Saving Planet Earth

Professional explorer Mike Horn gives us the low-down on the state of the planet as we know it, and why Panerai’s tool watches are perfect for the job

- Katherine Arteche

The last time I met Mike Horn was in 2017, when he had a stopover in Singapore while he was in the midst of circumnavigating the globe while travelling on his 35-meter sailboat, Pangaea. He took on a two-year solo adventure, named Pole2Pole, where he started from Monaco and crossed the entirety of Antarctica until he made it back full circle. Since then, the Swiss-South African explorer and professional adventurer did another Pole2Pole adventure in 2019 where he crossed the Arctic Ocean via the North Pole. Needless to say, the man has been to places most of us will perhaps never be in our lives.

“During the confinement period, obviously travel became a little bit difficult,” said Horn. “What we did instead was sail up in between Greenland and Spitsbergen on the Pangaea to collect data on Bowhead whales. It’s an area popular for them to breed and feed, but in turn it’s also popular for whale hunting. When the restrictions on outdoor activities were implemented, hunting activities decreased and this allowed the whales to return. That was important data for us to collect because it’s proof that the impact of human activities on nature is definitely more than what we think.”