What Will 20,000,000 Trees Actually Do?  

Internet: *plants trees* Botanists: god I hope they aren't invasive species

Mr. Beast: plants 20 million trees Logging companies 25 years from now: Its free real estate

Kyle: I'm not a Super Villain Also Kyle: I'm fascinated by nuclear weapons

17:40 - I'm a nuclear engineer working at a place that has researched used nuclear fuel recycling for decades. You are spot on--most nuclear "waste" is scrap, clothes and tools that have radioactive materials (like powder, for example) on them, etc. This waste usually poses very little threat, but is treated as though it were toxic because of the political and cultural sensitivity to radiation. Used fuel, which is used to sustain the nuclear chain reaction in a reactor, contains multiple isotopes of pretty much every element on the periodic table. Because of this, it is chemically toxic, and the amount of energy (radiation) coming off it due to decay is impressive. However, the amount of used nuclear fuel (and other waste, for that matter) is not only far less per unit energy than coal, but it's far less per unit energy produced than wind, solar, natural gas, or any other known form of power production. Wind and solar harvest minuscule amounts of energy in the form of electric fields. Coal and natural gas harvest significant amounts of energy from chemical bonds. Nuclear harvests insane amounts of energy from nuclear forces. For example, a solar panel produces a few hundred watts in full sunlight; gasoline has about 13 kWh per kilogram; and low-enriched uranium used in correct reactors has 1080 MWh per kg. That's over 80,000 times the energy density in nuclear compared to burning fossil fuel, which is why there is so little waste. As for the cooling pool: the used fuel is left in a cooling pool (underwater) while the shorter-lived isotopes decay. As these decay away, the amount of energy coming off the fuel (radiation) drops significantly. Typically, current reactors store this fuel for 10 years, reducing the activity to single digits of what it was when it came out of the reactor core. It's also not useless--as I said, it contains some of every element on the periodic table. My facility recycles it by pulling out uranium and heavier elements (trans-uranics), all of which can be re-cast into new fuel. Removing these also results in significantly less waste, and that waste is dangerously radioactive for far less time. Overall, most people in nuclear is not concerned about spent fuel waste because we have multiple solutions for it with different economic viability. Burying it is the cheapest option, and so that's what we're going for. We have the technical know-how to recycle it and pull out multiple useful elements, isotopes, and even recover unfissioned fuel--it's just more expensive to do that than throw it away. Just like it's cheaper to throw away solar panels after 10-20 years than to try to recycle them.

internet: Plants 20 million trees. Kyle: It's a statement

I love it when Kyle clearly misunderstands a question but makes it interesting anyway.

7:25 that would be 50 THOUSAND times, not just fifty

RU-vid 2018: Tide pods 2019: Saving the world by planting 20 million trees They grow up so fast 😭

Lol I could see Kyle watching the bomb going off and when Oppenheimer would say "now I have.. Kyle would interrupt "....have become death destroyer of worlds" "I mean I'm not supervillain"

Normal question: Kyle: bread igloo

The Australian Government in 2014: "We'll plant 20 million trees by 2020" The internet: "Hold my beer"

Hey Kyle as much as I'd miss the show, we all care enough about you, we could deal with you taking a week off.

To plant all these trees brings attention to the issue, puts it into perspective while also showing that every person can do a little to help.

The fact that he makes writing backwards looks so easy is amazing, especially while spiting out information.

So, super villain Kyle wants to go back in time to have his "Now I Am Become Death, Destroyer Of Worlds", moment?

I see this as a stepping stone to a greater solution. Showing that people can come together and change the world

Intro finishes at 4:00

Internet: *Plants trees* California: Yeah about that

5:10 nate bringing some sass into the void😂

Question... if you travel in time... wouldn't the place you end up be a problem? I would image you come in the same point of space when you time travel right? In the oast and future the earth would be on a different location, wouldn't that mean you end up in just empty space?

"Daylight Savings Time should die" YES. *PLEASE.*

The look of wonder on Kyle's face as he pondered the idea of the moon dissapearing just further solidifies the idea that he's a super villain.

With that hair and facial hair, with you discussing this topic, I feel compelled to refer to you as Tree-sus...

Kyle: we use metric, because, you know, its easier americans: wait, what's illegal

Kyle, as an English teacher I'm always trying to find something that my students will consider reading. I have a few gentlemen in my class that are huge fans of yours, do you have any suggestions for must read science texts. I've already suggested Neil Degrasse Tyson's Astro Physics for Peeps in a Hurry.

Estonian State Forest Management Center planted 21 million trees this year.

