Meet a San Miguel Rich List innovator

Behind the scenes with Joe Cook, an inspirational glacial microbiologist documenting climate change
22 March 2019

Glacial microbiologist Joe Cook earned his place on the 2018 San Miguel Rich List, a collective of people who value experiences over monetary gain, by swapping his full-time academic role to pursue a more varied career. This change allows him to contribute to the challenge of solving climate change while enjoying the chance to work in some of the world’s most breathtaking environments.

Although based in Kent, Joe spends a lot of the year travelling, often camping out on ice sheets for months at a time. As well as tracking changes on the ground, he flies drones to understand the processes that are happening at the scale of entire glaciers.

To help bring Joe’s story to life, we flew with him to Reykjavik for an exclusive film, where we were able to capture the size and beauty of the kind of snow fields and glaciers he studies.

Our first stop was Fjallsárlón, a glacier lake to the south of the glacier Vatnajökull. Here, by using a drone to film Joe as he climbed up the Fjallsjökull glacier, we were able to show the vast landscape to great effect.

We then travelled further south to Jökulsárlón. This glacial lagoon, whose still, blue waters are studded with icebergs from the neighbouring Breiðamerkurjökull glacier – part of the Vatnajökull glacier – is a reminder of the changes taking place in this stunning part of the world, which Joe is keen to highlight to the world.

Now you’ve seen behind the scenes, watch the film here (18+)

Discover the full San Miguel Rich List and find inspiration on how to live a richer life at standard.co.uk/richlist

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