Adventurer Mitsuro Oba is planning a six-year trek around the world that will take him to places under threat of environmental destruction to educate Japanese children about environmental issues via a satellite mobile phone.
Oba said his plan was prompted by alarm about the deteriorating state of the environment as a result of global warming, forest destruction and marine pollution.
He will begin the trek in late April, traveling across Greenland for three months.
Oba, 50, is the first Japanese to walk solo to both the North and South poles.
He runs a school called Earth Academy in his hometown in Mogami, Yamagata Prefecture, where he takes students on nature trips.
Oba said that in Greenland he will work with Tetsuji Nagatani, 26, a Nagoya University researcher studying air pollution. Together, they will travel by sled and ski from the southernmost to the northernmost points of Greenland over the inland ice sheets, a distance of some 3,000 km.
During their trek, Oba and Nagatani will study indigenous tribes and environment-related issues, such as the effect of the yellow sand phenomenon from Asia. They will also conduct classes via satellite phone.
Greenland is the world's largest island. The glaciers that cover the island have been melting rapidly over the past two years, a phenomenon scientists blame on global warming caused by environmental pollution.
Following Greenland, Oba's trip will take him to North and South America, Australia and Southeast Asia.