Samantha Hayes talks to Good about childhood, going vegan and making up your own mind on the issues
A career in journalism has taken Samantha Hayes from small-town Milton to the newsdesk at TV3’s Nightline, and on to international hotspots such as last year’s climate conference in Copenhagen. Once voted Auckland’s sexiest woman, Samantha recently decided to leave Nightline to become the 3 News environment reporter. She talks to Good about childhood, going vegan and making up your own mind on the issues
You could say that climate change has changed my life. It started with doing global warming stories on Nightline, then badgering my boss to let me go to Copenhagen. Just before I went, I switched to the six o’clock news because there were so many environmental stories to cover. I realised I really wanted to get out and start reporting on things again. Leaving Nightline was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, but my interest in climate change was the catalyst.
I’ve always enjoyed being outdoors. Dad would regularly pile the three of us kids into the van and drive to some old unused tramping track. One of my earliest memories is of duck shooting—on a frosty morning with a tiny Swanndri being pulled over my head. My dad is your quintessential Southern Man—out every weekend in his canoe, hunting and fishing. He’s a keen hunter, but he’s also very knowledgeable about the bush and he has never killed anything he didn’t use or give away. I’ve seen him spend hours tracking down a duck to make sure it wasn’t left wounded. Our uncle Richard Hayes [the legendary chopper pilot] would drop us down in the middle of nowhere. We’d follow Dad around; sometimes I’d wonder if we were ever going to be found again. Dad would show us things, like how to catch fresh water crayfish and tell us how to survive in the bush.
I come from a meat-and-three-veg family, but I’ve been vegetarian from the age of 11. I still remember the moment I made the decision. I was a keen horse rider, competing in one-day events and show-jumping championships till I was 17. An aunt and uncle have Hebron Farm, a sheep farm and riding school near Lawrence, and every holiday I’d go there to help with the horses. Once we were out on a ride during lambing. It was a beautiful spring day and the lambs were leaping around. I remember looking at them and thinking, “I don’t want to do this any more.”
I thought long and hard about the implications of not eating meat. I’m not one to force my lifestyle on others, but I have to live my life as I’m comfortable with it
My mother didn’t take my vegetarianism very well—I had to cook for myself. Once I got quite anaemic and she threatened to sell my horse if I didn’t eat some meat. My uncle said, “Its people like you who’re going to be the downfall of us.” I thought long and hard about the implications of not eating meat. I’m not one to force my lifestyle on others, but I have to live my life as I’m comfortable with it. I loved my father’s manuka-smoked fish but I made a decision.
I turned vegan in December, which is another big step, but one I feel happy about. I really like taking that reliance off animal products. Now I’m learning to bake all of my favourite things, but vegan. Last Christmas, my partner Arthur also made the decision to go vegetarian. It’s great.
We went camping this summer and we ate like kings!
On a practical level, it’s been incredibly easy at home and incredibly hard when I’ve been working overseas—especially in Copenhagen when we were working 20-hour days. But overall, it’s been a positive step. At the airport, instead of grabbing a pastry, I buy fruit. And I’d always have a banana at 9:30pm before starting Nightline—if I haven’t had my banana then look out!
One reason I didn’t go vegan before now was because I didn’t want it to be a pain for others. But a vegan friend came to stay and I realised it could be easy. Someone said the other day, “You know you won’t be able to drink wine”.
And then there’s the issue of leather or vinyl. You have to work it out bit by bit, with baby steps. It’s in my nature to do all my own research. But I’m incredibly time-poor, that’s where magazines like Good play an excellent role.
You need a degree of cynicism; don’t just talk to people about global warming, do a little research, read a bit and make up your own mind. Take a look at the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report of 2007 that was the collaborative effort of hundreds of the world’s climate scientists, including three of our top scientists. Think about the number of countries who believe that climate change needs to be addressed quickly—how can they all be duped?
There can be compelling cases on both sides of an issue and you have to weigh up the evidence. But you don’t have to let the flat earth society have a say every time you cover climate change
But you have to be balanced. Every time Al Gore takes a step too far he risks bringing the whole argument into disrepute … I mean, no one likes an exaggerator.
Keeping stories balanced is a real challenge when reporting on the environment. There was the story last year of the terminally ill hunter Chris Short, who climbed Mount Tongariro as a protest against the use of the pesticide 1080. Yet you’ll talk to some old DOC ranger who’ll say that unless they’re able to use 1080 to control possums and other pests, the only native birds you’ll see in 50 years time will be in zoos.
There can be compelling cases on both sides of an issue and you have to weigh up the evidence. But you don’t have to let the flat earth society have a say every time you cover climate change. It’s like when doctors simply stopped debating with tobacco companies about whether smoking caused cancer. The debate moved on to the degree of damage smoking causes.
Going to Copenhagen was fascinating—seeing up close how the UN worked. Getting into the Bella Center was a mission in itself, some days taking as long as four-and-a-half hours, standing in minus-degree temperatures. Once inside, TV3 had its own media booth, a little New Zealand channel, alongside the BBC, CNN and all the other big players.
We knew months out that a legally binding accord wasn’t going to be possible, but there was hope there could be a political accord, one that could be ratified later on. In the lead-up to the conference all the talk was about targets, but once we got there no one talked targets, they talked money—and even then, not until the end.
Leader after leader got up and said, “We need to act now or we’ll face catastrophe.” But the politicians let domestic politics get in the way. Most seem to only be thinking of the next three to five years, and they’re too afraid to do anything they think might lose them popular support.
There seems to be a degree of green fatigue among politicians. According to an article I read in the Guardian recently, it’s increasingly the younger generation who are talking to their parents and older siblings about the need to make a change. It’s about making incremental everyday changes, composting, eco-lightbulbs and so on—and sending a clear message to the politicians. Earth Hour, which is coming up on March 27, is an excellent initiative. It’s a great way for people to vote with their light switch—something like 40 percent of New Zealanders participated last year and this year is likely to be even higher.
Perhaps it’s going to take many catastrophes before everybody sits up and takes notice. Some say we’re already facing them—just look at Hurricane Katrina, which scientists say was intensified by global warming.
Many people and organisations were disappointed by John Key’s lack of leadership in Copenhagen. He did go to the conference, which was a start. But he’d been given a real mandate from New Zealanders, considering how many thousands signed Greenpeace’s Sign On campaign, and he went with the ability to raise our target and a cheque for potentially $80 million, which he didn’t even pull out of his pocket. On the last day, lots of accords were flying around, and all the time the conditions were being diluted. I asked John Key how his day was going and he said, “The food’s nice”.
At the end, all the politicians stood back. Key could have been a leader, but he chose not to speak up. Later I spoke to a delegate who said the final accord was not worth the paper it was written on—he was nearly in tears.
Like Barack Obama said, we could spend the next months or years debating this issue. I only hope we don’t look back at Copenhagen and say, “That was a moment in time when we could have saved the world.”
