Young Sustainability Advocates Offer Tips on How to Save the Planet
Discover their fascinating life and let them inspire you to take action.
Get to know an adventurous family
Dario and Sabine Schwoerer and their six children live on board the Pachamama, their 15 meter long sailing boat.
The family travels the world, teaching people how to live more sustainably. They visit schools, talk about their adventures and give tips on how to protect the environment. Pictured here is their trip to a school in Liverpool.
She is the oldest of all children. She says she learned to respect nature: “If it’s getting dark earlier, I just go to bed earlier. If an island has no garbage disposal, I wrap my sandwich in a leaf instead of in tin foil or plastic wrap.”
When he and his family are not on board their boat, they ride their bicycles to wherever they want to go. The family's goal is to rely only on renewable energies – for example their own muscle power on their bikes.
In this picture, we see him celebrate his 7th birthday at home – on the Pachamama sailing boat. Since space is limited on board, he and his siblings share a room. But Andri doesn’t mind. “Less cold at night” he says.
Alegra, like her brothers and sisters, is full of energy. In order to make sure that none of the kids ever fall overboard, there is a safety net encircling the deck of the boat. The children are also safely harnessed when the seas are rough.
She is the youngest person on the planet to have sailed the Arctic Channel. By doing so, the family aims to draw attention to global warming – climate change has resulted in thinning summer ice, making the historically impassable Northwest Passage navigable.
Save the world
Change something today
Learn from them and join their quest.
Don’t replace it, fix it
Less stuff, more freedom
Everything is a toy
A bottle is a rattle is a jar
Grow strong, change the world
No car, more fun
Learn to cook and reduce waste
Get out there
Let’s ask some questions
Why do we have to take care of our planet?
Noé: Because we want to have a healthy planet when we are old.
Could you give us some examples of where our planet is in danger?
Andri: In Bali, there was plastic everywhere in the mangrove forests. That's a breeding station for many different types of animals and fish. They eat the plastic and die.
Noé: In big cities, there are too many cars and poor public transportation. It’s too noisy for the birds.
Salina: In the Arctic, the ice is melting much earlier now and freezing much later. This change causes huge problems for the Inuit and their ability to hunt and get food.
Could you also give us some examples of where our planet is still doing well?
Noé: There are parks where they protect nature.
Salina: They are planting trees to reforest.
Andri: Once we were cycling along a field full of solar panels. It was so huge we rode for an hour before we got to the end of the field.
Tell us about your work. What do you do within TOPtoTOP?
Andri: We try to stop global warming. We help teach our class.
Noé: We also give tours on the boat and explain how we live.
When you visit schools, what do you tell the pupils?
Andri: We explain how we live with technology that produces renewable energy.
Salina: We offer them examples of how to do better – in particular examples taken from our journey.
How do the pupils react when they meet you?
Salina: They’d like to join us!
Which are the five most important things that can help save the planet?
Andri: Solar and wind power, owning fewer things, reusing your clothes, repairing things yourself, not throwing away so much.
Alegra: Don’t drive a car or fly a plane, don’t use plastic and don’t use things only once, like throwing your cup away after drinking a glass of water.
What do you like more? Living on water or on land?
Alegra: I slightly prefer the water because of all the beautiful sea creatures I can see.
Noé: Both.
Andri: Both.
Salina: Both.
Do you have duties?
Noé: I love birds and like to share my knowledge about birds with others. I am also our observer on board: I look out for other boats, upcoming storms; I watch the cloud formations, spot animals – but also plastic debris.
Alegra: I’m responsible for turning on the boat’s light at night, so the other boats can see us. In schools, I talk about polar bears. I am also good at collecting plastic.
Andri: I am the navigating assistant.
Salina: I talk about our expedition. I help take care of my youngest siblings and I like to cook.
Salina: There is a teacher with us on our expedition. When we’re at sea, we go to boat school. When we’re hiking up a mountain, we go to tent school. When we’re on land, we also go to regular school.
What do you like most about your adventurous life?
Alegra: I love to watch the dolphins.
Noé: I like it when we see whales and birds. Once we had a sea lion live on our boat for a whole week.
Salina: What I like most is experiencing different cultures and countries