This man is helping explorers carry out scientific research at the ends of the Earth

explorer

(Credit: Unsplash)

This article is brought to you thanks to the collaboration of The European Sting with the World Economic Forum. Author: Robin Pomeroy, Digital Editor, World Economic Forum
  • Adventure Scientists co-opts adventure travellers to do scientific research.
  • Mountain and ocean adventurers get to places scientists can’t.
  • Modern explorers help tackle bigger challenges.
For the great explorers of the 19th and 20th centuries, the prime motivation was getting to places no one had been before: “Because it’s there,” is what British mountaineer George Mallory famously replied when asked why he wanted to climb Everest.
But no longer. With all the biggest peaks climbed, poles reached and jungles explored, modern-day Mallories are seeking to solve even bigger challenges.
“It’s not enough to be just an explorer any more, it’s ‘been there, done that,'” says Gregg Treinish, who recruits today’s adventurers to conduct scientific research in some of the world’s most inaccessible places.
 
Over the last decade, Treinish’s organiation Adventure Scientists has co-opted thousands of adventure travellers to do the field research that lab-based researchers could not. One of the first projects was getting Everest mountaineers to obtain samples of plants growing at almost impossibly high altitudes. US researchers were able to determine how that moss could survive in such extreme conditions and used the results to develop methods of increasing yields and protecting crops from adverse weather events.
On the sea, Adventure Scientists has used a network of 6,000 citizen researchers to build what it believes is the world’s biggest database on microplastics in oceans around the world.
Treinish has been named on of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders (YGLs) for 2020 – joining an illustrious network of influential people aiming to improve the planet, alongside US soccer star and gender equality campaigner Megan Rapinoe, and whose alumuni include actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio, Google co-founder Larry Page and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Forum Foundations

What is a YGL?

The YGL community is made up of more than 1,300 members and alumni, including public officials, business innovators, artists, educators, technology developers, journalists and activists.
The mission of the Forum of Young Global Leaders is to create a dynamic global community of exceptional people with the vision, courage and influence to drive positive change in the world.
Aligned with the World Economic Forum’s mission, they seek to spur public-private cooperation amongst these unique actors to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest.
Representing more than 100 nationalities, Young Global Leaders are united by the belief that the urgent problems of today present an opportunity to forge a better future across sectors, generations and borders.
Visit the YGL website at: https://www.younggloballeaders.org/
In his office in Bozeman, a small city in Montana near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, 30-year-old Treinish is close to nature. But he did not start life there.
Growing up far from the mountains, in Cleveland, Ohio, he was thrown out of high school for, in his words, “being a jerk”. After a troubled childhood he found a form of redemption by communing with nature.
One of his first adventures was walking the Appalachian Trail – a hiking route in the eastern United States which at 2,200 miles (3,500 km) may be the longest in the world. It was there that, aged 22, he had his eureka moment.
“Half way through the trail, my girlfriend dumped me,” Treinish said. In frustration, he threw a rock against a tree, gouging a hole in it – something that made him realize how selfish he was being. Heading into the wilderness was not enough, he knew he had to give something back.
For a while Treinish provided ‘wilderness therapy’,’ taking teenagers struggling with drug and alcohol problems into the wild, and later turned to scientific research.
“I wanted two things: to understand ecology and to fight for plants, animals and the environment.”
This Young Global Leader is getting explorers to do do scientific research at the ends of the Earth
The reach of Adventure Scientists around the world.
Image: Adventure Scientists
Adventure Scientists train the volunteers – most of them non-scientists – on how to collect data and samples with scientific rigour. And Treinish says he now wants to encourage scientists to use his network to be even more ambitious with their work.
“Take the blinkers off – how big are the questions that scientists can ask?”
And for explorers, the big scientific questions are the challenges they are seeking.
“In the early 20th century it was the biggest, the furthest, etc,” Treinish says. “People are now motivated again by these incredible challenges.”
Find out more about the Young Global Leaders class of 2020 here.

Discover more from The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - europeansting.com

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Interesting reads

© Unsplash/Planet Volumes A computer-generated image shows the Strait of Hormuz.

