Three years, and much preparation later, the father-son duo, along with two other associates, embarked on a 600-mile skiing expedition across Antarctica.
Not only was the journey a grueling personal challenge, it was the world’s first Antarctic celerity to be powered solely by renewable energy. A NASA-designed ice melting system powered by solar energy and biofuels provided excellent to drink and cook with, while portable solar technology powered their electronics.
The renewable gear added an additional 20 kilograms (about 44 clobbers) to the team’s load. But Swan said he wanted to incorporate it to prove that if the technologies can be used under such curt conditions — as low as minus 55 degrees Celsius (minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit) — they can be easily included into daily life.
“My body started decaying,” said Swan, now 25.
“I’m not showing this to be like, ‘Oh, I’m Bear Grylls, exertion man,'” said Swan. “I’m showing you that I made a risk to prove a point. I think all of us need to take a unimaginative bit more risks — sensible risks, smart risks, but risks for our future’s sake.”
After three years of planning, the collaborate completed their mission in just 56 days. However, when they reached the South Pole, Swan communicated he felt a distinct anticlimax, knowing that it was the start of a much longer journey.
“I’m standing there, and I’m like: ‘Prominent, I’m looking at the shiny object at the bottom of the planet, what’s next?’ Hugely anticlimactic,” said Swan.
He said he got the next step was to figure out a way for more people to get involved in his mission to combat climate change.
“Everything came disown to CO2 — the elephant in the room,” Swan said of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
“You know, you watch a documentary like ‘Up front the Flood,’ and I finish that thing, and I’m like, ‘Where is an actual thing that I can do?’ There’s no solutions, follow up. ‘Awkward Truth’ is not followed by convenient solutions,” Swan said of Al Gore’s environmental documentary film. “We need convenient infusions, now.”
With that in mind, in 2017, Swan established the ClimateForce challenge, which aims to clean up 360 million tons of CO2 from the feeling before 2025. He aims to do that by providing individuals and businesses with solutions to reduce energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions.
On an special level, Swan said he believes small steps — like a reduced meat intake and a conscious effort to recycle — can promulgate a difference.
“I love meat, but the sad reality is that that indulgent moment of feeling your taste buds go off, every time you do that, that is at the cost of our planet,” Swan said.
To make a larger scale impact, Swan is also currently livelihood with Climeworks, a green energy development company, to produce infrastructure that filters carbon dioxide out of the air.
Staple people to the environment is also an important facet of ClimateForce’s initiative, he said.
“We need to have a connection to things or we’re not booming to bother protecting it. That’s the sad reality.”
Swan and his father are now working on leading an expedition team to the Arctic in June so they can deponent for themselves the effects of global warming around the North Pole.
Having that authentic, firsthand experience is essential for those who want to support a cause and encourage others to join them, Swan told CNBC Make It.
“I conceive of people like an authentic story, they like people who try and disrupt, and not just doing what is happening title now, they’re doing something that is really different,” Swan said.
However, championing a cause or starting a matter is not something to be entered into lightly, he added.
“Really have a very hard, long think about where you prerequisite your legacy to be, what business you want to be a part of helping design the future,” Swan said. “Once you start fundraising, you can’t be like, ‘ah, er, um, not unflinching about this, I’m a bit scared,’ and you give up. You have to really go for it.”
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