PA / PixabayTesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has donated a whopping $1 million to #TeamTrees to plant 20 million trees.
The project, created by YouTubers MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) and Mark Rober, came to fruition following a tweet suggesting MrBeast should plant 20 million trees after he hit 20 million subscribers on YouTube.
MrBeast and and several fellow vloggers have partnered to make this come true, aiming to raise $20 million for the Arbor Day Foundation.
Several famous people have donated to the cause, including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, musician Alan Walker, and MrBeast himself. At the time of writing the number of funds donated stands at $7,922,669.
The biggest shock donation comes from Elon Musk, who out of the blue donated $1 million to plant trees around the world.
Musk initially showed interest in the project yesterday when he questioned the type of trees being planted as part of MrBeast’s fundraising effort.
After Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) responded to Musk telling him the trees would be planted ‘in a forest of high need’, Musk was convinced the project was ‘legit’.
He announced he was donating one million trees, which shows up on the #teamtrees website as the biggest donation.
Ok, sounds legit, will donate 1M trees
— Treelon (@elonmusk) October 29, 2019
The fact he has the ability to donate $1m on the spot is absolutely insane. At least we know his money is going to a good cause.
According to MrBeast himself, the 20 million trees are being planted on every continent across the world, apart from Antarctica.
Elon Musk has gone on to state as a joke the reason he’s donated to the cause is ‘for Treebeard’. The Lord of the Rings character is a talking tree, proclaimed by Gandalf as ‘the oldest living thing that still walks beneath the Sun upon this Middle-earth’.
#teamtreesFor all we know, Elon Musk may have helped to plant the next Treebeard on Earth.
There’s still a long way to go for the donation target to be met, but YouTube has said it will match the next million dollar donation to YouTube through the donate button on the video streaming platform.
This is a fantastic initiative, and we wish the project the best of luck in reaching its target!
Matt Weston is a lover of electric cars, artificial intelligence and space. From Cornwall, he’s a UCLan graduate that still dreams of being a Formula One driver in the very near future. Previously work includes reporting for regional newspapers and freelance video for the International Business Times.