[MUSIC - The Brian Lehrer Show intro]

Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now, our Health & Climate Tuesdays section of the show. We're on the climate side today with Vanessa Hauc, Anchor and Director of Noticias Telemundo's environmental investigative unit called "Planeta Tierra," Planet Earth. She is one of three winners this year of the Journalist of the Year award from the advocacy journalism group Covering Climate Now. In 2020, she became the first climate journalist to moderate a US presidential debate.

It was one of the Democratic primary debates that year. Most of Vanessa Hauc's work is in Spanish on Telemundo, but here's a short sample of her work in English in a story she did for NBC News last year about the severe drought in Mexico.

[audio snippet begins]

Vanessa Hauc: After two years of severe drought across Mexico, the landscape here has completely changed. Everything is dry, not a trace of water, a desert. It's all that's left. 2023 was the driest year in Mexico since 1941.

Speaker 2: [Spanish language]

Vanessa: Currently, about 70% of all of Mexico is in drought, according to CONAGUA, the entity that regulates water in Mexico; more than 60 million people, half of the entire country's population, are without daily access to water.

[audio snippet ends]

Brian: Journalist Vanessa Hauc joins us now. Vanessa, thanks for giving us some time. Congratulations on your Covering Climate Now Award, and welcome to WNYC.

Vanessa: Hi, Brian. Thank you so much for inviting me. First of all, it was such an honor to be part of this award and to be recognized by Covering Climate Now because they are an amazing organization doing an excellent job providing tools and resources to journalists to be able to cover the climate crisis in a way that it is really comprehensive and that we can basically see the news with the scope of climate, because if you think about it, everything in our planet is being affected by our changing climate, so we need, as journalists, to understand these in order to really provide the news that our audience needs.

Brian: Let's give our listeners some background on you. Where did you grow up, and how did you first get interested in climate journalism?

Vanessa: I was born in Peru in South America. I grew up in Colombia, and I came to the United States probably 30 years ago. I became a journalist when I was 19, and I was covering all types of subjects. I was doing economics, migration, and education. I think through the years, I realized that the climate crisis was becoming more severe and that it was affecting the Latino community specifically in a very real way.

Year after year, I realized and I saw myself covering more hurricanes, covering more civil rights, or migration, climate migration. I think it was probably 18, 20 years ago that I realized that I really wanted to focus on that because, for me, as a journalist, it was important to cover the stories that were affecting my community, and I saw that climate was something that was really, really affecting minorities, and specifically the Latino community, so I started focusing on climate issues.

As we have seen in the past couple of years and in the last decades, the impacts and the consequences of our changing climate have grown exponentially, so I decided to really go all in into this field.

Brian: Where are you based now as a Senior Reporter for the Spanish-language news network, Telemundo?

Vanessa: I'm based in Miami, in Florida.

Brian: Tell us about Planeta Tierra. You told us it's a weekly show on Telemundo where you report the climate crisis with a focus on solutions that are already happening around the world. That's what you wrote us. When does it air, and what would viewers see, typically, on a Planeta Tierra broadcast, whether they see it live or later online?

Vanessa: Yes. This is something that I'm just so happy to report that we have our weekly news show-- "Planeta Tierra" is "Planet Earth," on Telemundo, because I think it's so important for our audiences to understand how our planet is changing. You will have basically all the environmental news of the week. It airs every Saturday at 11:00 AM on Noticias Telemundo AHORA. That is our streaming platform, but also in Telemundo Network, Saturdays and Sundays.

What we wanted to do with Planeta Tierra is to really provide this information to our audience that our planet is changing, that it is a great challenge that we have to face, but we decided, too, to really give it a strong focus on solutions because it's important to report that even though probably this is the greatest challenge that we're facing as humanity in our modern time, solutions are growing exponentially in every country. When you think about South America and Latino countries, we have seen that they are very creative, they are focused on innovation, and they are also providing amazing solutions for the different cities and the different countries in South America.

