, so we’re working with Arbor Day Foundation to ensure high survivability rates for all the trees planted as part of Team Trees. Sure, you could plant trees faster, but you’d be risking the integrity of this vision.”
Elizabeth Ward is a writing student finishing her bachelor’s at the University of Louisville. She covers news, entertainment, relationships and everything in between.