Lewis Pugh’s Greenland #ClimateSwim Highlights Impact of Climate Crisis
August 27, 2021
On Wednesday, renowned endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh - the first-ever Beyond Sport Global Award winner in the Climate category and UN Patron of the Oceans - embarked on “the coldest swim on Earth.” His tough 10K swim across Greenland's Ilulissat Icefjord, fed by the world’s fastest-moving glacier, will highlight the dramtic impact of the climate crisis ahead of the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26).
No one has ever attempted a multi-day swim in the Polar Regions. Sea temperatures in the region range from minus 1.7 Celsius to 4 Celsius, and scientists and medics are unsure whether it is even safe to expose the human body repeatedly to such cold temperatures. On the first day, he covered 1029 metres. Pugh's "Climate Swim" is expected to take two weeks.
In November, Pugh will attend COP26 in Glasgow and aims to use the story of his swim to illustrate the speed of the climate crisis. He will ask the world leaders at the conference to move beyond the proposed long-term commitments towards climate change and propose urgent action. As UN Patron of the Oceans, Pugh will also stress the role healthy oceans play in mitigating against climate change and call for more countries to commit to protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.
The swim comes after the UN issued an alarming report on global warming and the irreversible path of climate change. The report sounded for a ‘code red for humanity’ and illustrates that deadly heatwaves, hurricanes and other weather extremes will only become more severe. In addition, the report says the global warming limit of 1.5 Celsius could be hit within 20 years and therefore the melting ice sheets will exceed the 18 metres it has already risen.
“We need all hands on deck now. We need action,” Pugh said. “Every single degree that this planet heats up has a big impact. It may sound over the top to say it, but I think the next 80 days will be the most important in human history.”
Due to warming temperatures, the Ilulissat Glacier - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - is melting at an accelerating rate and pace. Scientists warn that if the entire Greenland Ice Sheet were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of over seven metres. “I want people to know the speed at which the change is occurring in the Arctic and the impact that is going to have on all of us,” Pugh said. “This is a swim, an appeal to world leaders to build bridges, to work together, to work diligently now to find the solutions which we need to solve this crisis.”
Pugh has undertaken swimming endurance feats for almost 20 years to raise awareness of climate change and global warming. In January 2020, he completed a 10 minute and 17-second swim under the East Antarctic ice sheet to call for action on climate change and for the creation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) around Antarctica. He stated that this swim is a lot more extensive and his ‘most challenging’ ever.