We have seen Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago, Chile, Argentina; they are really creating climate hubs with innovation, focusing on solutions to create a sustainable future for the residents, so we report on that. We do stories from South America, from Central America, from Mexico, and, of course, from the United States. We bring entrepreneurs that are offering sustainable solutions. We highlight their stories. We highlight innovators that are already creating a sustainable future in their communities.

I think it has a great reception from our audience because even though this is a great challenge and a difficult challenge, I think we all have to keep in mind that there is hope, that we are actually moving toward a sustainable future, and that is the only way that we have.

Brian: I played a clip from the NBC News version of one of your influential stories from last year about the drought in Mexico, including lack of access to fresh water, which sounds worse than anything I can recall in a widespread way in the United States from drought. Has that drought ended by now?

Vanessa: Right now, they are experiencing the rainy season, so, right now, they are not going through a drought. That's the good news, but it doesn't mean that when they go through the dry season, they are not going to be impacted by the drought. The problem with Mexico is that right now, 40% of the population don't have access to safe water every day, so this is a huge number.

More than 40% of the water is lost because they have poor maintenance of their distribution networks. That's what we asked the former president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a year ago when we went to do the story, and we were just questioning about what he was doing about the climate crisis and specifically about the drought in Mexico and the lack of water access to receive-- [crosstalk]

Brian: Right. Let me jump in here just for a second to tell our listeners that one of the reasons that you're reporting on Mexico's drought made news was this tense interview you had with Mexico's president, López Obrador. Would you describe what was tense about it?

Vanessa: What was tense was that he denied that there was a crisis. He said that the citizens have access to clean water and that everything was fine in his country. We were there for a week doing stories about the drought and the lack of clean water access for the citizens. We went to a very small town in Chiapas, in Mexico, where 65% of the residents didn't have access to water, and some of the children-- there was more access to Coca-Cola or Pepsi Cola or soft drinks than clean water for the children.

We went with all these interviews and with all this data of his own government, because we were taking the numbers of CONAGUA, that is the entity that regulates water, and we just confronted him with these numbers. He said that there was no problem, that everything was fine in Mexico, and he was just blaming the media. He was saying that we needed to do better research, but, of course, that was not the case. It was a real, real problem for Mexican residents that they were actually living without daily water.

After that, after we left, then in the next couple of months, it started rainy season, and it was a better situation because the reservoirs of water in Mexico, because of the drought, they were very, very low, and, of course, the people were feeling it. We will see how the new president, right now, is going to handle that situation because I think it's a real problem. It's something that is in the Mexican constitution that every citizen should have the right to have water, and they don't.

Brian: Listeners, any questions or comments in English or Spanish, about climate change and the US Latino community, or in Latin America, we're reporting on it for a Spanish-language audience on Telemundo for their climate journalist, Vanessa Hauc. 212-433-WNYC, call or text in English or Spanish. 212-433-9692.

You wrote to us that, in general, the Latino community is one of the most vulnerable to the climate crisis here and abroad. Let's talk about the Latin America context, because I think anyone who knows climate change basics knows greenhouse gas emissions come disproportionately from the global north and the effects are felt disproportionately in the global south. Have you been reporting on that regarding various places in Latin America?

Vanessa: Yes. We see it every day. We know that the climate crisis affects everyone, but definitely not everyone equally. Minority communities, among them Latinos and the global south, as you mentioned, are the ones that have least contributed to this crisis, but the ones that are feeling the effects in a very exponential way. When you think about Latinos here in the United States, half of the Latino population lives in the 25 most polluted cities in the country.

There have been studies that show that Latino children are 40% more likely to suffer from asthma because of the geographic place they live. When you think about our countries of origin in South America, there are many communities that just don't have the resources to rebuild after a storm passes or if sea level rises, so it is a very, very difficult problem for Latinos, especially, specifically, when you think about South America and Central America. On the other hand, it's important to remember that there are these countries that are actually coming up with great solutions. This is something that we report every week in Planeta Tierra, in Telemundo Network, and it is stories that are so, so inspiring.

