YouTubers Launch Tree-Planting Movement

By Michael Nellis

Image by Team Trees

A worldwide philanthropic movement dubbed “Team Trees” has raised over $14 million since Oct. 25 in an effort to plant 20 million trees by 2020. The fundraiser was started by YouTubers MrBeast and Mark Rober through the Arbor Day Foundation, which has pledged to plant one tree for every dollar donated.

The campaign began after MrBeast reached 20 million subscribers on YouTube. Notable contributors include Elon Musk and Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, who each donated $1 million, as well as Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, and the country of Ukraine.

Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change, as forests act as carbon sinks absorbing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The National Academy of Sciences states that restoring forests is, while not the only way, the greatest natural way to combat climate change. 

Between 1990 and 2016, the world lost 502,000 square miles of forest, according to the World Bank—an area larger than the country of South Africa. According to the World Wildlife Fund, 18.7 million acres of forests are lost every year, “equivalent to 27 soccer fields every minute.”

“We want to show that YouTube isn’t just a drama fest, that we actually have real influence and can make real change,” Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, said. 

“We know that 20 million trees isn’t going to cure climate change, but the point here is to end this decade on a super strong note,” Rober said in a promotional video. “It’s a constructive way to send a message to the politicians…. Plus we just really love trees, so this is like a fist pump to Mother Earth.”

Scientists and professors have stressed that the movement plant trees in the right places and in the right ways. “It turns out that many of these seedlings, if you don’t do this well or if people do it who don’t really care about those trees, then they all just die quickly,” said Eike Lüdeling, a professor at the University of Bonn. “Sometimes it’s probably a better idea to plant fewer trees and really take care of them.”

The Arbor Day Foundation has assured the public that it has kept these considerations in mind throughout its 47 years of planting and distributing over 250 million trees. The foundation partners with the U.S. Forest Service and other government agencies to do part of its groundwork and to make sure correct methods are carried out, such as knowing which species of tree to plant in a specific area. However, the foundation depends largely on public donations. 

“Much of the U.S. Forest Service budget has been diverted to simply fighting these massive fires, with much less funding left for replanting,” the foundation states on its website.

 If the fundraising goal is reached by January 2020, planting will begin immediately and will spread over the next few years until December 2022, in an effort to make sure planted trees can be adequately monitored and cared for. 

“We’re just not planting and walking away,” said the foundation’s public relations director, Danny Cohn.

The official Team Trees website says the movement is intended to “send a strong signal that this massive community cares about the planet we all call home” and to tell both those who follow the coalition of YouTubers and others that “planting trees is a simple solution that everyone can get behind.”

George Fox Cresent