With a combined 650 million subscribers — nearly double the population of the United States — a coalition of YouTubers wants to tackle the climate crisis by raising $20 million to plant 20 million trees.
The fundraising effort is being organized by Mr. Beast, or Jimmy Donaldson, a famous YouTuber who was inspired by his followers when they spammed him to plant 20 million trees to celebrate his subscriber count. Instead of singlehandedly saving the planet, Mr. Beast put out a call to subscribers: Every dollar donated to the Arbor Day Foundation accounts for one tree planting.
Other major YouTubers have also joined the effort by giving their channels to the cause. The goal is to flood YouTube with fundraising content, gaming the algorithm into pushing as many environmental videos on the platform’s Trending page as possible and even dominate people’s homepages and recommendations.
