Riding near Tasiilaq during the 2007 SIKU Extreme Arctic Challenge, Greenland

Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, 52, executive director of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. “Over five days, the race combines 250 kilometers of hiking and climbing up 800-, 900-, 1.000-meter peaks, biking across rough terrain and kayaking about 65 kilometers through the glacier fields and fjords, amongst all the icebergs. You find yourself being guided into parts of Greenland where you wouldn’t go unless you were a very experienced adventurer. It pushes you beyond the limits — but safely. I was truly impressed with how the local community was already adapting to climate change, having to fundamentally change the way they live. This race is part of them deciding not to go for mass tourism, but to go for a very special kind of tourism, not ruining the environment, but bringing people to it in a very open way.”