A British team of adventurers are on the verge of completing an epic first and it is all being made possible because of climate change – last night the team were set to become the first to row to the magnetic North Pole.

According to the Independent on Sunday, they were less than a mile away from their final goal after an historic 28-day journey which would never have been possible in years gone by – I just wander if this may make the climate sceptics reconsider their position?

The Independent on Sunday reports:

The retreat of the Arctic’s summer ice sheet has left navigable water where only a few years ago explorers would have to walk if they wanted to reach the pole. It was still a close-run thing, with wind-driven ice floes threatening to smash into the reinforced rowing boat and destroy it. Ironically, the last two miles of the journey had to be completed by hauling the boat onto an ice floe which had floated over the pole as the team approached.

Jock Wishart, the veteran adventurer leading the expedition, said the team was exhilarated at having defied the treacherous elements. He recalled several dangerous encounters with polar bears but said the most risky part of the journey was trying to row in fog past shifting ice floes. “Trying to navigate through moving ice in fog isn’t much fun. There have been a few hairy moments. The worst was about two weeks ago when we tried to cross the Wellington Strait,” he said.

“We were a little bit too cocky and were out in poor visibility. We found ourselves trapped with the ice closing in around us and had to go back. We were lucky. The ice could have knocked us into matchwood.” The team set off from Resolution Bay in Canada on 29 July and, despite global warming turning much of the Arctic ice into water, were exposed to howling winds that combined with the wind-chill brought temperatures to as low as -15C.

To read the full article in the Independent on Sunday, view HERE.