Sam In Cham with Samantha Ryder
Marta Wenta on ‘The climate crisis vs. an ultramarathon’ – it’s possible to conquer both, if we have the courage to step up.
Polish ultra-runner Marta Wenta has been racing for almost a decade. This year, as part of the UTMB week, she completed the TDS, the ‘Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie’ - 150km from Courmayeur in the Aosta valley back to Chamonix. She was the 7th woman to finish, 46th overall in a field of hundreds of incredible athletes.
As an atmospheric scientist, Marta’s love of the mountains drives her passion at work and her Ph.D. focusing on the influence of sea ice fragmentation on the weather has taken her to some fascinating areas on the planet. She says the rapid Arctic amplification is having massive impacts on extreme weather occurrences such as flooding, hurricanes, and heatwaves. We discuss the impact of climate change on the planet and indeed on the areas we enjoy running such as here in the Alps, ‘The ice is melting constantly, and it is highly probable that by 2050 we will have a summer with no sea ice in the Arctic’ she says.
Marta tells me climate change is not going to happen the same way in every corner of the globe – some areas, she says, will get so hot it will be impossible to live there, other places, such as here in Europe, the weather will simply change, causing potential untold damage as the cities and towns we live in were not designed to withstand extreme conditions.
She believes that ALL governments must now acknowledge the threat of the climate crisis and tells me we ALL need to work together.
Follow Marta Wenta @venividiwenta or visit https://martawenta.com/
For more on the amazing athletes and sports enthusiasts featured on the podcast, head to Instagram @samincham_thepodcast and Facebook.
Polish ultra-runner Marta Wenta has been racing for almost a decade. This year, as part of the UTMB week, she completed the TDS, the ‘Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie’ - 150km from Courmayeur in the Aosta valley back to Chamonix. She was the 7th woman to finish, 46th overall in a field of hundreds of incredible athletes.
As an atmospheric scientist, Marta’s love of the mountains drives her passion at work and her Ph.D. focusing on the influence of sea ice fragmentation on the weather has taken her to some fascinating areas on the planet. She says the rapid Arctic amplification is having massive impacts on extreme weather occurrences such as flooding, hurricanes, and heatwaves. We discuss the impact of climate change on the planet and indeed on the areas we enjoy running such as here in the Alps, ‘The ice is melting constantly, and it is highly probable that by 2050 we will have a summer with no sea ice in the Arctic’ she says.
Marta tells me climate change is not going to happen the same way in every corner of the globe – some areas, she says, will get so hot it will be impossible to live there, other places, such as here in Europe, the weather will simply change, causing potential untold damage as the cities and towns we live in were not designed to withstand extreme conditions.
She believes that ALL governments must now acknowledge the threat of the climate crisis and tells me we ALL need to work together.
Follow Marta Wenta @venividiwenta or visit https://martawenta.com/
For more on the amazing athletes and sports enthusiasts featured on the podcast, head to Instagram @samincham_thepodcast and Facebook.