Planting 20 Million Trees
YouTuber Calls On Subscribers To Help Plant 20 Million Trees
A group of YouTubers, headed by YouTuber ‘Mr. Beast,’ is raising money to attempt to plant 20 million trees by the end of 2020.
Mr. Beast, a popular YouTube creator known for his crazy stunts and giving away large sums of money to strangers, recently uploaded a video called “Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Biggest Project Ever.” The video came after fans spammed his social media channels, asking him to plant 20 million trees as a result of hitting 20 million subscribers. The YouTuber responded positively to the challenge, and nearly one-quarter of the goal was reached in just two days.
“People just keep making fun of our generation for retweet activism and not actually doing something,” said Mr. Beast in his YouTube video. “This is your chance to make a difference.”
As planting 20 million trees is a daunting task, Mr. Beast formed an alliance with Arbor Day Foundation, the largest non-profit tree planting organization. For every $1 donated, Arbor Day Foundation agreed to plant one tree. The goal is to reach $20 million by the end of the year so that all the trees can be planted before the end of 2020.
“Just to be clear, we all realize 20 million trees won’t fix climate change. But at the end of the day, 20 million more trees is better than [none]. We want to take action because doing nothing is how we got here,” tweeted Mr. Beast.
Many YouTubers like the Try Guys (6.2 million subscribers), FBE (19.7 million subscribers), Mark Rober (8.83 million subscribers) and Ninja (22.4 million subscribers) are also helping the cause, making it the largest YouTube collaboration of all time. All YouTubers, regardless of their following, are encouraged to make a video with #teamtrees asking viewers to donate. By having countless YouTubers flood the system with #teamtrees videos, the platform’s algorithm makes the hashtag trend.
“I personally haven’t been the most environmentally friendly,” said Mr. Beast. “A lot of you may be of the mindset of the old me, that basically someone else will figure it out,[but] that’s not how it works. We genuinely need all the help we can get.”
Those looking to become part of #teamtrees can visit www.teamtrees.org to learn more and donate.
