Lewis Gordon Pugh
From Wikiquote
Lewis Gordon Pugh OIG (born 5 December 1969) is a British environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer. He was the first person to complete a long distance swim in every ocean of the world. In 2007, he undertook a swim across an open patch of sea at the North Pole to highlight the melting of the Arctic sea ice; he followed this, in 2010, with a swim across a glacial lake on Mount Everest to draw attention to the melting glaciers in the Himalayas, and the impact the reduced water supply will have on peace in the region. In 2010, the World Economic Forum appointed him a Young Global Leader.
Contents |
Sourced [edit]
Autobiography Achieving The Impossible - A Fearless Leader. A Fragile Earth. (Simon & Schuster 2010) [edit]
Select Excerpts.
- Four-point-two kilometres is a long way for a frozen body to sink.
- p 1, describing his North Pole swim (2007)
- My father taught me to understand that not much was impossible, if you had a mind to go after it. What seems beyond you is only unreachable if that’s what you believe.
- p 7
- Nothing excited me more than opening up the atlas and seeing places and seas, imagining what they looked like and what kind of life the people had.
- p 8
- My love for the water would always be tempered by respect for dangers that must never be underestimated.
- p 9, reflecting on his father's near-drowning off the Australian coast
- My own feeling was that witnessing the explosion of an atomic bomb, and having to examine all the dead animals, had a profound effect on my father.
- p 12
- Always when we walked, it was clear to me how much he loved nature, wild flowers, animals in their natural habitat and the simple pleasures of a beautiful sunset. My love for the environment did not develop out of a vacuum.
- p 21, describing his father
- Going against the tide has never been difficult for me. It wasn’t even a conscious decision but the natural consequence of following my own instinct.
- p 37
- It took me over three years to get the beret and the most enriching part of the experience was getting to know men for whom you would have given your life on the battlefield. It is a big thing to say there are people who are not your family for whom you would give up your life. But that is how close we became.
- p 150-1, describing his time in the British SAS
- Ultimately I wanted to be a pioneer swimmer, a distant descendant of Scott, Amundsen and Hillary, except that I would be an explorer of the water.
- p 167
- I resolved to follow my dream. I wanted to push every boundary. I wanted to swim further than anyone else. I wanted to cross seas and round capes that no one had dreamed of swimming before. And I wanted to swim in waters that were so cold no one thought it was possible to survive in them. And though it promised to make me poor and would take away the security provided by a career in law, that didn’t worry me.
- p 168
- I could not believe what I was seeing: everywhere there were whale bones. Thousands of them stacked on top of each other. They rose from the seabed almost to the surface of the water. There were big bones. I could make out many of them: rib bones, jaw bones, vertebrae. In some places they were piled so high that, when I took a stroke, my hands touched them. I thought of all the beautiful whales I’d seen around the coast of South Africa and Norway that add so much to the area. How many whales were hunted and brought to this island before having their carcasses burned for oil and their bones dumped in this way? It disgusted me to such an extent that I considered stopping the swim to move it elsewhere, but I decided I had to press on.
- p 233, describing his swim at Deception Island, Antarctica (2005)
- I have been haunted by that swim through the whale graveyard and haven’t been able to get the image of the bones out of my head. Man hunted whales almost to the point of extinction, not seeming to care that we would lose one of the wonders of the sea world forever. It is the coldness of the water in Antarctica that preserves the bones and makes it look like they were left there yesterday but I like to think they are there as a reminder of man’s potential for folly.
- p 315-6, describing his swim at Deception Island, Antarctica (2005)
Speaking & Features [edit]
- You must not dither - swim like you're running through a minefield.
- You don't know pain until you've had a stalactite in your cock.
- Outside Magazine, 13 April 2009
- If we pass on an unsustainable environment to our children we have failed them.
- Address to the House of Lords (19 November 2010) [specific citation needed]
- There’s nothing more chilling than swimming across open sea, where recently there used to be a solid glacier.
- Address to the House of Lords (19 November 2010)
- A thought came across my mind: if things go pear-shaped on this swim, how long will it take for my frozen body to sink the four and a half kilometers to the bottom of the ocean?
- There is nothing more powerful than the made-up mind.
- We made fracking a civil rights issue. Because that is what it is. We all have a right to a healthy environment and to clean water. And so do our children.
- Against fracking in the Karoo, 3 May 2011
- Unless our children have been into nature, it is unlikely they will care about it when they grow up.
- 4 November 2010
- Everywhere water is under threat. It is our most precious resource. And there is no alternative to it.
- The right to have our environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations is our most important human right.
- 29 October 2011
- Sometimes the moments that challenge us the most, define us.
- 24 Nov 2011, Twitter
- The English Channel is the perfect stretch of water to truly test the human mind.
- 25 November 2011, Twitter
- These are areas of unparalleled natural beauty to be handed to our children undisturbed. We are merely custodians. You would not build a toll plaza and an administration block in the Grand Canyon or next to the Victoria Falls or within any other World Heritage Site.”
- 24 February 2012, Cape Argus (p5), in response to the building of a toll plaza on Chapman’s Peak, South Africa.
Standing Up To Goliath [edit]
Karoo Anti-Fracking Speech to Shell in Cape Town, 25 March 2011
- Never, ever did I think that there would be a debate in this arid country about which was more important – gas or water. We can survive without gas. We cannot live without water.
- Look around the world. Wherever you damage the environment, you have conflict. We have had enough conflict in [South Africa] – now is the time for peace.
- Now is the time for change. We cannot drill our way out of the energy crisis. The era of fossil fuels is over. We must invest in renewable energy. And we must not delay.
My African Dream: Faith Rally Address, COP17 [edit]
United Nations Climate Change Conference, Durban, 27 November 2011
- The right to have our environment protected for the benefit of our generation and the benefit of future generations is our most crucial human right. I do not say that lightly - especially given South Africa’s past.
- We cannot afford the luxury of cynicism or even pessimism in our reaction to climate change. The situation is too serious. We must tackle it head on – and immediately.
Quotes about Lewis [edit]
- I have seen what the challenge of the impossible does to some athlete's minds - once their minds accept that the impossible is achievable, their bodies soon follow.
- Professor Tim Noakes describing Lewis Pugh, as quoted in Challenging Beliefs: Memoirs of a Career, p273 (Zebra Press, 2011)
- Afterwards, I saw a visible transformation in Pugh, and was reminded again of the power of a single event to change a sportsperson's life radically. I have witnessed this twice in my career - once when Joel Stransky kicked the winning goal in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, and now with Pugh's North Pole swim. Both became more complete and confident people after achieving such sporting milestones.
- Professor Tim Noakes describing Lewis Pugh, as quoted in Challenging Beliefs: Memoirs of a Career, p273 (Zebra Press, 2011)
