BlogUofTO

Jump to Comments

By Simran Randhawa

On October 29th, 2021, Jimmy Donaldson, popularly known as the YouTuber and philanthropist, MrBeast, started trending on YouTube with another eco-friendly challenge for viewers: to help clean the seas. Collaborating with Mark Rober, a fellow Youtuber and former NASA engineer, MrBeast hopes to beat his previous record with #TeamTrees, where he helped raise over 20 million dollars in planting 20 million trees before January 01st, 2020, by raising over 30 million dollars with #TeamSeas and cleaning up over 30 million pounds of waste from rivers, beaches, and oceans.

I first came across the #TeamSeas campaign while watching the latest video on Doctor Mike’s channel, who is a YouTuber and medical professional educating viewers about the realities of medicine and the life of family care practitioner (no, I’m not studying medicine – I just prefer Doctor Mike over Grey’s Anatomy – I said what I said!). In his video, Doctor Mike introduces his partnership alongside other creators around the world with #TeamSeas.

I’m not too big on social media but I’ve always loved seeing individuals with money, influence, and means use their platform for eco- and just initiatives. That’s when I did some research, came across MrBeast’s and Mark Rober’s videos on #TeamSeas.

As I write this article, MrBeast’s video with #TeamSeas has over 29 million views, but I’m sure that by the time you read this, it’ll have much more. In his video, MrBeast is set on one of the dirtiest beaches on Earth, polluted with garbage, lots and lots of plastic, and… underwear? Working with a large group of volunteers, MrBeast and his friends clean up the entire beach by picking it up, using sifts, and filling up an entire parking lot with garbage and recycling bags. He also had a group clean another beach nearby once informed by locals about it. After 4 days of cleaning, MrBeast and the volunteers cleaned up over 60 000 pounds of trash!

Mark Rober also shared a video with #TeamSeas and in collaboration with MrBeast where he competes with him and hundreds of volunteers on who can collect the most trash. Rober showed his viewers how he would collect trash differently from his competitors on the beach with the help of his one and only teammate: the 004 Interceptor of The Ocean Cleanup, or as he calls it, “floating 50 ton trash-eating robot.” In the end, MrBeast and the volunteers collected 62 738 pounds of trash from the beach, beating Rober and the 004 Interceptor which collected 37 824 pounds from the river. Despite MrBeast’s win, this trash-collecting machine is a great product that can do the work of hundreds of volunteers all by itself.

Other YouTubers are also getting involved with the eco-friendly campaign and raising awareness on their channels, and both MrBeast and Rober brought this issue to Jimmy Kimmel Live on November 02nd – continuing to spread awareness with their platforms and others’! In less than a week, MrBeast’s campaign for #TeamSeas raised 10 million dollars (and it might be more when you read this)!

Every dollar you donate is one less pound of trash in the ocean, and the goal of 30 million dollars can remove 30 million pounds!

So, go, donate now! Volunteer! Spread awareness! MrBeast used his platform to encourage necessary change, as did Mark Rober. Maybe it’s time for us to use our influence in that same way, even if it’s just holding ourselves accountable for what change we can make in this world. After all, it’s our future and our home on the line.