It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC.

Good morning again, everyone.

Now our Health and Climate Tuesday section of the show.

We're on the climate side today with Vanessa Oak, anchor and director of

Noticius Telemundo's Environmental Investigative Unit called Planet Tietta, Planet Earth. She is one of

three winners this year of a Journalist of the Year award from the Advocacy Journalism Group

covering climate now. In 2020, she became the

first climate journalist to moderate a U.S. presidential debate. It was one of the Democratic

primary debates that year. Most of Vanessa Oaks' 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.

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.

Currently, about 70% of all of Mexico is in drought.

According to ConAwa, the entity that regulates water in Mexico, more than 60 million people

half of the entire country's population without daily access to water.

Journalist Vanessa Oak joins us now. Vanessa, thanks for giving us some time. Congratulations

on your Covering Climate Now Award and welcome to WNYC.

Hi, Brian. Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm just, I mean, 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

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