E-Philanthropy Gets Environmental

YouTubers Jimmy Donaldson (“MrBeast” on YouTube), Mark Rober and many others have collaborated with the Arbor Day Foundation in a fundraiser called Team Trees, where their goal is to raise 20 million dollars to plant 20 million trees before 2020. 

The Arbor Day Foundation is the world’s largest non-profit organization that focuses on planting trees. For every dollar donated to Team Trees, the Arbor Day Foundation will plant one tree. These trees will be planted in almost every continent, in a variety of forests that need more trees. 

Environmental science teacher Marie Kuhn thinks that the 20 million trees “will make an impact, at least locally. Anytime we can take in carbon dioxide, it’s going to  be a good thing”. 

Planting a lot of trees will help, but will not bring the ultimate end to climate change. Reducing carbon emissions and using renewable energy are also important ways to help the problem, not just donating to Team Trees.

The goal of the fundraiser is to raise awareness among a younger, online-savvy audience of teenagers and college students.  

“I think that it’s the young kids that are going to help us to reverse the damage that is being done,” Kuhn said. “I really think that they are moving forward, not just in word, but in action. They are the ones that are going to say ‘I’m not going to stand for it and I’m going to do something about it.’”

The increasing popularity of Team Trees has attracted the attention of many celebrities. Elon Musk has “planted” 1,000,000 trees, while the Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke donated 1,000,001 trees to take the title of highest donor. 

Because of the YouTubers’ young audience, the majority of the small donations have come from students everywhere. One of the students who joined Team Trees is sophomore Ryan Hetchler who donated $20 to the cause. Although $20 seems small compared to the $20 million goal, he believes that collectively, students can make a difference. 

“If we all have that mentality, then 20 million seems like a small goal,” Hetchler said. 

“If we could just have the youth globally, all involved in this, we are going to make a change,” said Kuhn. “ We are going to slow and eventually reverse climate change”.