The UN Patron of the Oceans Lewis Pugh begins his attempt at the coldest swim on Earth and the most challenging of his career. The 10km swim across the Ilulissat Iceford in Greenland commences today, following completion of his cold-water adaptation programme and training in Iceland, and will highlight the rapid melting as result of the Climate Crisis. Lewis will also call for 30% of the world’s oceans to be protected by 2030.
Pugh is attempting to swim across the 10-km mouth of the Ilulissat Icefjord, which is fed by the world’s fastest moving glacier. The swim is expected to take two weeks and Pugh will be the first person to attempt a multi-day swim in the Polar Regions.
Pugh will likely swim much further than the 10-km direct distance, as he will have to navigate around icebergs and brash ice, which won’t allow for swimming in a straight line. The water will be near freezing, and the wind chill could plummet temperatures deep into negative numbers.
The Ilulissat Glacier, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, moves at an average of 30 metres per day and sometimes even faster in the summer. The glacier calves an average of 30 cubic kilometres of ice into the sea every year. It produces 10% of all Greenland’s icebergs, some over 1 km tall and including, legend has it, the one that sank the Titanic.
If the entire Greenland Ice Sheet were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of over seven metres. Any sea-level rise will be devastating; one billion people live less than 10 metres above sea level. Just a one-metre rise would drown major cities like London, Tokyo and New York.
There's no better place in the world than Greenland to demonstrate the dramatic impact of the Climate Crisis. Lewis will once again put his life on the line to demonstrate to world leaders the speed of Global Warming. Greenland, the second largest ice mass in the world, is 2,900 km long, 1,100 km wide, and over 3 km thick in places. It has lost almost 4,000 billion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2018, causing the global mean sea level to rise by almost 11 mm.
Commenting ahead of the start of the swim Lewis Pugh said: ‘This swim will be the most challenging of my career. The intense cold-water adaptation and training in Iceland has been extremely hard, but nothing compared to what I will face here in Greenland over the next two weeks. No one has ever attempted a multi-day swim in such cold water before.’
‘My motivation for this swim is clear: we are an ice-dependent species. Ice keeps our planet cool enough for us to live. The Polar Regions and high-altitude glaciers are melting, and our collective survival is on the line. No ice, no life.’
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) make the oceans more resilient to climate change. At the UN Climate Conference (COP26) in Glasgow this November, Lewis will also call for 30% of the world’s oceans to be protected by 2030, stressing to world leaders the role healthy oceans play in mitigating climate change.
He will ask them to move beyond long-term commitments toward immediate urgent action.
Lewis Pugh added: ‘What happens in the Arctic will determine the future of our planet and everything that lives on it. The Polar Regions are feeling the effects of the Climate Crisis more dramatically than anywhere else on Earth. If temperatures continue to increase, the polar ice caps will melt and sea levels will rise. Unless we take urgent action to decrease global temperatures by seriously lowering our global CO2 emissions, low-lying islands and coastal cities will, quite literally, drown. The devastation of the natural world will affect every single person, every future generation and every creature, great and small, on this planet.’
During the expedition, the team will be able to share live action with the world’s media.
Following completion of the swim, Lewis will travel to London for media interviews and discussions with key leaders before attending COP26 in Glasgow in November.
This swim has been made possible with the support of our lead sponsors Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM), one of Europe’s largest asset managers and a major global investor who has consistently received A+ rankings for responsible investment strategy and active ownership by the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI).
Michelle Scrimgeour, CEO, LGIM said: “We are delighted to be supporting Lewis as he embarks on this extraordinary challenge; he has worked tirelessly to prepare for the most difficult swim of his career and we all wish him the very best of luck. Through this endurance swim and his focus on biodiversity, Lewis shares a common purpose with LGIM: our goal is to create a better future through responsible investing. Lewis has witnessed first-hand the damaging effects of climate change and in Greenland he will be highlighting once again the precarious state of our natural world. Climate change remains the number one challenge for us today. I am determined that we will do all that we can to tackle this. Inaction is not an option.”
Find out more about the Greenland swim and the 30x30 campaign.
Lewis Pugh Press Office
Lewispugh@welcometofrank.com
0207 693 6999
Rachel Harrison
Account Director
rachelharrison@welcometofrank.com
+447595658689
Eli Shebson
Account Manager
elishebson@welcometofrank.com
+447511 051 768
LGIM PR Team
LGIMPRTEAM@lgim.com
Lewis Pugh is an endurance swimmer and UN Patron of the Oceans. He pioneers swims in the most vulnerable ecosystems on Earth to campaign for their protection. He is also the first person to complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of the world. He was also the first person to swim across the North Pole, and the first person to swim the 528 km length of the English Channel.
Lewis has been instrumental in protecting over 2 million km², of vulnerable ocean – an area the size of Western Europe. He is now working to fully protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.
For more details on the Greenland 2021 expedition please go to www.lewispughfoundation.org
In 2018, Pugh swam the length of the English Channel from Land's End to Dover calling for the UK to protect 30% of oceans by 2030. After the swim the UK become the first major economy to commit to this target, and urged other nations to do the same. To date 86 nations have joined this call, making it the largest conservation drive in history.
The Ilulissat Glacier
Every year the Ilulissat Glacier calves an average of 30 cubic kilometres of ice into the sea. Due to global warming, the glacier is now melting at an accelerating scale and pace. It drains 6.5% of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the second largest body of ice in the world, into the Ilulissat Icefjord. If the entire Greenland Ice Sheet were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of over seven metres. With more than a third of the world’s population, including major cities like London, Tokyo and New York, living within 100 kilometres of the seashore, any rise in sea level will be devastating.
About Legal & General Investment Management
Legal & General Investment Management is one of Europe’s largest asset managers and a major global investor, with total assets under management of £1.33 trillion. We work with a wide range of global clients, including pension schemes, sovereign wealth funds, fund distributors and retail investors.
Throughout the past 40 years we have built our business through understanding what matters most to our clients and transforming this insight into valuable, accessible investment products and solutions. We provide investment expertise across the full spectrum of asset classes including fixed income, equities, commercial property and cash. Our capabilities range from index-tracking and active strategies to liquidity management and liability-based risk management solutions.
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The Lewis Pugh Foundation is a registered charity in England & Wales.
Charity Registration no. 1168977.
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