CONCEPT PAPER

 CONCEPT PAPER

#TEAMSEAS

 

Introduction

Water pollution is a widespread problem that endangers our health. Every year, unsafe drinking water kills more people than war and all other forms of violence combined. Meanwhile, our drinkable water sources are limited: we have access to less than 1% of the world's freshwater. Without action, the problems will worsen by 2050, when global demand for fresh water is expected to be one-third higher than it is now. #TeamSeas is a global campaign to raise $30M to remove 30M pounds of plastic and trash from our ocean, rivers, and beaches. It’s also the second wave of the largest creator-led fundraising campaign to ever hit the internet.

 

Description

This campaign, Team Seas, aims to remove 30 million pounds of trash and plastic from the ocean, rivers, and beaches. The removal of this trash has both immediate and long-term benefits for the ocean ecosystem. MrBeast, one of the most well-known YouTubers of all time, is organizing TEAM SEAS. This story began in 2019 when Mr. Beast reached 20 million subscribers on his main channel; on that day, Mr. Beast decided to plant 20 million trees. MrBeast and Mark Rober, two American YouTubers, spearheaded the initiative. TEAMTREES is the name of this collaborative fundraising event. Every dollar donated was used to plant one tree.

 

 

 

 

That means that one dollar is equivalent to planting one tree. By December 26, 2020, the project had raised $22,702,530, exceeding the fundraiser's goal of planting 20 million trees. The project had raised over $22.9 million and planted 7.1 million trees as of May 2021. Every dollar donated equates to one pound of trash removed from the ocean. The first goal is to remove 30 million pounds of trash and plastic from the ocean. This is only the beginning of the campaign, and an ambitious plan to reduce floating ocean plastic by 90% by 2040 is in the works.

 

 

 Purpose

Team Seas aims to remove 30,000,000 pounds (14,000,000 kg) of marine debris from the ocean by the end of 2021 by raising 30 million dollars, with one pound removed for every dollar donated. It was led by Jimmy Donaldson or what we call Mr. Beast.

• HOW ARE WE ACTUALLY GOING TO CLEAN UP ALL THIS TRASH?

          We’re glad you asked. Because 30M pounds is A LOT of trash (roughly equivalent to 85 football fields covered a foot deep). We’re dividing our work among three points of intervention: beaches, rivers, and oceans.

Beaches
With the experts at Ocean Conservancy, we’ll send professional crews to clean up some of the most iconic, vulnerable beaches on the planet. We’ll also be holding safe, locally-hosted #TeamSeas events leveraging Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) network so #TeamSeas supporters can roll up their sleeves and make an impact firsthand, one pound of trash at a time. The ICC is the largest beach cleanup network in the world (more than 350 million pounds of trash have been collected from beaches in its 35+ year history!)

Rivers
For our rivers, #TeamSeas will fund Interceptors™, The Ocean Cleanup’s river cleanup technologies that collect trash before it can reach the ocean. The Ocean Cleanup has several Interceptors already deployed in some of the world’s most polluted rivers to catch plastic and trash upstream. #TeamSeas will support the expansion and continued operation of this work as The Ocean Cleanup takes aim at the 1% of rivers which contribute 80% of the trash flowing into the ocean from rivers.

Oceans
Lost, abandoned, and discarded fishing gear – or ghost gear – is some of the deadliest ocean trash, and is super tricky to recover. #TeamSeas will work with Ocean Conservancy’s Global Ghost Gear Initiative® to go to ghost gear “graveyards,” where we’ll identify and float the abandoned gear to the surface, hook it onto boat cranes and remove it from the ocean forever.

 

Interactive multimedia used

#TEAMSEAS SOCIAL

Team Seas official Facebook page:

 

 

 

Team Seas official YouTube Chanel :

 

 

 

 

 

Support

Donate through their site:

https://teamseas.org/

or buy #TEAMSEAS merchandise in their official store:

https://store.teamseas.org/

 

Contact

Team Seas site

https://teamseas.org/

By Phone or Mail

Toll-free: 800-519-1541

Main: 202-429-5609

References

Denchak, M. (2022, April 18). Water Pollution: Everything You Need to Know. NRDC. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/water-pollution-everything-you-need-know

Help us remove 30 million pounds of trash by January 1st, 2022 - Join #TeamSeas. (n.d.). TeamSeas. https://teamseas.org