If you thought that jumping off the Forty Foot in Dun Laoighre on Christmas Day was extreme, you haven't met Lewis Pugh. The British-South African endurance swimmer joined Ryan Tubridy to talk about his extreme swims in the North and South Poles to highlight the problem of climate change. Five years ago, Lewis was appointed UN Patron of the Oceans, which means he serves as a voice for endangered regions and their inhabitants, including whales, dolphins and polar bears. He says:
"I do swims which people say are absolutely impossible in places where only recently you wouldn't be able to swim but for climate change and these swims, because I'm swimming in just a pair of Speedos in ice-cold water, they seem to generate a huge amount of media attention."
The swims require intense training and Lewis has been completing them for over thirty years now. His first North Pole swim took place ten years ago and he says he is horrified at returning and seeing the difference in ice coverage in only a decade.
"The speed at which things are changing is so quick. I'm not sure most leaders understand how quick it is occurring because the steps which we're taking to mitigate against these enormous changes are simply not quick enough."
Lewis says that most climate change action happens not at government level but at a local level and that the future is in our hands.
"How you get to your work, how you transport yourself, how you light your house, how you heat your house, what type of food you buy, all those decisions, every single one of them, every single moment of every day, will make a decision about the climate and about the future in which your children and your grandchildren will be living in."
Click here to listen to that programme in full.