Gérard Moss, MBE (born 16 May 1955, died 16 March 2022) was a Swiss-Brazilian pilot, engineer, public speaker, environmentalist and explorer born in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. As a pilot, Gerard was known for being the first person to complete a solo flight in a

motor glider A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: a fixed-wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion (MoP), capable of sustained soaring flig ...

around the world. Gérard and his wife Margi Moss are naturalized citizens of Brazil and until as late as 2012 were the only South American citizens considered Earthrounders. As an environmentalist, Gerard and his wife have started many projects to prevent

Deforestation in Brazil Brazil once had the highest deforestation rate in the world, and recent data still shows high rates of deforestation. Between 2001 and 2023, Brazil lost 68.9 Mha of tree cover (13% of its total tree cover lost since 2000), and in 2022, Brazilian ...

and evaluate the quality of its water and air. After living in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

for 25 years, the couple moved to

Brasília Brasília ( ; ) is the capital city, capital of Brazil and Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino ...

in 2006 to be closer to the

Amazon Rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

and begin the Flying Rivers project.

Early life and expeditions

The life of Gerard as an explorer started early. After getting his first passport at age 4, he would fly to England and Switzerland to visit his parents. In 1983, after graduating as a mechanical engineer, Gerard acquired his pilot license in California and arrived in Brazil, where he set up a maritime

freight In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...

business to transport soybeans. In 1989, he completed his first round the world flight along with Margi, whom he met in Búzios in 1985.

Four corners of the Americas

In 1997 he flew to the four corners of the American continent. Starting in Rio de Janeiro, he flew to Cape Froward, Chile in the extreme south, then the extreme west on

Cape Prince of Wales Cape Prince of Wales (; ) is the westernmost mainland point of the Americas. It was named in 1778 by Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy, presumably for the Prince of Wales at the time, George Augustus Frederick. Discovered (for Europe ...

, Alaska followed by Zenith Point in Canada and finally Ponta dos Seixas back in Brazil. His expedition was covered by

Rede Globo TV Globo (stylized as tvglobo; , ), formerly known as Rede Globo de Televisão (; shortened to Rede Globo) or simply known as Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965 ...

on ''

Fantástico ''Fantástico'' (originally known as ''Fantástico: O Show da Vida'', Portuguese for ''Fantastic The Show of Life'') is a Brazilian weekly television news program broadcast on Sunday nights on TV Globo since August 5, 1973, created by José Bon ...

''.

First motor glider flight around the world

In 2001, he completed the first flight around the world in a motor glider, using the Ximango manufactured in Brazil. The aircraft has a near-handcrafted production and proved to be very efficient. The journey was planned to be completed in 100 days. His expedition was once again covered by ''Fantástico'', a work that resulted in the book ''Asas Do Vento: A Primeira Volta Ao Mundo Num Motoplanador'' (''Wings of the Wind: The First World Tour in a Motorglider'').

Environmental projects

With the aid of his private flight experience, Moss was able to witness firsthand the effects of

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

and deforestation. His concerns grew into projects that aimed at conservation of Brazilian natural resources. His projects evaluated the quality of the air and the water in Brazil. In 2003 he started a project to analyze the waters of Brazilian

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

s and later started the Flying Rivers project.

Media relations

Gerard's expeditions have been covered by ''

'' on TV Globo and his projects have been covered by TV Câmara,

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

Estadão ''O Estado de S. Paulo'' (; ), also known as ''Estadão'' (; ), is a daily newspaper published in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the third largest newspaper in Brazil, and its format changed from broadsheet to berliner on October 17, 2021. It has t ...

, and several newspapers, magazines and websites, both Brazilian and foreign.

Flying Rivers

In 2007, Gérard, together with renowned Brazilian scientists, started a research project to evaluate the water flow from clouds and the possibility of

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

being caused by the deforestation of the

Amazon Forest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

. The project consists of acquiring water from the air to evaluate its origin and flow from the Amazon River to the south of the Americas. The project is part of a larger project called "Brasil das Águas" (Brazil of the Waters). According to Moss, the water flow carried by these flying rivers could equal that of the Amazon River itself since each tree can be responsible for 300 liters of atmospheric water per day. Between 2006 and 2007, seven Brazilian rivers were the target of studies ( Araguaia, Grande, Ribeira, Miranda, Ibicuí, Verde and Guaporé). In 2007, after collecting the samples, they started to compare them with the water vapors from the air. With the support of

University of São Paulo The Universidade de São Paulo (, USP) is a public research university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and the largest public university in Brazil. The university was founded on 25 January 1934, regrouping already existing schools in ...

and

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public university, public research university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the country and is one of the Brazilian centers of excellence in teaching and r ...

, they arrived at the conclusion that much of the water vapor comes from Amazonian rivers, creating a phenomenon termed "

flying river The flying river is a movement of large quantities of water vapor transported in the atmosphere from the Amazon Basin to other parts of South America. The forest trees release water vapor into the atmosphere through transpiration and this moisture ...

s".

Publications

Gerard and Margi have published several books reporting their experiences: * ''Asas Do Vento: A Primeira Volta Ao Mundo Num Motoplanador'' () * ''Volta Por Cima'' () * ''Freedom of the Skies'' () * ''Loucos por ti, América'' () * ''Extremos das Américas''