Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey collaborate with YouTuber MrBeast to plant 20 million trees
YouTuber MrBeast has raised $6 million from across the globe already. According to him, for each dollar donated, a tree will be planted on barren land.
The Amazon Forest in Brazil is considered to be the largest carbon sink in the world for its ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, in mid-2019, we saw huge patches in the Amazon, turning into ash from wildfires.
According to a report published by National Geographic, in August, about 76,000 fires were burning across the Brazilian Amazon at last official count, an increase of over 80 percent over the same time period last year. The data was collected from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
When the largest forest cover in this planet burns due to the effects of climate change, it brings out the question – what can we do to save our environment? We will find plenty of answers. But, planting trees and conserving them is one of the important initiatives.
Jimmy Donaldson (Image: Dexerto.com)
While many governments and NGOs have been doing their bit to save the planet, YouTubers have also joined the ranks to help in the effort. One such internet celebrity is Jimmy Donaldson, who is known by his YouTube name, MrBeast.
A stunt philanthropist, Jimmy, recently touched 20 million subscribers and is planning to plant 20 million trees by raising $20 million. He has planted over six million trees with the help of his followers to date.
Now, he aims to plant 20 million more by the end of January 2020, in collaboration with the Arbor Day Foundation, one of the largest non-profit tree-planting organisations.
Helping hands
To achieve this feat, the 21-year-old YouTuber has raised $6 million from across the globe. According to him, for each dollar donated, a tree will be planted on barren land.
Image: Teamtrees.org
Jimmy has donated $100,102 and has created #TeamTree challenge to call out all social media influencers to join him. One can donate on teamtrees.org for the cause. Well-known YouTubers such as MKBHD, The Infographics Show, Linus Tech Tips, Mrwhosetheboss, among others, have also joined Jimmy in his efforts.
He also got a generous donation of $1 million from Tesla Founder Elon Musk, who also changed his name to ‘Treelon’ and added an image of a forest as his featured image on Twitter, The Verge reported. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square, and Co-founder of Twitter also donated $1.5 million to the cause.
The Impact
A popular YouTube channel The Infographics Show made a video to show the impact of this tree-plantation drive which was viewed by over six million people.
According to the video featured, an urban area with matured trees can cool the atmosphere by 11 degrees in the summertime and also eliminate the need for air conditioners in a building, reducing the electricity cost by 30 percent.
With 20 million trees, a staggering $60 million can be saved annually in electricity costs, and about 220 billion gallons of water could be saved as groundwater.
How did it all begin
Jimmy is known for his philanthropist activities, where he tips thousands of dollars to taxi drivers and further gives away a lot of free stuff. Witnessing this, his fans, out of fun asked him to plant 20 million trees.
What started as a joke, in no time turned into a social media frenzy on Twitter, Reddit, and Instagram. It took several thousands of messages for Jimmy who decided to plant 20 million trees.
On October 26, 2019, he also uploaded a video on his channel titled ‘Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Biggest Project Ever!’, Fossbytes reported.
(Edited by Suman Singh)
