Arctic climate change challenge

Glenn Morris is a veteran of nearly 20 Arctic expeditions

Three British kayakers have set off on an Arctic expedition to highlight how climate change affects people living there.

Glenn Morris, from Powys, and Stephen Doughty and Richard Cree from Scotland, will visit the indigenous Inuit people on their 3,000 mile (4,828km) trek.

The trio will film and record them explaining how global warming is changing their lives.

They will kayak through the Arctic's North West Passage in three stages.

Sir Jonathon Porritt, the UK government's adviser on the environment, has described the project, called Arctic Voice, as "inspirational".

The world needs to wake up to the threat to us all posed by global climate change Stephen Doughty

Mr Morris, from near Builth Wells, is leading the challenge and hopes to complete it by 2009.

His team are thought to be the first UK nationals to kayak the North West Passage that links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

He said they had chosen to use kayaks to ensure the expedition was "as carbon neutral as possible".

"The Arctic is the world's early warning system," he added.

"Time is running out for the Inuit whose entire way of life could disappear in just a few years.

"The Inuit are small in number, but I hope to use this expedition to amplify their voice on the world stage."

Fellow explorers Mr Doughty, from Dingwall, Ross-shire, and Mr Cree from Beith, Ayrshire, said they were looking forward to the expedition.

Richard Cree is a sea kayak coach

Mr Doughty, who has more than 20 years' experience of sea kayaking, said: "This expedition and the information collected will provide a remarkable historical insight into the problems of a people whose fate hangs in the balance.

"The fate of the Inuit however, is our fate too and the world needs to wake up to the threat to us all posed by global climate change."

In addition to kayaking, the team will ski and use dog sledges on a section of the route in spring 2008.

The Northwest Passage was first navigated in its entirety between 1903 and 1906 by legendary Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, the first man to reach the South Pole.