‘Mr Beast’ makes a Beautiful Effort For The Environment

The TeamTrees 20 Million Campaign

If there is anything that seems doable, when it comes to the environment, planting a tree probably ranks right up there among the top things everyone can actually do.  Pity that its much more easier than saving a tree, but that’s a story for another day.

Joining the many governments, organisations and individuals trying to  make a difference is Youtuber Jimmy Donaldson, who goes by the name of ‘MrBeast’. Jimmy has challenged himself to plant 20,000,000 trees, (20 million )with his friends and fans, of which he has over 25 million at least count.

Who is MrBeast?

MrBeast  is a well known 22 year old Youtuber from Carolina, United States, with 25 million subscribers as of the writing of this article. His real name is Jimmy Donaldson and he is well known for his videos that feature him and his friends doing various challenges and him giving away large sums of money. His 7 most popular videos are:

-I Put 100 Million Orbeez In My Friend’s Backyard

-I Donated 50000 Dollars to Ninja

-Last to leave circle gets 10000 dollars

-Spending 24 hours straight underwater

-Last to remove hand, gets Lamborghini

-I bought everything in a store

– Surprising Tfue with a Fortnite Battle Bus in real life

Most of the titles may seem like clickbait, but except for spending 24 hours underwater, which he couldn’t do because of seasickness, MrBeast has done exactly what the title says he will do in the video. MrBeast also holds the record for the most liked non-music video on youtube and has donated well over a million dollars to charity. So, it’s correct to assume that MrBeast will go through with this charity.

And in a strange way, Jimmy does have an India connection to thank for his incredible growth. Jimmy’s big moment came in October when the battle between T series (107 million followers)  and Pewdiepie ( 101 million followers)was still on, for the no. 1 spot among Youtube channels. Mr Beast  bought billboards, radio ads, and ad space anywhere he could, telling people to subscribe to Pewdiepie. That video got more than 19 million views and 869k likes. PewDiePie himself saw that video and gave him a shout-out, and in a later video of minecraft, he Joked about naming one of his pets Jimmy after his favourite Youtuber.

Many other videos followed, with Mr Beast taking the stakes up to $100,000 giveaways many times.

Videos such as “I opened a free car dealership” where all the cars were sold off for upto 10 dollars each made him a proper Youtube legend.

Of course, if virtually giving away cars was not so friendly for the environment, then some og his older videos would definitely raise the hackles of committed activists.  Many videos featured burning objects, just for fun.

But with #Team Trees, Jimmy might be just turning over a new leaf.

This is a  charity organized by  Mark Rober, another Youtuber  with 9 million followers, and MrBeast, that  aims to plant 20 million trees by 2020.

So, how does the event work?

The  event promises to plant a tree for every dollar donated to the charity.

Present Situation

The Charity has managed to raise over four  and a half million dollars in a span of 2 days, giving people 4 and a half million reasons to smile.  Top donations have come from MrBeast($ 200002) himself, Alan Walker($100001), Mark Rober and Jeffree Star($50000) and numerous other online influencers and celebrities joining the fray with donations ranging from $10000 to $15000.

Similar campaigns that come to mind, closer home is of course the billion trees campaigns in Pakistan, the Narmada tree plantation drive recently, and of course, the talk of the Green Wall of India that is still an idea .

In India, Cred, a startup for managing your credit card spending, has also got a campaign   going around tree plantation for some time now, with a target to plant 5,00,000 trees. That’s half a million, with Cred  still some way off from reaching  a significant share of the target. Perhaps, a case for enlisting India’s Youtube stars for the campaign?

With Inputs from Followers Yosha Singh and acraft8