BIO
A geographer and climatologist by training and science communicator by vocation, Jacob Petrus (Manresa, Barcelona, 1976) has been accompanying viewers for more than a decade on Aquí la Tierra, an environmental program shown by public broadcaster RTVE, which seeks to inform, educate and raise awareness around the three key environmental crises of our time: pollution, climate change and loss of biodiversity. He receives the Award for Knowledge Dissemination and Communication in Biodiversity Conservation in Spanish for raising the television profile of environmental news, uniting quality and scientific solvency with an upbeat approach that appeals to a wide audience.
Petrus’s professional career, which spans over 25 years reporting on the planet’s environmental challenges, dates back to 2000 when he began contributing to Prisa Group media like El País, Cadena SER or CNN+. Four years later, he was appointed Head of Weather at Telemadrid, a position he held until 2013, when he joined the weather team at RTVE. Then began his journey in radio, contributing to the news bulletins and other programs of public broadcaster RNE, where he continues to feature content related to conservation, the environment, meteorology and climatology.
In 2014 he took up his position as director, coordinator and presenter of Aquí la Tierra, which since 2022 he has combined with regular contributions to the “Héroes por el clima” section of publisher Vocento’s Antropía supplement, where he publishes interviews and profiles of agents and institutions fighting to protect the environment. He has also written outreach articles on meteorology and climatology for publications like Muy Interesante, GEO or the newspaper Público.
“I’ve always had this desire to communicate and inform, and although am a geographer specializing in climatology, another part of me has forever been a journalist,” he says of his dual vocation. “I first became a weatherman because it brought together the two strands of communication and science. I have always enjoyed the outreach side of my work, during my time with the Prisa group, in my continuing role with Telemadrid, and more recently with Televisión Española.”
His engaging, viewer-friendly approach, combining more lighthearted stories with coverage of major environmental phenomena, is what sets him apart on the television grid. It is this quality that was picked out by the jury when it hailed his “flair for innovation in the TV treatment of a wide spectrum of environmental issues.”
“Aquí la Tierra uses a familiar, colloquial language to address topics we deal with every day, that can be understood by everyone from the oldest to the youngest viewer,” Petrus remarks. “I believe in conveying the message entertainingly, because we live in an increasingly urbanite society, cut off from nature. And it’s time we got back our affective relationship with the environment.”
To achieve this, Petrus advocates for an upbeat style of reporting; one that can mobilize the public to be more respectful and more aware of their environmental impact: “The big challenge for the future is to show how we can do things differently without having to make radical changes in our way of life. It’s what society is crying out for, because we all know we are doing things the wrong way, but it’s often hard to know what the right way is. With such a vast quantity of information out there, it is our responsibility to get the message across to the audience in a way that they can understand.”
In its crusade to bring the natural world into Spanish homes, Aquí la Tierra has set itself the task of serving as a bridge between the countryside and the city. “An active rural world is a vital part of protecting our environment,” says Petrus. “It’s the model of country we want to live in, so the fact of doing our bit to revitalize rural areas is a huge motivating factor for the team.”
Public television, he believes, must offer programming by the people for the people. A view that reflects his more private side: “I am a father and find it difficult to find content that I can watch with my children, so I am thrilled each time a family tells me that they sit down together to watch Aquí la Tierra. We even hear from a lot of school teachers that they use the program to help kids learn. It’s wonderful to see children knowing which fruits are in season or asking their parents to recycle. And it’s great to think that the next generation will be more aware, at least on an environmental level, so that, going forward, we can make this planet a better place to live.”
Looking ahead, Petrus sees scientific messaging as the best means to raise awareness of responsible consumption alternatives aligned with the values of sustainability and ethics. “That’s a lesson we need to convey to the broader public. We have a lot of power as consumers and we have to exercise it when we can. For many, many years, we had blinkers on our eyes thinking we could consume without regard for the environmental damage caused by the products we were using. We now have an idea of what a zero-mile fruit costs in environmental terms compared to one imported from another continent, but this understanding of environmental cost disappears when it comes to, say, clothes. As consumers, we must demand that information. And we in the media must point the finger and highlight the problems caused by this type of product. The goal is to keep advancing, lighting up paths that we can follow.”
During his years as a communicator, Petrus has witnessed how the demand for scientific content has gained ground in newsrooms, due largely to a social context in which eco-anxiety is increasingly taking grip: “We are bringing science to society, and society is responding. When we started with the program, we had the feeling that we had to sell the issues to the public. Now it is the other way around, it is society that is calling for us to address topics that appear on their list of concerns. People want to know on which days a city’s pollution levels are highest. They want us to talk about microplastics, climate change, future scenarios. On top of this, as a society we are forced into daily consumption decisions that are often uninformed. Among our main goals is to advise on the best choices we can make to reduce our ecological footprint, and to ensure that these choices have a real effect.”
In light of the boom in popularity of environmental stories in the general-interest media, Petrus recalls such reporting milestones as the La Palma volcanic eruption or the Filomena snow storm, which triggered an upswing in interest in climate science: “Everyone wanted the weather team to confirm whether these were caused by climate change. People are now keenly aware that climate change can affect both their pockets and their health. In fact media outlets no longer refer to climate change, global warming or climate crisis; they talk about the climate emergency. The importance of environmental data has changed so much that many of the objectives that companies now set for themselves are of an environmental nature. Twenty years ago, no one would have imagined that a firm’s planning would depend on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.”
In a tender analogy that reflects the loss of our affective bond with nature, the climatologist advocates getting closer to the environment so we understand why we want to protect it. “With a partner, first you get to know them then you learn to value their qualities. And that is when you spontaneously feel the impulse to care for, cherish and protect them. Our relationship with the environment should be a bit like that. If you understand the value inherent in certain species, certain crops, birds, mammals or reptiles, then of course you will protect them more vigilantly than you would if you were ignorant of the problems they confront.”