Reflections on Living with Nature, from Intern Julia Vaz

Dear LOE listeners, 

This is Julia, and I’m one of the Living on Earth interns this spring. I’m writing this newsletter from Cambridge, MA where the weather keeps toying with my feelings, switching from warm to freezing every week. I have completely given up on ever picking the right coat when leaving my house. 

It’s right about March, as the winter seems to stretch just a little bit longer than I’d like, that I find myself missing my hometown the most. I grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where it’s pretty much “beach weather” all year round. Growing up, I was lucky enough to spend most of my weekends and holidays away from the busy urban center at a family home up in the mountains. There, I’d read to the sound of birds or late afternoon rain, help my mother plant strawberries, and use my index finger to give ladybugs a lift. 

That period of my life gave me a deep appreciation for the peace and clarity that comes from living close to nature. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I found solace in the constancy of the toucans in the trees and the sound of the nearby river. And it overjoyed me to discover, by tuning into Living on Earth’s “The Place Where You Live” series, that people all around the United States were connecting to their beloved landscapes in the same way. People’s essays, full of beauty and tenderness, highlighted how important the environments we care about are in shaping our histories and identities. 

But I was also aware of how much of a privilege it is to be able to establish such deep connections to nature. As LOE’s 2020 “Race and the Nature Gap” story taught us, nature deprivation bars people from essential needs: fresh air, clean water, moments of contemplation. And, in the United States, communities of color lack access to nature at three times the rate of white communities. 

At Brown University, where I graduated with a degree in political science, I studied everything from theories of government to the design of more fair and equitable public policy— including as it relates to achieving environmental justice. But for me, instead of just a bullet point in my curriculum, the concept of environmental justice became a central roadmap to create more harmonious, fair, and interconnected political systems. Thinking about how communities interact with nature is a way to create more sustainable and equitable policies. 

My goal as a journalist is to make scientific knowledge about nature more accessible and help the general public understand what’s at stake when it’s threatened. I’m particularly interested in how people develop relationships to land, nature, and community in the face of climate change. As a current master’s student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Science Writing program, I’m learning more about how journalism connects scientific knowledge with the communities most affected by environmental change. 

So far at LOE, I’ve been helping produce stories on science, environmental policy, and innovative climate solutions. I feel so lucky to be able to contribute to a show that has inspired my path to climate journalism— introducing me to the issues I care most about and connecting me to a community of passionate listeners around the world.

Julia Vaz

LOE Intern

(Photo: Center for Strategic and International Studies)