Mark Rober and Jimmy Donaldson

Saving the world’s oceans with YouTube

Meet Mark Rober and Jimmy Donaldson AKA ‘MrBeast’, two of the world’s most popular YouTube personalities who are on a mission to raise $30 million to remove 30 million pounds of waste from oceans, rivers, and beaches over the next 3 years.

If you’re over the age of 25, these names probably won’t sound familiar but mention them to any young members of your family, they’ll reply with loud squeals and fist pumps.

At 23-years old, Kansas-born Jimmy (MrBeast) is one of the most-viewed people on YouTube with over 72 million subscribers tuning into his big money giveaways and stunts. Meanwhile 41-year old Mark is an ex-NASA engineer, who applies his experience from working on projects like the Curiosity rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to crazy experiments for kids, making him the world’s coolest science teacher with almost 20 million subscribers.

The two YouTubers first joined forces in 2019, turning their popularity into purpose with #TeamTrees, a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation where they aimed to raise $20 million to plant 20 million trees. The initiative became one of the largest creator-led fundraising campaigns in history, bringing in over $23 million and two years on is still receiving enough donations to plant 2,600 trees per day.

For #TeamSeas, Jimmy and Mark have partnered with non-profit organisations Ocean Conservancy, a volunteer based program and Ocean Cleanup which uses a solar-powered machine to remove trash. Both organisations have pledged to remove one pound of rubbish for every dollar raised. Since launching on October 29th, #TeamSeas has already raised over $17 million.

Although many people still see YouTube as a platform for silly videos and gaming, Jimmy believes it can be a powerful driver for change and wants wants to prove that “Gen Z” can make a difference beyond “just retweets.” And there’s every chance the difference these two Youtubers make will impact not just their sizable audiences but future generations as well.

“Some of the challenges we face won't be solved in our lifetime, but this is one that we can solve. The Great Pacific garbage patch is big, but in 10 years, with the right funding, we can remove that out of the ocean.”- Mark Rober