For Lewis Pugh, it was a love of the environment and a passionate desire to save the Arctic from global warming. His 1 km swim (0.62 of a mile) in 2007 made him the first person to complete a long-distance swim at the North Pole -- the purpose, to highlight the fact that it was possible to swim for a kilometer in a place that should be solid ice. Pugh, now aged 39, is a former maritime lawyer who abandoned his practice six years ago to become a full-time environmentalist and adventurer. Since then he has become the first person to complete long-distance swims in all five of the world's oceans and has become the world's leading cold water swimmer. Born in England and brought up in South Africa, Pugh sees himself in the mould of pioneering adventurers like Sir Edmund Hillary, fearlessly braving waters no one else would dare swim. But rather than just aiming for a place in the history books, his motivation is to publicize the environmental damage he has witnessed on his swims. Citeşte tot articolul → The Human Polar Bear