Tesla CEO Elon Musk has donated $1 million to #TeamTrees after previously announcing that he’s financially illiquid.
Treelon Musk
#TeamTrees is a tree-planting campaign, that has a goal to raise $20 million to plant 20 million trees, by 2022. For every dollar donated, a tree gets planted. YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, started this climate fighting fundraiser back in May 2019. The project is a partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, the longest-running tree-planting nongovernmental organization. Since May, the campaign has already raised $15,908,761 and counting!
When Musk found out about what MrBeast was working on, he was intrigued. He wrote on Donaldson’s tweet calling the campaign “cool” and asked about what kind of trees they will plant. MrBeast responded that the type of tree depends on where it goes, and they will plant the trees on every continent except Antarctica. “Ok, sounds legit, will donate 1M trees,” Musk responded.
Donaldson replied to Musk, calling him “Treelon Musk.” That inspired him to change his Twitter name to “Treelon,” and to top it off, Musk even made his profile picture an image of a forest.
Musk And MrBeast
Musk has engaged with MrBeast in the past. Donaldson promised Musk that he would buy a Tesla if he could arrange for an episode of “Meme Review” to be hosted on the channel of Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg. After Musk followed through with the request MrBeast kept his word. Since then, Donaldson has asked Musk if he would help him “vlog on the moon.”
Unexpected Donation
Musk’s significant donation announcement came unexpected, as he reported that he’s “financially illiquid,” following a defamation lawsuit. Musk is worth roughly $23.6 billion, though most of his net worth is in the form of stocks in his two companies – SpaceX and Tesla.
In 2018, a British cave diver named Vernon Unsworth criticized Musk’s attempts to aid the rescue of a boys soccer team that got stuck in a cave in Thailand. In reaction to this, Musk called Unworth “pedo guy” and a “child rapist,” adding ” I fucking hope he sues me,” on Twitter. Soon after, Unsworth filed a defamation suit against Musk, and the trial is set to be in December. 3rd 2019, in Los Angeles.
In a court filing, Musk told lawyers representing Unsworth that, despite his massive stock holdings in Tesla and SpaceX, he was financially illiquid. Given these financial statements, it came as a surprise when Musk hit top record with 1 million trees donated.
#TeamTrees isn’t the only donation that Musk has followed up on after promised on Twitter, previously Musk donated to schools in Flint, Michigan. The donation allowed the schools to install UV water filtration for their water fountains after the Flint water crisis.
Other Big Donors
The campaign has received many significant donations, listed below are some of the big donors:
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke – 1,000,001 trees
Elon Musk -1,000,000 trees
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey – 150,000 trees
EDM musician Alan Walker – 100,001 trees
Former NASA engineer Mark Rober – 50,000 trees
YouTuber Jeffree Star – 50,000 trees
Donaldson wrote in a tweet that YouTube plans on matching the next million dollars donated to #TeamTrees through the YouTube donate button.