I was having a rough day, but then I go on here and watch this (even if I can't watch it live)... Igloo out of bread loaves and a swimming pool of warm rising bread dough.... Thank you for helping brighten my day with silliness and science. ^-^

"daylight saving time should die" YES!!!! HAVE A LIKE!

“Raising cows for meat is so bad, because methane, so we need to do something about that.” Ron White: “I am. I’m eating the cows. But I’m just one man!”

The fact he cuts away for the adds and the picks right back up where he left off makes this so much more watchable and entertaining!

“We use metrics because....Its easier” I’m 79% sure that he was about to say “Because it would be stupid not to”

Hey Kyle, just a quick correction. A toroid (doughnut) shaped planet is possible. Though highly unlikely, we could have this if the planet were spinning fast enough, which would balance the force of gravity using centripetal forces. This would create weird gravitational effects on the planet, having 1/2 the gravity in equators as you would on the poles and horrible weather patterns. Dyson published in 1893 (doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1893.0002) a study of such a thing and found that if the rotation is high enough that the major radius / minor radius > 3 it is unstable. There is also a lower rotation rate where the ring becomes unstable to tidal forces and implodes into an ellipsoid. So the total mass and angular momentum need to be in the right region for these planets to exist. Though improbable, they are still possible.

You should pin the URL so people know where to donate.

0:20 drew a sexy tree there.

3:27 50 times 20 million is a billion not trillion, a trillion is 50000 times more (ALOT MORE) please let me know if you meant to say a billion because that makes more sense

Kyle would like to place himself in a swimming pool's worth of warm rising bread dough. Kyle is the Breadmaster supervillain from The Tick, confirmed.

I love “This is Not to Scale” the show

Nate. Please continue to make voices for every name that asks questions. It just too beautiful and too hilarious

10:03 I didn't know I wanted this until you said it

The nuclear museum in Las Vegas is actually pretty awesome at getting a hint of the experience of what it is like to be at the nuclear test site. They have a portion where you stand inside a small bunker... and see on a screen the blast. the whole area shakes and is loud. It is pretty fascinating. I definitely recommend it for anyone who is interested in that sort of thing.

Hi Kyle, big fan of the show. You mentioned that methane is 4x stronger than carbon dioxide as a green house gas. Would it be a good idea (or possible) to combust the methane to form carbon dioxide and water to reduce the green house effect from methane by 75%?

The science behind the Tardis from Doctor Who is a video we need

Could you do a video calculating how fast Sonic (videogames) should be to achieve all they stuff he does (loops, jumps, destroy robots)?

Joined Team Trees, thanks to you Kyle. I like also to mention that from those youtubers I saw, you explained what it is the nicest.

Algae grow faster and produce more oxygen. Plant it !!! "Aquaman"

4:57 .. I'm Kyle Hill - and I think I got this..!

13:50 atomic bomb... That was a bright idea. 🤣😂🤣😂😂😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😂🤣😂

Nice live episode Kyle, perfect hair:) Important note about WATER: what these trees can help increase the amount of underground water on local levels. In central Europe, we experience record dry years. I can tell from my own experience a company bought and cut out forest on top of a relatively small 5x5km hill near my village. In 2 years our well went dry because of the underground stream disappeared. Also now there is a mud layer all over the roads under the hill when it is raining.

Ironically, it may be that the logging industry is a net positive towards the environment. As I understand it, young trees remove much more carbon from the atmosphere than mature trees because young trees increase their mass at a higher rate than mature trees. As Veritasium has taught us (and Kyle just told us as well), the mass of a tree is almost entirely carbon. Logging companies plant at least one tree for every tree they cut down. So in effect, a logging company's entire business models is swapping young trees for mature trees. So long as the chopped wood is not burned, it can be seen as sequestered carbon. Granted, animals that make their homes in old growth forests may not appreciate the benefits, but the more wood we use for anything besides fuel, the better it is for reducing climate change.

Plant 20,000,000 Mulberries: Morus (plant), are fast growing and provide fruit to eat and will spread via wildlife and human interactions. Mulberries can grow almost anywhere with enough moisture, even from cuttings, even stumps of branches will grow a new tree. Such a versatile tree, could fertilize a desert region :)

15:30 so what about the halo rings? Would they be able to hold shape?

1 Trillion, which is about 50x more than we're planting now. 20Mil x 50 is only 1Bil. I think you meant to say 50, 000x unless you're referring to all trees planted per year

Image Mr. Beast plants so many trees, the oxygen content of the Earth goes up enough to support giant insects and behemoths again.

The way that these trees are planted and the management techniques used to carry out this project are going to be crucial to its success.

I donated $20. It makes me happy that someone is doing something, since the Senate refuses to.

