Interview with Louis Palmer

How did you have this idea of a solar powered butterfly?

When I was a child, 40 years ago, our teacher already told us about global warming and its consequences. I always thought that our society and our leaders will do something about it. Today I am not only disappointed, but also concerned. So I decided to do something.

How do you want to contribute to stop global warming?

Cllimate change is a problem that concerns all of us. Everyone of us has a choice of either being part of the problem, or part of the solution. The whole world is full of solutions.  It’s crazy that we have money for all kinds of things on this planet, but the solutions to stop global warming simply don’t prevail. I think global warming is just not important enough for many people, and political leaders. We want to give  attention to positive examples and raise awareness the solutions. We are on an educational tour. 

Why a butterfly?

If we want to create attention for a certain project, we need the press. For that, we must create events around them. We are planning to visit more than 1000 projects in 4 years and create events with the local people, schools, political leaders and the media. If we want to make it interesting, we need something that draws attention, something unique. Best would be a striking vehicle. So I decided to build a huge butterfly, which is at the same time a role model for sustainable living. 

What's the analogy with the butterfly?

A butterfly is a symbol for transformation. It starts his life as a caterpillar. A caterpillar depends 100 % on the ground. Same with us humans. We are also  depending on everything in the ground, like petrol, coal and gas. But the caterpillar can do the unthinkable, it can transform itself into something beautiful that becomes independent from the ground. What the caterpillar can do, we human beings can do, too! With clean energies and technologies, we can become independent from fossil fuels. 

Have you ever done something similar?

Yes of course! In 2007-2008 I did the first world circumnavigation with a solar powered vehicle, the so called “Solartaxi”, There I learned: If you take a striking vehicle and if you have a positive message, then you will get lots of attention for your mission. With the solartaxi we reached the attention of 770 million people worldwide. 

Can anyone join on this tour?

Yes! We are looking for people who want to join us. In order to avoid flights, our crew members stay with us for the duration of a whole continent, so between one and 6 months. 

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Will you join the tour, too?

Only in Switzerland and certain parts in Europe. I see my part in the organisation of the tour and the events, I will run our headquarter in Lucerne, Switzerland. I rather leave the journey to motivated people who are looking for an experience of a lifetime. There are plenty of people out there who are courageous, skilled and highly motivated. 

Which route are you planning to take?

After our start in Geneva at United Nations on the 23d of May 2022,  our plan was to visit 90 countries and 6 continents. After covering more than half of our way, we have covered more than 70’000 km and it’s not sure if we skip Australia or if we can be there in 2026, for the United Nations World Climate Change Conference. So far every year in the summer, we were back in Switzerland for maintenance and for visiting schools.

What about the winter? Do you have enough energy?

We will always travel in the spring, summer or autumn months. This is easy… when there is winter in the North, there is summer in the South. 

What about the CO2 emissions from your transports over the Oceans?

Unfortunately, there are no sailboats yet that can transport our vehicles from one continent to the other. So we depend on shipping. We are offsetting all our CO2 emissions from flights and shipping and also from the production of the SolarButterfly with our partner myclimate. We contribute to projects where the same amount of CO2, that we produce, is being avoided somewhere else on the planet. So our whole travelling is CO2 neutral.