For example, in Mexico, we reported a couple of weeks ago about an entrepreneur that is using avocado seeds to create plastics. This is something really, really meaningful because we know that we also have a plastic crisis, and our oceans are just so polluted with plastic, so this is a great solution. In Central America and El Salvador, they are restoring natural ecosystems like mangroves to absorb CO2 and to protect their coast from sea level rise. In Costa Rica, we did a story, not long ago, where we went to different communities and they are practicing sustainable tourism because the communities there understand that to protect the forest, to protect nature is an investment, and they take advantage of it because they have so many visitors that go to see Costa Rica and experience Costa Rica and they are, actually, the local communities that receive them and show them around and show how much they protect and they love nature.

Then, if you think about countries like Chile, where solar power is just expanding exponentially. In Colombia, they're investing in public transportation to reduce pollution. I think that when you think about it, these countries have little, little investment, but at the same time, they have a great need to grow and to continue developing, but they understand that they need to do it in a sustainable way because they feel the pollution, they feel the impact in the health of their children. They are just looking for innovation in order to continue their development, but in a way that is sustainable and that doesn't affect their cities and their communities, the country, and the planet.

Brian: A listener writes, "Today, The Guardian has an in-depth article on the underreported effect of the second cause of climate change after fossil fuels: agriculture and meat production. Please ask your guest if she is covering this topic," and I will add, I think there is a fair amount of meat importing from Latin America to the United States.

Vanessa: Yes, that's such an important question, and we do report on our food system regularly, because I think it's-- and scientists have agreed, that this is one of the greatest contributions that we can do. When you think about the climate crisis, sometimes the problem seems so big that it's overwhelming, and people think, "Okay, what can I do to help?" When you think about the way that we eat, what we put on our plate, this is just the number one contribution that we could actually do to reduce the consumption of meat.

We know that to produce meat, it just takes a huge amount of water, energy, and land, of course, to hold the cows. Then, when we think about the food that comes from plants, the plant-based diet, it's much less harming for the environment. We do interviews on people that are actually vegetarian or vegan, or people that just want to reduce their meat intake every week. It just makes a huge impact if we are just conscious of what we eat. There is an organization in Sweden called EAT. Their scientists are revealing that here, in the United States and Canada, and in the global north, we are actually eating eight times more meat than what our body needs.

When you think about that, we really don't need so much protein. There are new sources of protein that are coming from plants that are being developed, and they are healthy, they are better for the environment, they are better for your body, because it is also a health issue, if you think about it. In order to eat in a healthy way, we have seen scientific studies that show that a vegetarian diet, a plant-based diet, is very healthy and it's even healthier than to include, so much, the consumption of meat.

Brian: Mouk in State College, Pennsylvania, you're on WNYC with Vanessa Hauc, climate journalist for Telemundo. Hi, Mouk.

Mouk: Hi. I just wanted to thank the journalist so much for her work. I wanted to ask the question about climate skepticism because it's very prominent in America and in English-speaking media. I just wanted to learn more about how climate skepticism is viewed in the Spanish-speaking media and Spanish-speaking countries, and how that influences the debate. Thank you so much.

Brian: Good question. Thank you.

Vanessa: Hi. Thank you. Yes, it's a wonderful question. I think it's so interesting, and we have been researching and trying to understand what is happening in countries like the United States, and not only the United States. There are other countries in Europe that are actually going through the same thing. I think the climate issue has been politicized, and that is the problem that we have here in the States, because if you are from one party, then you don't believe the climate is real.

Then, if you are from another party, that you are more open to receiving this information. We have to-- [crosstalk]

Brian: Just for our listeners' context, in case they didn't hear this news morsel from the UN General Assembly last week, when Trump gave his speech there, he called climate change, "The biggest con job ever perpetrated against the world," and he called climate scientists "stupid people." Go ahead.

