Posted on 05/28/2007 10:10:14 AM PDT by Zakeet
A British adventurer is planning to highlight the effects of global warming by becoming the first person to swim at the North Pole and break his own record for the coldest swim.
Sporting just a cap, trunks and goggles, Lewis Gordon Pugh will swim 1 km (0.6 miles) in water at a temperature of minus 1.8 degrees Celsius on July 15, a dip he expects to last 21 minutes.
Such a swim would have been impossible as little as 10 years ago because the water would have been frozen, Pugh says.
"Most people have no idea that you can find patches of open sea at the North Pole in summer," said Pugh, who set the record for the coldest human swim off Antarctica at 0 degrees Celsius.
"I can't think of a better way to show that climate change is a reality than by swimming in a place that should be totally frozen over. I hope it will ... put pressure on the leaders of the G8 summit to cut carbon emissions dramatically," he said in a statement.
Climate change is expected to be high on the agenda at a meeting of the Group of Eight leading industrial countries in Germany next month.
Last year Pugh broke his own world record for the longest ice water swim by covering 1.2 km in a fjord in the Norwegian mountains, staying in the water for 23 minutes 50 seconds.
Any normal person would hyperventilate, suffer extreme shock and drown within minutes of jumping into near freezing water, but Pugh -- nicknamed the Polar Bear because of his ability to withstand freezing temperatures -- is made of sterner stuff.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Well isn’t that special.
Nevermind.
There is something very odd about this man. This would kill your average person in a few minutes, if that long.
I’ve been refreshing to see to how many posts it would take for him to be mentioned. :-)
“”Most people have no idea that you can find patches of open sea at the North Pole in summer,” said Pugh, “
Duhhhh!
Who’da thought ice MELTS in the SUMMER.
What about “shrinkage?”
"Most people have no idea that you can find patches of open sea at the North Pole in summer," said Pugh, who set the record for the coldest human swim off Antarctica at 0 degrees Celsius.
Ah, the sound of the clueless elitist...who while proclaiming that most people have no idea that you can find patches of open water at the North Pole, also doesn't realize himself that it's not simply a recent development.
He'll probably be devoured by a polar bear.
He probably freeze to death.
I thought it was too I was wondering how they were going to get the Oldsmobile up to the North pole.
Didn’t the submarine Nautilus surface at the North Pole?
Teddy is going north?
It must be nice to not have to work for a living like the rest of us.
LOL! Living in his home state and old enough to remember what happened, I too thought it was about "the swimmer"!
Easy and free, and it is even carbon-credit neutral! Bang head faster for more power.
I don't think so. Global warming killed all but two. And they are stranded on an iceberg. I saw the picture.
my money is on that he freezes to death.
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