What is Buen Vivir?
Buen Vivir is a monthly series of presentations on global social and climate justice, typically held on the last Wednesday of each month.
“Buen Vivir” is the most common translation for the indigenous Quechua concept of Sumak Kawsay, life lived in harmony with nature and community. While it is sometimes translated into English as “A Good Life,” Buen Vivir relates to a deeper understanding of how humankind, and the impacts of our lives, affect the planet and each other.
Technological Somnambulism and the Failure of the Scientific Imagination
Wednesday November 19th, Noon Pacific / 3:00pm Eastern
Our speaker for November’s Buen Vivir session is Max Wilbert.
Max Wilbert is a community organizer, wilderness guide, and co-founder of the anti-mining group Protect Thacker Pass. He has a Masters in Degrowth, and currently works with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. Max is co-author of the book Bright Green Lies: How The Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It, and writes a newsletter on Substack called Biocentric.
The monthly talk series features expert speakers in facilitated discussion addressing Buen Vivir issues affecting the world’s working populations. Speakers alternate from global south and global north regions, bringing together the voices of the most affected and those who benefit, connecting the dots of our impact. By illuminating and linking the effects of continuing unjust extractivism on the lives, livelihoods and resource-rich physical lands of global south peoples, and discussing the many opportunities to address the impacts, we hope to position the social justice issue clearly at the center of the climate justice conversation in Turtle Island and beyond.
Buen Vivir Videos
Saving Ourselves in a Polycrisis – Oct 2025
Dana R. Fisher is a dynamic speaker and author who writes about activism, democracy and climate policy. She is the Director of the Center for Environment, Community, & Equity (CECE) and a Professor in the School of International Service at American University, as well as a Non Resident Senior Fellow with the Governance Studies program at The Brookings Institution. Her most recent book, Saving Ourselves: from Climate Shocks to Climate Action was published in 2024 by Columbia University Press. In fall 2024, she delivered a TED talk about being an apocalyptic optimist based on Saving Ourselves. More recently, she has focused her research on understanding how citizens are mobilizing during the current polycrisis caused by threats to democracy along with the climate crisis. She served as a Contributing Author for Working Group 3 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Review (IPCC AR6) writing about citizen engagement and civic activism. For more details, see www.danarfisher.com
Before They Vanish – Sept/Oct 2025
Dr. Gerardo Ceballos is an award-winning global environmental scientist with a specialty in animal conservation and extinction and professor at the Institute of Ecology at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). His efforts toward preservation of Mexico’s biodiversity have contributed to the creation of protected area equivalent to 2 percent of the country’s landmass, as well as the creation of the first Mexican endangered species act. The author or co-author of 52 books, Dr. Ceballos works through his organization Stop Extinction to increase the ecological literacy of the general public.
The Importance of Biodiversity in Restoring Planetary Health – August 2025
Our speaker for this Buen Vivir session was Paul Morris CERP, M.Sc. With over 30 years of expertise in ecology, botany, ecosystem restoration, and regenerative farming, Paul is a seasoned professional dedicated to preserving and restoring our planet’s natural ecosystems. As a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) with the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). His focus recently has been running Ecosystem Restoration Training in the Yucatan and with the Soil Food Web program across North America. His project Planet Healers works to help people understand and restore soil health in every community.
The Power of Disruption: Evaluating Non-Violent Direct Action in the Climate Movement – July 2025
Our speaker for this Buen Vivir session was Dr. Marion Grau. She shared the Scientist Rebellion Norway presentation from the 11th International Degrowth Conference presented by ISEE in Oslo, Norway on June 26th, 2025.
Professor Grau’s research is focused on the climate crisis, specifically a political theology of climate activism, climate psychology and theories of change. She is a member of Scientist Rebellion Norway and Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island.
Kinship Approaches to a Just Transition – June 2025
Our speaker for this Buen Vivir session was Serena Mendizabal. She is a Cayuga Wolf Clan Panamanian woman from the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. Serena is a community-based researcher, grassroots organizer, and environmental advocate, and has worked in climate, environment, and clean energy for almost a decade. Serena’s desire to work in climate justice and clean energy comes directly from her community of Six Nations that has long been involved in frontline work, international advocacy, and land protection, and where she has organized since she was 10 years old.
Serena is the Managing Director at Sacred Earth Solar, an Indigenous women-led organization supporting Indigenous communities in implementing climate solutions and healing justice. Sacred Earth Solar is one of the only Indigenous non-profits implementing renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure through a climate justice approach. Through Sacred Earth Solar, Serena has implemented renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure projects alongside communities across Turtle Island.
Degrowth: Spreading the Word – May 2025
Our speaker for this Buen Vivir session was Mark Darienzo. He was a paleoseismologist who, along with other scientists, found evidence of subduction zone earthquakes and tsunamis along the Pacific Northwest coast. He also taught geology at various universities and community colleges. His post academic/research career includes volunteering with 350pdx, Extinction Rebellion Portland, Climate Jobs, a committee of Portland Jobs with Justice, and Council 75 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Environmental Caucus.
The Energy Transition and Degrowth – April 2025
Our speaker for this Buen Vivir session was John Mulrow, Executive Director of the Degrowth Institute and an Adjunct Professor of Environmental Engineering at Purdue. Dr. Mulrow has professional experience inf off-grid solar installations, disaster response, and international development. John has a PhD and MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago, along with a BS in Earth Systems from Stanford.
Anti-Colonial Degrowth: a brief introduction – March 2025
Our speaker for this Buen Vivir session was Gabriella Cabaña, PhD, Chilean sociologist and social anthropologist at Fundación Tantí. This lecture introduced degrowth from an anti-colonial perspective, showing how this perspective can support militant forms of research. Gabriella’s Ph.D. is from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research has focused on environmental justice, renewable energy infrastructure, and degrowth from a Global South perspective. Gabriella is a researcher at Fundación Tantí, an NGO based in Antofagasta, in the north of Chile. She is also an advocate of universal basic income.
Climate Justice IS Social Justice: Why the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Matters – February 2025
A conversation with special guest speaker Rachel Ruback, North America’s Project Manager for Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, on the significance of a non-proliferation treaty and its importance to ensure a fair and just transition away from fossil fuel dependency and the violence and racism that sustains it.
The Climate Crisis: Social Impacts and Inequity Drivers – January 2025
Buen Vivir’s first session featured Dr. Ornela De Gasperin, an expert in Ecology and Environmental Science. Ornela holds an Honours degree in Biology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (U.N.A.M) and a PhD in Zoology from the University of Cambridge. With postdoctoral research in Ecology at both the University of Lausanne and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, Dr. Ornela currently serves as a Professor in Ecology at the Institute of Ecology (INECOL, A.C), where she has been since 2023. She is a member of Scientist Rebellion Global and Rebelión Científica Abya Yala.
Blog posts on topics related to Buen Vivir
- False Profit: How Fossil Fuels Shape Canadians’ Cost of Living
Canadians have spoken out time and time again how increased groceries, energy, and home prices continue to hurt us. If Canadian politicians want to seriously address the cost of living crisis for their Canadian constituents, a divestment from fossil fuels must be on their list of priorities. - Rebellion on Consumerism: SRTI December Salon Report
Our working definition of consumerism: an economic theory and social order that encourages people to buy more goods and services than they need for survival or status, based on the idea that consumer spending is the key to economic growth and individual well-being. We use nonviolent direct action to prompt reconsideration of the consumerist agenda, and seek to create a space where people can imagine alternatives like a wellbeing (buen vivir) economy.