Uncertainty continues over safety in the Strait of Hormuz

This article is published in association with United Nations. Amid claims and counter-claims of strikes and confrontations in the crucial Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the United States, UN maritime officials continue to urge vessels to exercise “maximum caution”. “We are aware of the reports but do not have further details. We continue to urge […]
© ADB/Ariel Javellana Women farmers in India sell wheat grain and buy fertilizer with the proceeds.

Middle East crisis puts aid, food, fuel further out of reach for millions already struggling – UN agencies

This article is published in association with United Nations. As the Middle East crisis continues the humanitarian fallout is worsening, with aid route disruptions and food and fuel price hikes wrecking the lives and the rights of the most vulnerable people worldwide, UN agencies warned on Friday. Heightened insecurity and instability around key Gulf routes, including […]
© Unsplash/Angus Gray Ship transits through the Strait of Hormuz have dropped by over 90 per cent since the crisis escalated in late February 2026.

Hormuz crisis strangling global economy, Guterres warns, demanding solutions to end stalemate

This article is published in association with United Nations. The escalating crisis in the Strait of Hormuz could push tens of millions into poverty, trigger a surge in global hunger and even tip the world towards recession, the UN Secretary-General warned on Thursday. António Guterres decried the restrictions on free passage through the crucial chokepoint which […]
This article is published in association with United Nations.

AI in advertising risks fuelling information crisis, UN warns

This article is published in association with United Nations. With spending on advertising topping $1 trillion a year worldwide, the United Nations on Wednesday highlighted the untapped power of major brands to shape the future of Artificial Intelligence, warning that a failure to act could deepen a global information integrity crisis. In a new brief titled […]
This article is published in association with United Nations.

2015 nuclear deal ‘no basis’ for any new agreement with Iran

This article is published in association with United Nations. The 2015 nuclear accord with Iran cannot be the starting point for a new agreement with the country, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Wednesday in New York.  Rafael Mariano Grossi was speaking during a press conference at UN Headquarters held on […]
Credit:Unsplash)

From Hormuz to Lebanon, crisis reverberates through trade routes, upending humanitarian networks

© WHO/Hanan Balkhy In Gaza displaced families are living in overcrowded tents and makeshift shelters, surrounded by waste and debris, with limited access to safe water and sanitation services. This article is published in association with United Nations. Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to send shockwaves through global food systems, the UN Food and Agriculture […]
© UNICEF/Mohamed Zakaria A displacement centre in El Fasher, North Darfur (file).

World News in Brief: Sudan drone attacks condemned, South Sudan violence, airstrikes in Ukraine, South Africa Freedom Day

This article is published in association with United Nations. The United Nations has condemned two recent drone attacks in Sudan, one of which left seven dead, Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday during his regular media briefing in New York. An aid truck from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) that was carrying emergency shelter kits came under attack by […]
© IMO/Cihancan Tunay A ship makes its way across an ocean.

Chokepoints and conflict: How the Hormuz crisis is exposing global shipping vulnerabilities

This article is published in association with United Nations. The blockading of ships in the Strait of Hormuz as a result of the conflict between the United States and Iran has demonstrated how ships and seafarers have become “leverage in geopolitical disputes,” according to the head of the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO). Since conflict began […]
Middle East war: After oil and gas, concerns grow over minerals crunch

Middle East war: After oil and gas, concerns grow over minerals crunch

This article is published in association with United Nations. The shipping crisis in the Strait of Hormuz caused by war in the Middle East has exposed a new threat: a looming shortage of strategic minerals that drive economies all over the world – and a race by countries to obtain them. Until war erupted on 28 […]
This article is published in association with United Nations.

Ceasefire extension offers diplomatic opening, but tensions persist in Strait of Hormuz

This article is published in association with United Nations. The United States’ decision to extend a fragile ceasefire with Iran has kept a narrow window open for diplomacy, but fresh security incidents in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday underscore the volatility of the situation and the risks to global shipping and regional stability. The UN […]
UN News Moreira da Silva (right), Executive Director of UNOPS on a visit to the Gaza Strip.

