Rodriguez produces climate change special for Weather Channel en Español
A broadcast journalism specialist at The University of Texas at Arlington partnered with a colleague at Catholic University of Colombia and The Weather Channel en Español on a one-hour television special about data and climate change aimed at Spanish-speaking viewers.
The documentary-style program is called “Decisiones: Datos y Cambio Climático,” which translates to “Decisions: Data and Climate Change.” It focuses on how access to public data can help people make informed decisions in adapting to and mitigating issues caused by climate change. It is the first time The Weather Channel en Español has partnered with a university to produce an hour-long special.
UTA’s Julian Rodriguez, along with Jairo Becerra, director of the Socio-Legal Research Center at the Catholic University of Colombia, took their research to coral reefs in the Caribbean, mountain ranges in Colombia and glaciers in Southern Argentina and Antarctica. They documented their research voyage and worked with a team of producers and meteorologists from The Weather Channel en Español to explain the environmental changes they witnessed.
“All of the research began when Colombia passed the Transparency and Right to Access Public Information Law in 2014,” Rodriguez said. “We started bridging how this law could be used in Colombia when it comes to using public data and how the public could use this data for good in the country.”
Across the Colombian coastline, a string of buoys collects oceanographic and atmospheric information. This data is now offered to Colombians via Navega Seguro (Navigate Safely), the first app in Latin America using real-time public data to inform residents and businesses alike about ocean and weather conditions in Colombia’s coastal areas.
“Climate change is actively happening across the globe. In the last two years, we have started to experience the effects of climate change,” Becerra said. “It took many years of preparation and research to travel to these places and collect what we needed to piece the story together.”
Eighty percent of U.S. Hispanics said that addressing global climate change is either a top concern or one of several important concerns to them personally, according to the Pew Research Center.
UTA alumna Sussy Ruiz, vice president and editor-in-chief at The Weather Channel en Español, said the project was really needed in Latin America, where the public often lacks resources and information regarding climate change that could guide them to make informed decisions.
“When we look into topics like climate change, there are very little resources in Spanish,” Ruiz said. “However, there is a high interest, and our audience wants to know about these things. We saw the opportunity when we noticed that the professors were doing something that could help guide and inform the public.”
“Decisiones: Datos y Cambio Climático” is available to watch on YouTube with English subtitles. Click here to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C1aVBOKkE8.