A British man has become the first person to swim the icy waters near the North Pole, in an effort to raise awareness of how global warming is affecting the polar ice cap.
Lewis Gordon Pugh, 37, took 18 minutes and 50 seconds to swim 1km in the -1C water, which he claims is the coldest water ever swam in.
Mr Pugh said he hoped his feat would inspire world leaders to take climate change seriously.
The swim took place in a water hole where the usually thick polar ice has melted due to climate change.
According to a recent United Nations report, the Arctic ice sheet has shrunk by up to 7% in winter and up to 12% in summer over the past 30 years.
'I am obviously ecstatic to have succeeded, but this swim is a triumph and a tragedy: a triumph that I could swim in such ferocious conditions but a tragedy that it's possible to swim at the North Pole', said Mr Pugh.
Lewis Gordon Pugh, an adveturer and swimmer, is one of the few people to have completed long-distance swims on each of the world's five continents.
In 2004, he became the first in the world to swim the full length of Norway's longest fjord, Sognefjord, which measures 204km.
