YouTubers fighting climate change celebrate 20 million trees planted
The world is looking a little bit greener today.
Team Trees took to Instagram on Friday with the news that donations received so far will fund the planting of 20 million new trees. The campaign launched back in late October with the ambitious goal of raising enough money by 2020 to pay for the planting 20 million new trees, at $1 per tree.
The roots of this campaign (pun definitely intended), which is working in a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, took hold in an unexpected place. It all started back in May 2019, when the YouTuber Jimmy "Mr. Beast" Donaldson was looking for a way to celebrate after hitting 20 million subscribers.
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He soon realized after asking fans for advice that he could use his expanding reach to promote a greener world. In the months that followed, Donaldson partnered with a group of fellow YouTubers as they all agreed to call on their subscribers – totaling around 650 million – to donate money that would then go to the Arbor Day Foundation.
The whole operation was finally formalized on Oct. 25, with a Mr. Beast video (among others from his various partners) laying out the plan and the launch of the TeamTrees.org website. Meanwhile, YouTube agreed to waive any transaction fees connected to the donations.
And that was that. With the videos released and the site launched, the goal of 20 million tree plantings worth of donations by the start of 2020 was set. And as Team Trees confirmed on Dec. 20, charitable fans delivered in less than two months time.
The actual trees won't be planted until the new year begins, in case it's not clear. No one's rushing out to get a fresh 20 million trees in the ground over the remaining 10 days in 2019. But they're paid for in donations, with the total as of mid-day Dec. 21 now having reached more than 20.3 million trees.
Mark Rober, one of the YouTubers who partnered with Mr. Beast and a former NASA engineer himself, made it clear at the outset of the campaign that actions like this won't solve climate change on their own. They're important, though.
"The point here is to end the decade on a super strong note," Rober said at the time. "It's a constructive way to send a message to the politicians that it's freaking time to do something about climate change. Plus, we just really love trees, so this is like a fist bump to Mother Earth."
Topics Activism Social Good Sustainability YouTube
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