Vanessa: Yes. I think that people are realizing, and are realizing more and more, that this is happening because this is happening in our backyard. We're seeing the fires in California that are unstoppable. We're seeing the droughts in the central part of the United States, where farmers are suffering because they don't have enough water. They don't have enough water for their cows, the cattle, or their agricultural businesses. We are seeing the impacts of the climate heat waves that, every time, are longer and are having an impact on our health, in our food system. We're seeing an impact in basically every aspect of our lives, our economy, our-- [crosstalk]

Brian: Are there any heads of state in Latin America who would echo what I just quoted from Trump?

Vanessa: Yes. I think we have seen, for example, President Milei in Argentina saying that this is not a priority and this is not an issue that he is planning to tackle in his government. The reality and the important part is-- and that's why it's so important to cover the climate crisis and to give the right information for the residents, because the important thing is that the audience is educated about this issue, and I think the audience is understanding.

People are understanding that it's not only the scientific community that have been talking about this for decades, but they are seeing it in their everyday life, so it's going to be a point that it's just undeniable. I think, really, we're seeing how this is changing, and the reality is changing. In South America, overall, I think the issue is not politicized like here, so you see that people are more open to receiving this information, and we see it here.

Poll after poll has proven that the Latino community are one of the communities that is more open to changing their habits and the way that they live in order to protect the planet. Even when it comes to voting, 9 out of every 10 Latinos are willing to vote for legislation to protect the planet, even if it means paying more taxes, so I think yes.

Brian: One follow-up, and then we're out of time. One fact from your story about Mexico that we sampled from earlier might be an example of what the Trump camp would cite. You reported this horrible drought the last few years was the worst since 1941. That was in the clip we played. I've seen things, not on your story, but on other things in this lane that say, "Well, if there was a worse drought in 1941 before the real climate effects era, then why wouldn't we think of severe drought as an occasional or cyclical thing rather than a product of something uniquely new, like climate change?"

Vanessa: I think this point has been discussed by scientists over and over again. Yes, of course, we go through cycles, and our planet has been warmer than we are now and has been colder. The thing is that what we have been experiencing right now in the past 200 years has been an exponential warming of our planet in a very, very fast way. It is actually happening at the same time that we are producing more CO2 and developing and acquiring our energy through fossil fuels.

This is a very clear scientific explanation of why we cannot say that this is just a cyclical, natural event and development of our planet. No. We know for certain, and we know from scientific data, that this is caused by climate change, and this is caused by the consumption of fossil fuels that we're producing. It's important to understand that and to make that connection. I think, as journalists, it's important to connect the dots for our audiences and let them know, "Okay, this is a mega-drought that Central America is going through, and maybe 100, some hundred years ago, that happens also, but this is happening in a very fast way, and this is developing all around our planet."

It's not just the areas that were deserts or that were used to experiencing droughts. It's happening all around. When you think about climate change, it's about extremes. The places that experienced drought are just going through extreme drought, and the places that experienced rains are going through torrential rains, so our planet is going out of balance. The climate is going out of balance, and we definitely need to report on it, to educate our audience, to inspire our audiences to do something.

I think that every person can do something. Every person can do something to make small changes in their family, in their daily lives, in their communities, and when we actually put all these changes together, we're going to have a big impact.

Brian: Vanessa Hauc, and that's H-A-U-C for those of you who might be looking for her work. Vanessa Hauc, Anchor and Director of Noticias Telemundo's environmental investigative unit called "Planeta Tierra," Planet Earth. In 2020, she was the first climate journalist to moderate a US presidential debate. Now she is one of three winners of this year's Journalist of the Year award from the advocacy journalism group Covering Climate Now. Thank you so much for joining us.

Vanessa: Thank you, Brian. Thank you so much for inviting me.

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