A manmade (or alien-made) donut planet is in fact possible. It relies on a concept called active support, rather than passive structural integrity like in modern skyscrapers. The specific kind of active support you would use to make this sort of planet is called an orbital ring. The basic version of this is to make a giant hula hoop with the same diameter as your planet, then spin it so fast that it is traveling at orbital velocity. Then use electromagnets to levitate things above the orbital ring. As you add stationary objects supported by these electromagnets, you will need to rotate the ring faster so that the net momentum of the whole system is enough to maintain a stable orbit. Scale this up dramatically, and you can have a shell of orbital rings in a spherical shape, then use electromagnetism to levitate a planetary crust above it. Very difficult, but physically possible with such mundane materials as copper and steel. To get different planetary shapes, such as a disk or a donut, you would need to change the geometry of your network of orbital rings. A diskworld could be made by having all the orbital rings in the same plane. And a donut should be possible by getting these orbital rings in the right orientation and size relative to each other. You could then fill the shell world with hydrogen or a black hole or iron to provide enough gravity to have people comfortable on the planet’s surface. Hydrogen makes the most sense if you have access to fusion and essentially makes your planet a giant fuel depot for the civilization that lives on it. You can make gravity point in unusual directions by using a variable density inside of the artificial planets, for example concentrating mass near the rim of a flat earth so that gravity always points downwards for those on the surface. The largest possible such structure is known as a Birch planet. The idea is to make an artificial world with many, many layers stacked on top of one another, stopping the construction project just before you risk collapsing the whole structure into a black hole due to its immense mass.

Could you technically control all of the elements if you had the power of telekinesis?

We cut down 7 billion trees a YEAR but we only replant 1.6 billion, so that means 5.4 trees are not replanted, AND trees take about 10 YEARS to grow to 15 feet (Unless it's a slow growing tree) We have to change this very soon and start replanting more!

Hi Kyle, in street fighter Guile performs a sonic booms, is he's arms moving faster then sound to do this? Kan he in theory move his body at these speed?

Two points about the methane that cows produce: Feedlot cows produce more methane than ranged cows fed on grass. And, there is a simple method to almost entirely stop bovine from producing methane, feeding them seaweed supplement. There are three different studies from universities on two different continents to verify the observations made by a farmer in PEI Canada, that cow methane production is reduced by 70-80% with a generic seaweed mix. Consistent numbers are difficult to find, but a rough estimate could mean an annul reduction of human caused GHG effect by at least 5%, probably more, within the span of months if implemented world-wide. Some specific seaweeds have been shown to reduce methane production by 95-100%. The CBC did a bit of a report on it, but few people seem aware of this fix. The best part is that environmental issues were not the primary concerns, the seaweed was meant to be an inexpensive mineral supplement for improving the cow's health which it also does to a very great degree. With the methane effectively out of the picture, cows (and other livestock) are a net-gain for the environment and atmospheric GHG levels because of interactions of grazing and land improvement.

You're supposed to say you know a little about a lot of stuff.

It's the enviromental equivalent of "you can't outrun a bad diet". It's a good start but as Kyle points out we need to work at the other end of the problem.

3:26 1,000,000,000,000 = 50 * 20,000,000 Am I the only one that sees the problem here?

The real wonder is how perfect he writes backwards

Very little, we chop down 2 billion trees a year.

Hi Kyle, Love the videos. Here are some things to think about with tree planting. There are a lot of variables when considering the impact of trees on climate change. While trees do sequester carbon from the air the actual impact from that depends a lot on their age and other factors. The type of tree planted, for example, will have a major impact on the amount of carbon it will take in, how long the tree will live and what benefits that tree will provide. Additionally, tree mortality and life span will also be heavily impacted by where they are planted. Some of the biggest impacts of mitigating climate change in urban areas come from the externalities of the tree cover, such as the shade from the canopy reducing A/C costs. For tree planting projects it can also be important to consider tree variety to ensure the overall resiliency of the newly created canopy. Additionally, how the trees are grown, planted, and shipped can actually add carbon to the environment. Planting trees is an incredible way to help and the Arbor Day foundation have a lot experience in this work. Amazing how such a simple idea can actually be so complicated.

Obviously we need GMO trees that grow bigger and pull in more carbon.

20:50 That's unnecessarily mean. Now I don't have anyone to hug .

Kyle, if you had eyes as big as they do in anime cartoons, how would that affect your eyesight

There was also a study showing that the corn grown in America absorbs more than the forest in south America.

