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Sense of Adventure 


Adventure Scientists is an organisation tackling the challenge of missing data in pressing environmental problems. 

Dr Abigail Bowers examining microplastics

When Dr Abigail Bowers looked through her microscope at a sample of local water seven years ago, she was shocked to see a kaleidoscope of tiny technicoloured microplastics. “It led me to think of all of these larger questions, such as how is it affecting the ocean, our drinking water, are microplastics everywhere? But I couldn’t answer them on my own.” 

She enlisted the help of a non-profit called Adventure Scientists, an organisation that unites explorers and scientists for whom scale and breadth of data is crucial. Its aim is to solve some of the most pressing environmental issues where data is the limiting factor, with current projects including timber tracking to combat illegal logging, camera installation on remote trails to monitor endangered species such as lynx and wolverine, and a global pollinator project tagging butterflies (butterflies being a litmus test of the health of a biosystem) 

In the end, Bowers was able to compile the world’s largest study of microplastics, with samples from 3,000 expeditions ranging from the Antarctic to the middle of the Pacific. She concluded that 74 percent of samples contained microplastic pollution and published a report that is now used as a reference by 200 governments and institutions globally.  

Gregg Treinish

It is one of those simple ideas of linking one thing to another that seems so obvious when it has been done. But 10 years ago, there was no such platform for eager, would-be adventurers to collect such data, to give their trips a sense of purpose. That is when Gregg Treinish decided to set the Montana-based organisation up. A seasoned explorer, Treinish had already spent two years trekking 7,800 miles along the spine of the Andes Mountains, for which he was named National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year 2008. His time in the wild had given him a love of wildlife and he started volunteering on programmes tracking wolverines in Mongolia, testing animal migration corridors in the northern Rockies, and documenting wildlife in Botswana.  

He had a realisation. “In my expeditions I felt very selfish for being out there without doing anything beneficial for the world, and I got the sense that others felt that way, too. I thought, if we can make it easy for people to make a difference while doing what they wanted to do, whether snowboarding, kayaking, diving, surfing or just hiking, we could make a difference. So, in 2012, I Googled ‘how to start a non-profit.” 

Fast forward eight years and Adventure Scientists has 8,000 volunteers coming to its website every month to sign up. It has run advertising campaigns with some of the best athletes in the world, including pro-snowboarder Jeremy Jones, who is also a volunteer.  

A giant redwood

Before each project begins, the team at Adventures Scientists spends around six months working with the scientist to figure out what data they need, then another six months recruiting and training volunteers. It runs around four projects a year but is hoping, with more funding, to scale up to 8-10 projects annually.  

One of the most monumental projects, says Treinish, was the discovery by a pair of climbers who scaled Everest, of the highest plant known to man, at 22,000ft. But what was most interesting was that there was a fungus living symbiotically in the moss that allowed the plant to uptake nutrients at that high altitude. With that information he was able to create a soil inoculant for agriculture with which farmers have been able to double crop yields in India without the need for synthetic fertiliser. Now it is produced and distributed as a product called BioEnsure through a company called Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies, which runs various humanitarian projects.  

Treinish is in the process of raising US$8 million to expand the scope of Adventure Scientists; so far, he has raised around half of that through private donations, elite institutions and corporations. The coronavirus has brought to a halt much of the research being carried out, but Treinish hopes to pivot and engage in projects targeting illegal wildlife trade. He is organising his volunteers to help as delivery drivers to nursing homes and convert old animal ventilators from vets into ones that can be used by humans. You have to think creatively in a crisis, he says 

“We are trying to empower scientists with the ability to think bigger and faster by providing unlimited boots on the ground. After all, I’m betting on scientists to save us amid climate change, deforestation and the drastic problems we face as a society.” 

This article originally appeared in Billionaire's Exploration Issue, Summer 2020. To subscribe contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.