HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from TeamTrees vs REALITY!! Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

TeamTrees vs REALITY!!

17 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
Cited on HN 10 times, 2021–2025, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Used as a source for back-of-envelope numbers on tree planting and by critics of feel-good climate gestures.

Thunderf00t critiques the TeamTrees campaign, doing the math on how little carbon 20 million trees would actually offset. He argues that tree planting is far from adequate against global emissions.

3 citations · 7 critical · Commentary · partly dated

10 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@danuker Jul 2021 Cites it
on HN thread $100M xPrize for Carbon Removal
Planting trees it is very difficult to keep up with global production. TL; DW: planting 20 million trees would equal roughly the CO2 emissions of the USA for half a day. [this video]
Planting 20 million trees offsets about half a day of US CO2
@danuker Aug 2021 Cites it
on HN thread How green is blue hydrogen?
It is very difficult to keep up with global CO2 production by planting trees. TL; DW: planting 20 million trees would equal roughly the CO2 emissions of the USA for half a day. [this video]
Planting 20 million trees offsets about half a day of US CO2
@sacnoradhq Mar 2023 Pushes back
on HN thread An Introduction to Forest Carbon
Remember the delusional, happy-clappy "helping" of #teamtrees? Did they make a dent? And let's completely ignore that trees burn and biomass rots because the message of "I'm better than you!" is more important than reality of anthropogenic global warming. [this video] Rake America Great Again!
@1letterunixname Jul 2023 Pushes back
on HN thread House Republicans propose planting a trillion trees
House Republicans, now with more #TeamTrees. "TeamTrees vs REALITY!!" [this video] Climate change can best be solved by scalable biological means like phytoplankton and seaweed grown, processed, and sequestered by autonomous robotic platforms. (Sacrificial areas of deep water seem unavoidable.) Fractional distillation of air, planting trees, spraying substances in the air, and solar shades aren't going to work.
@sacnoradhq Oct 2023 Pushes back
on HN thread Many Climate 'Solutions' Are Dead Ends or Niches and Should Be Ignored
95% correct. "Planting a lot of trees" has been proven dead wrong because of simple math, plant matter decay, and increasing fucking forest fires. Instead, #teamtrees couldn't face reality while doing the disservice of misinforming and lying to millions of people for egotistical and aspirational post-factual rhetoric. [this video]
@hi-v-rocknroll Sep 2024 Pushes back
on HN thread How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)
So what really turned me off to this guy was his smarmy ~2019 campaign that also damaged my view of otherwise sensible Youtubers who shilled for him without thinking carefully. As such, pretending to save the planet while failing at math, logic, and physics because getting rich and being a internet->real celebrity are oh so much more important™ than emotionally and financially exploiting your audience or doing what you say you're going to do. sigh "#TeamTrees vs. REALITY" (2019, Phil Mason) [this video]
@magic_smoke_ee Jan 2025 Pushes back
on HN thread Where are Mr. Beast's early sponsors now?
I don't know who they were or who they were targeting. I only remember their #TeamTrees annoying nonsense from 2019 and the popular Youtubers who fell all over themselves trying to celebrate this greenwashing nonsense without using their brains first.[0] 0. TeamTrees vs REALITY!! [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close