About

Can you bear the Heavy Weather?

Hi! My name is Carlos Berrios Polanco. I'm a freelance journalist based out of Puerto Rico with a special interest in covering climate, conflict, and the intersection of the two. My journalism has led me to reporting on environmental protests in Puerto Rico, the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, Ga., and to the Dominican Republic's sugar workers towns. You might also know me from very long on-the-ground protest coverage on Twitter.

Given the current state of media, it's become abundantly clear that the precarity of freelance journalism barely works for most. It especially doesn't work if you're a freelancer who didn't go to J-school who lives in a place that only garners national attention when it's being destroyed, whether through natural or unnatural means.

So, I decided to start my own thing and that's Heavy Weather, a place where you can find news, opinion and media criticism from the Caribbean, mostly Puerto Rico. There will also be a podcast (coming very soon!) that will mostly focus on interviews with activists and experts about several topics.

To give a peak behind the curtain of how things will work here: climate change is the most important story of our lifetimes. Consequentially, every story has a climate angle to it, whether it's cops getting more funding for surveillance technology or the boom of short-term rentals. That's why we'll feature a wide variety of stories here that might not have an immediately visible climate angle. Trust me, it will help illuminate the patchwork of climate issues affecting the world.

Meanwhile, the media criticism will also be heavy on the climate angle. Through those essays, we'll explore how humanity has created art for the end times. Is it meant to be comforting? Or harrowing? Are they killing one world in hopes of saving ours?

However, because living is expensive, I'm still going to be on the grind of pitching stories to editors. Everything that doesn't get picked up will end up here.

I'm a verbose writer and articles found here will be no different. The writing will definitely be more niche and geeky than you'd find from me on any other website. In particular, I hope that the essays will make you think differently about a piece of media or shed new light on it. They'll be chock full of reference work, because it's important to give people recommended reading. You can find a recommended reading list here!

Please bear with me as I learn how to run my own website. I'm not a tech guy and I habitually feel the need to smash my computer against the wall.

I'm @vaquero2xl on social media everywhere. If you have a comment, question, or a tip--especially if you have a tip--you can reach me securely at carlosBP (at) protonmail (dot) com or Vaquero2XL.99 on Signal.

If you're an editor reading this, here's my resume:

I'm a multimedia journalist who covers climate, conflict, and the intersection of the two.

I was the first Caribbean correspondent for Latino Rebels, where I covered news coming out of Puerto Rico and the wider region. I have freelanced for several local and international outlets, including 9 Millones, Marea Ecologista, and Unicorn Riot.

Images I've made have been licensed by many of the above mentioned outlets, as well as NBC News, Gizmodo, the Intercept, In These Times, and others. Videos I've shot have been licensed by Telemundo and MSNBC, as well as Bad Bunny's "El Apagón / Aquí Vive Gente" documentary and the Center for Puerto Rican Studies' Emmy-winning "Privatized Resilience" documentary.

My reportage about hurricanes in Puerto Rico and the Haitians deported from the Dominican Republic has been cited in letters to Congress.

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