About the talk:

Zuzanna Łukasik is a passionate explorer. She set off on an unforgettable Arctic expedition while still in high school. More recently she discovered that it’s actually much harder to change the environment closest to home. This summer, with a group of friends she built a raft out of recycled materials and floated down the Vistula River from Kraków to Gdańsk to raise environmental awareness in Poland and reintroduce us to the beauty of this river.

Recorded during: TEDxKraków 2012

About the speaker:

Those who attended last year’s TEDxYouth@Kraków are undoubtedly familiar with Zuzanna (or Zula) Łukasik. This young and passionate explorer spoke about her observations on her experiences in exploring the Arctic.

Born and raised in Kraków, Zula set off on an Arctic expedition while still in high school as part of Mike Horn’s Young Explorers Program. She fell in love with the region and felt a deep responsibility to protect it. More recently, however, she discovered that you don’t have to go to the other end of the world to try to change it – it’s actually much harder to change the environment closest to home.

Zula’s next mission took her down our very own Vistula River. After returning home, she gathered some recycled materials, convinced some friends to help her and together they built a raft that would take them down the Vistula River from Kraków to Gdańsk.

The Baltica project was designed to raise Polish environmental awareness and explore the Vistula ‘from the water’. In Kraków schools, the project team conducted a series of workshops on recycling and the natural environment of the Vistula River, combined with a collection of plastic bottles that would be used to make the raft. All of the construction materials used in the raft came from the trash.

In the future, the project will be continued and extended to include an expanded educational campaign, collaboration with organizations protecting the Vistula, an exhibition of photographs from the river, and many other unique ideas.