Man Swims Across North Pole To Show Global Warming Threat(for all the naysayers, (you will be shot like a polar bear!) in the name of our survival.

One of the worlds` most accomplished long-distance swimmers staged a unique form of one-man protest today to demonstrate the drastic impact of global warming at the North Pole. Lewis Gordon Pugh, a British citizen nicknamed ``the polar bear`` officially became the first person to swim at the North Pole after he completed a 1KM swim in the frigid waters on Monday.

The mere fact that Pugh was able to swim the Arctic, serves as testament that our climate is undergoing some complex ecological changes. In an interview conducted shortly before Pugh`s extreme polar swim he declared the political motivation behind his latest feat. "This will be, by far, the hardest swim I've ever undertaken. I hope it will help illustrate the incredible seriousness of climate change and put pressure on the leaders of the G8 summit to cut carbon emissions dramatically.``

Ecogeek, a widely-read environmental blog, noted that the arctic is now predominantly covered with water as opposed to a solid ice sheet. Their post documented Pugh`s experience in Arctic and long-distance swimming, `` Pugh previously achieved a cold-temperature swim record of 1 kilometer at 32 degrees off the coast of Antarctica wearing only a swim cap and Speedos. Now he's going to beat that, with 1 kilometer at 29 degrees at the North Pole.`` For those of us on the metric system, 29 degrees translates to a chilly 1.9 Celsius.

The author of EcoGeek`s post noted that Pugh`s attempt signified that we are past the breaking point for the effect of global warming on our ecosystem. ``It's not going to be a pleasant swim, but that's not the point. The point is that there is water at all. A mere five years ago, this would have been impossible. And now, there's going to be a guy swimming at the North Pole!``

Rumors of Pugh`s historic dip first started circulating in the green blogosphere several months ago in a post on Treehugger, who immediately pointed to the political nature of the event by stating ``he is doing this to highlight the impact of climate change--such a swim would have been impossible as little as 10 years ago.`` The rapidly deteriorating conditions in the Arctic have been extensively documented and predictions for the future are dire. In their post, Treehugger offered some insight on global warmings` impact on the Arctic. ``Experts predict that by 2040, the Arctic may be nearly devoid of sea ice during the late summer unless greenhouse gas emissions are significantly curtailed.``

Seemingly inspired by Pugh`s record attempt, Treehugger`s latest post also carries news of an attempt at a long-distance swim across the Baltic Sea. A Lithuanian man plans to swim from Sweden to Latvia in order to draw attention to the massive amount of pollution in the popular shipping route. The total trip is expected to be longer than 150 KM, and it serves as another example of how far some concerned greens are willing to go to raise awareness about the effects of global warming and pollution on our planets waterways.


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