La 2’s information space celebrates a quarter of a century dedicated to the environment
In 1997, few were talking on the small screen about climate change and its consequences. In ‘La 2 Noticias’, some of his informative pieces started to familiarize us with concepts such as global warming. At TVE, however, they felt that the environment needed a bigger role in the second chain. With its own space, while other formats started to exist, such as ‘Agrosfera’, which dealt with the rural world, but from the point of view of agriculture and livestock. And so ‘The Green Beetle’ was born, the program that now celebrates a quarter of a century of broadcasting and demonstrates the importance of caring for the ecosystem in our daily lives.
“There was nothing comparable at that time. There were nature documentaries that we had known all our lives, such as the one by Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente. But ‘The Green Beetle’ is a different kind of product and someone thought it was a good idea to talk about it. environment”, director Eduardo Laplaza recalls about this production, which will be broadcast on Friday afternoon on La 2 (6:10 pm ) with an average viewership of almost 3% and about 280,000 viewers. The spirit of the program has remained intact since the first episode, although the format has changed and has undergone a minor revolution in 2003.
In the beginning, it was presented by Pere Martín, in a more informative magazine style, which later led to monographic chapters as “environmental interest continued to grow”. “Not only in quantity, but also in quality,” says the director.
A quarter of a century ago, the public was not so familiar with caring for nature. Terms like climate change started ringing strong in the scientific community and La 2 tried to explain it. So, Laplaza recalls, television focused on the environment after a disaster happened. “It was the dominant trend.
According to the director, that experiment was a test: “I wanted to open a small window into a new sector in the media.” Therefore, it was necessary to familiarize a viewer with nature from an innovative point of view and to perform a pedagogical task with the small but demanding audience of La 2. «These terms are changing. From climate change to climate crisis. Quite a pedagogical job had to be done to be able to introduce them little by little and also relate them, not like traditional news does, but rather that it is associated with changes in society that are pernicious,” explains the head of the program from. .
‘The Green Beetle’ modestly planted its seed in the awareness of nature in Spanish society. “The environment encompasses everything and can be talked about in any way. It touches on topics from biology to culture and tradition, which run through public health. It’s much more varied. People have a personal and special interest in these things. It’s more present in society than it was then and has become more aware of those little everyday gestures that we’re all talking about,” he says.
During its 25 years of broadcasting, ‘The Green Beetle’ changed its format to monographic programs to give “a certain depth to a certain theme” and to combine creativity with the production of the space. “We try to make those things different to make it a bit more fun, otherwise it would be a shame,” says Laplaza. For the anniversary, they ventured with new audiovisual stories with the aim of giving a voice to young people, the generation that has a greater environmental awareness to this day.
With the special episode ‘We Already Have 25’ (available on RTVE Play), the program produced a fiction of actor Guillermo Campra and actress Julia Bonjoch. They played twin brothers who, while preparing their birthday party, recalled the major milestones of the environmental movement and the environment in our country, while mixing with excerpts from reports from the broadcast of ‘The Green Beetle’ from 1997 to the present: the installation of renewable energy sources, air pollution, the Prestige disaster or water policy, and much more.
In this context, the television space also organized its first competition for short films, with an environmental theme, aimed at young people between the ages of 18 and 28.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
