Man Attempts the World's First Swim Across the Red Sea to Tackle Climate Change

Israeli and Palestinian women, members of two local peace movements, wave their flags as they take part in an inaugural event marking the beginning of their partnership, on the shore of the Dead Sea near the city of Jericho, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on March 25, 2022. - Hundreds of activists from the Palestinian initiative Women of the Sun and Israeli movement Women Wage Peace shared in the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, planted flags on the Dead Sea's shores and vowed to continue the push for peace despite political talks failing in recent years.
(Photo : Photo by ABBAS MOMANI/AFP via Getty Images)

Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh is attempting, what is thought to be, the world's first swim across the Red Sea.

World's First Swim Across the Red Sea

A British-South African endurance athlete is attempting to complete the world's first swim across the Red Sea in a call for action ahead of a major global climate summit.

Lewis wants to draw attention to the perceived weakness of coral reefs and deep ocean ahead of a massive climate conference in Egypt in November.

He stated to the BBC that he hoped foreign leaders to dip their heads throughout the water to see how much we potentially lose if we do not even act quickly. He plans to swim the 160km (100 miles) in 2 weeks. In November, communities will accumulate in Sharm el-Sheikh for COP27 to explain how or why the world is dealing with climate warming.

Mr Pugh, a UN Patron of the Oceans, will face warm sea temperatures, very salty water, and long hours of exposure to the sun as he swims around 10km (6 miles) a day. His journey started in Saudi Arabia, and will take him through one of the world's busiest shipping lanes leading to the Suez Canal. He will touch land again in Hurghada, Egypt.

He describes the precious coral reefs he is swimming over as magnificent.

"I have swum in breathtakingly beautiful and biologically diverse coral reefs. There are fish of every color and definition. But when I returned a few years later, there was extremely little left" he said to BBC News.

Climate change poses a particular threat to coral reefs. The UN advises that maybe if global temperature rises by 1.5 degrees Celsius, 90% of coral reefs will simply vanish.

If global warming continues uncontrolled, humanity and environment will suffer disastrous overheating, which would cause mass extinctions of species, increasing droughts, and higher sea levels.

Peoples' use of oil, gas, and carbon in their residences, industries, and transportation is to blame for the rapid increase in temperature we are currently witnessing.

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Tackling Climate Change

Different parts of the world are affected by climate change in different ways. Some locations will heat up quicker than others, while others will have more rain and drier conditions.

Poorer nations' citizens will endure the most because they lack the resources to respond to climate change. The already oppressively hot conditions that many crops in developing nations must endure will get much worse.

Mr. Pugh is urging authorities to act in order to substantially reduce pollution of greenhouse gases and to preserve 30% of the ocean waters. According to Mr Pugh, the vast majority of individuals still don't comprehend how rapidly it's actually occurring and the massive impact it will have everyone all over the world.

He has indeed been swimming for 35 years and is the first person to swim across every ocean. This is a battle to get individuals to comprehend the enormous impact (climate change) is possessing not just on present generation, but also on every single upcoming generation after generation on this planet, he says.

For 9 kilometers, he was supported by Dr Mariam Saleh Bin Laden, a Saudi endurance swimmer. She defined the swim as quick, challenging, and exciting.

"I would want swimmers from all over the region to participate in the coastal swim" Mr Pugh said.

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