“It would take 1 trillion, that’s fifty times more than what we are doing rn” dude 20,000,000x50 is 1 billion so actually it is 50,000 times what we are doing rn so good luck earth

"so our hearts and minds are in the right place" I have a heart and a mind....I don't have any money though

A Japanese soldier saw the atomic blast in ww2 his eyes melted

I love Nates hesitance with Kyle and his questions. I would do the same lol

Please use SI or metric units 🙏🙏

Never thought i would see the day you got a simple maths equation wrong on this channel 50 x 20million is a billion not a trillion :(

Ah love it when people say all we need to do is plant trees. First off what kind of trees, where are you planting them and just where are the 20million coming from? The whole average carbon absorbed thing is bs. Trees have two ways of producing energy. The first is of course photo synthesis which absorbs co2. The other is breathing. Taking in oxygen to release stored energy and produce co2 instead. Closer to the poles you get and less light a tree gets the more they have to rely on the second form. So all the slow growing pine and spruce trees that you see? They grow slowly because they dont actually absorb much co2. Then ever actually work in a tree nursery? Usually they are harvested in the fall and winter when the trees are less active and moving them is less damaging. In giant warehouse facilities that need to be heated because otherwise the workers will revolt. Add on to that transporting them, transporting all the volunteer workers who will be planting them and the fact that alot of those 20 million probably wont even grow. The whole planting trees to save the planet in north america is just a feel good exercise. Youd need to repopulate the jungles to actually have a positive impact.

i just realized each time he writes some thing he writes it backwards, now that's some talent

The moon question thing has to be dragon ball and dragon ball z related

This is amazing. I'm not one of these people that thinks that the earth is doomed in 10 years if we dont shut down all emissions right now, but I do think that anything that positively impacts the climate/environment is a great thing. I'm even working to figure out what it would take to start a company that goes around setting up beehives in voluntary participants yards to help combat the decline in honey bee populations. Keep doing what you're doing Kyle. You guys are great.

Stop telling people to change their clocks. It's 2019, they change themselves now.

Hey Kyle, great show. Since you like nucleair related content, wrap your head around this one: The heavy elements like uranium we use in reactors is a product of super novae (and or neutron star colissions). So they are formed from the energy released of dying stars. Star fossiles if you will. Wich would make nucleair power kind of a fossile fuel. (Still carbon free though).

GMO Tree's that grow faster stronger and suck more carbon emissions

2:35 wow Kyle your metric tons are heavier than mine!

If you live in a sunny climate i highly recommend investing in a two wheeler as opposed to a car. I've been riding a little 125cc scooter for a year now. You'll save a ton of money and reduce your carbon footprint. Weeaaooooww.

3:30 1 trillion 🌳 ...this means 50.000 more...not 50 😊

Dear Kyle. First of all, love your show. If I put a working flashlight in space, would eventually because of Newton's third law the flashlight reach the speed of light?

Thumbs up purely for the editing to make sure the video starts without several minutes of wasted time.

#Iamthenerdiest can nuclear waste be reused in any form, I'm asking because human answering gives a better understanding

Would be cool to see you do a video on different types of Fission / Fusion, different materials like Uranium / Thorium / Plutonium. And maybe reactor designs like Molten Salt etc as well. As someone with a bit more than a passing interest in Nuclear Reactors, would love to see your take on each.

"I'm not a working scientist" makes money talking about science

Something that might work is taking the CO2 out of the atmosphere ourselves and, taking a note for trees, using that CO2 to produce stable plastics. A recently research process showed a way to turn CO2 into plastic, which would make it much easier to sequester than other methods, especially since we have such a problem getting rid of plastic already. If we are able to either properly store the CO2 plastic, or use it for core building processes (long term structures), we could begin undoing that CO2 we released from burning fossil fuels which were locked away out of the natural cycle.

In 2045, I will drive through the forest that MrBeast created.

Just a thought on that doughnut planet. What if the doughnut had a ridiculous rotational speed? Maybe it would help to resist the force of gravity trying to collapse the hole. It would have to be ridiculously fast though.

While trees store CO2, don't they also release it back into the environment when they die? If so what if every tree on earth died and released their CO2?

Thank's you very much Joel. The swiss knife method worked fantastically

TELL IT TO INDIA WHERE THEIR AIR HAS BECOME SO TOXIC THAT ALL THE CITIZENS MUST WEAR GAS MASKS. LAST I HEARD, WE DON'T NEED GAS MASKS IN THE USA.

Great episode! Thank you! A statement AND a start. Also, thank you for the grind. Your content is inspirational.

#TeamTrees call me in 5 years when literally none of this money has been appropriately spent on planting trees! :V

right before 20:20 in the video, Kyle: it was 50/50. you either had no idea what I was talking about or thought it was the nerdiest coolest thing ever Me: I must be the / in the middle because I had half of an idea of what you were talking about, and thought it was almost the nerdiest coolest thing ever.