Oceans campaigner and endurance swimmer, Lewis Pugh, is set to undergo a climate swim, touted as “the coldest swim on Earth” to highlight the damaging effects of climate change.

Pugh is best known for undertaking the first swim across the North Pole in 2007 with the aim of highlighting the melting of the Arctic Sea ice. In 2010 he swam across a glacial lake on Mount Everest, to draw attention to the melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas and the impact the reduced water supply will have on peace in the region.

He also swam the full length of the English Channel In 2018 to call for 30% of the world’s oceans to be protected by 2030.

Now in 2021, Lewis Pugh is set to, in over the course of two weeks, swim across the mouth of Greenland’s Ilulissat Icefjord, which is fed by the world’s fastest-moving glacier,- shifting an average of 30m per day and calving over 30 cubic km of ice into the sea every year.

“In two weeks I will attempt the toughest swim of my life across Greenland’s Ilulissat Icefjord. There is no better place in the world to show the dramatic impact of the Climate Crisis. This is ground zero,” Pugh announced on Twitter.

“Ilulissat calves massive icebergs (including, legend has it, the one that sank the Titanic) and helps scientists understand how quickly glaciers are retreating due to climate change”.

The climate swimmer has also in a video shared on his Twitter handle documented a video of the Greenland ice sheet melting, saying “It is an existential threat to life on Earth”.

lulissat Glacier

The Ilulissat Glacier, on the west coast of Greenland, drains around 30 cubic kilometres of ice per year into the sea. Some of the icebergs that break from the glacier are over one kilometre tall.

The glacier is reportedly melting at an accelerating scale and pace due to warming air and ocean temperatures, an average of 30 m per day, and even faster in summer.

Scientists warn that if the entire Greenland Ice Sheet were to melt, it would lead to a global sea-level rise of over 7 metres.

To put that in perspective, as Lewis says in his Blog, “just a one-meter rise would drown major cities like London, Tokyo and New York,”.

“I believe there is no better place in the world than Ilulissat to show the dramatic impact of the Climate Crisis. This will be the longest, coldest swim of my life”.

Lewis climate swim precedes the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), set to be held in Glasgow on 31 October – 12 November 2021.

COP26 seeks to bring all stakeholders together to key among other goals;

• Secure global net-zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach
• Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats
• Mobilize finance
• Work together to deliver towards climate change adaptation

Climate Change adaptation safeguards people from higher temperatures, rising seas, fiercer storms, unpredictable rainfall & more acidic oceans