Strait of Hormuz: With hunger looming, life-saving fertiliser shipments cannot wait, head of UN task force says

This article is published in association with United Nations. As the Persian Gulf crisis continues, time is ticking for farmers who rely on fertilizer shipped via the Strait of Hormuz – and millions worldwide who depend on their crops, particularly in vulnerable countries such as war-torn Sudan.  In normal times, one third of global fertiliser trade […]
UN News A popular market in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.

Economic collapse pushes highly educated Gazans into the ‘survival economy’

This article is published in association with United Nations. Young Palestinians in Gaza with university-level educations are setting aside dreams of putting their hard-won skills into practice and doing whatever they can to survive.  Abdullah al-Khawaja, an electrical engineering graduate displaced from Rafah to Khan Younis, now stands behind a small spice stall, having lost the […]
MONUSCO/Didier Vignon Dossou-Gbakon MONUSCO peacekeepers protect civilians in Ituri, eastern DRC.

World News in Brief: AI diagnostics, humanitarian deal for DR Congo, rights abuse allegations in Belarus, Ukraine children bear heaviest burden

This article is published in association with United Nations. New data shows that nearly three in four countries in Europe now use Artificial Intelligence in their health services to make a diagnosis. According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO) joint report with the European Union, 74% of countries in the bloc use AI tools in medical […]
© WFP The conflict in the Middle East is impacting the cost of food in many parts of the world.

Time running out on development goals as finance dries up, UN warns

This article is published in association with United Nations. Rising conflicts, the climate crisis and shrinking development finance are putting growing pressure on the poorest and most vulnerable countries – pushing development goals further off track. The warning comes in the Financing for Sustainable Development Report 2026 (FSDR), a new UN report launched on Monday, which finds […]
Ukraine’s women at breaking point after four years of war as attacks on energy, healthcare continue – UN humanitarians

World News in Brief: Myanmar amnesty, rising needs in Afghanistan, another power loss at Ukraine nuclear plant

This article is published in association with United Nations. Authorities in Myanmar released the country’s ousted president from prison on Friday, along with some 4,000 other people, as part of an amnesty to mark the traditional New Year festival. President Win Myint had been in jail since February 2021 when the military overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected […]
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe Siobhán Mullally, Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, especially women and children, one of the UN independent human rights experts calling for more accountability for the alleged trafficking victims in the Epstein files.

The Epstein files: Rights experts demand accountability, call for probe into trafficking allegations

This article is published in association with United Nations. UN independent human rights experts called on Thursday for justice and accountability for young women and girls who were trafficked systematically as part of allegations contained in the so-called Epstein files. The Human Rights Council-appointed experts also issued a general warning over the “continuing violence of patriarchal power systems” revealed […]
© World Bank A ship offloads its cargo at the port in Nuku'alofa, Tonga.

Middle East conflict chokes end of supply chain as lights go out in the Pacific

This article is published in association with United Nations. For Pacific Island countries, the Middle East crisis is not a distant geopolitical event. It is already showing up in higher fuel prices, electricity uncertainty and fears that communities sitting at the far end of global supply chains could be pushed into deeper economic insecurity. “We are […]
© UNICEF/Fouad Choufany The Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, Lebanon, lies in ruins.

‘Time for diplomacy over escalation’ in Middle East war: Guterres

This article is published in association with United Nations. As the war in the Middle East continues, the United Nations Secretary-General issued a passionate call for “serious negotiations” between the US and Iran to resume, warning that respect for international law “is being trampled” underfoot.  Addressing journalists at UN Headquarters in New York outside the Security […]
© IFAD/GMB Akash Prolonged disruptions to fuel and natural gas supplies could affect the global availability of fertilizers and impact crop yields. (file photo)

‘Clock is ticking’: Hormuz disruption raises fears of global food crisis

This article is published in association with United Nations. The clock is ticking for global food systems as disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz threaten to choke off the flow of fuel and crucial fertilizers needed for the next planting season – also raising the risk of higher food prices and a new wave of inflation.  […]

Why don't you drop your comment here?

Go back up

Discover more from The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - europeansting.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Discover more from The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - europeansting.com

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

The European Sting – Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology – europeansting.com