Over the past week, dozens of YouTubers have raised more than $10 million as part of a fundraiser to plant trees across the world. While the taunton tree services work to modify and remove trees for good, they are planting new trees for the better. It not only compensates for the rate of removal by tree services but compensates for the deforestation and industrialization happening.   The plan, called Team Trees, has YouTubers creating videos asking their viewers to donate money with the goal of raising $20 million to plant 20 million trees by the end of the year. The movement was first started by Jimmy Donaldson and Mark Rober.

Rober was a NASA engineer for seven years. Now, he makes YouTube videos with crazy experiments while explaining the science behind it in order to get others interested in science themselves. He has created glitter bombs disguised as packages to thwart thieves and filled an entire pool with Jell-O.

While Rober is a big part of the Team Trees movement, the main force behind this is the North Carolina native Jimmy Donaldson, more commonly known as MrBeast. MrBeast is mostly known for his random acts of generosity and crazy stunts, such as building a mansion out of cardboard boxes and going through the same drive-thru a thousand times. Donaldson and Rober have partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to raise the money and get the trees in the ground. 

TeamTrees had a number of goals to start with. For one, it was supposed to be a celebration of MrBeast passing 20 million subscribers. There was also the main goal of planting trees to improve the environment and contribute to combating climate change. YouTubers saw it as an opportunity to prove that they could be a force for good.

Two days after the Initiative started, Team Trees managed to raise $5 million from over 20,000 people, and the money has only increased from there. Those with influence and money to spare have donated large amounts to the cause, such as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who put in $350,000, Tesla CEO Elon Musk who donated $1 million, and the CEO of Shopify, Tobi Lutke, who donated one million and one dollars.

Team Trees kicked off on October 25th, and it has already raised over 10 million dollars. Rober knows that planting 20 million trees won’t solve climate change. However, in his YouTube video, Rober says that the purpose was to have a constructive and positive way to send a message to policymakers that this issue matters and that we need to keep this planet stable for generations to come. For those that have the money to spare, consider donating any amount to Team Trees at TeamTrees.org.