Brighter Green

Victory for environmental justice in Yucatán.

On June 17, a court ruled in favor of Maya environmental defender Wilberth Nahuat Puc, ending the criminal proceedings against him after more than three years of legal persecution.

Wilberth became a leading voice in his community's successful effort to close a large-scale pork facility owned by Kekén in Santa María Chí, Yucatán. Community members argued that the operation threatened local water resources, ecosystems, and public health. Following the farm's closure, Wilberth faced criminal charges that many advocates viewed as retaliation for his environmental activism.

Brighter Green was proud to join JUMAC, APASDEM, Todos Somos Animales, Naturaleza Animal, Greenpeace, and Generación Vegana in supporting Wilberth and calling for an end to his criminalization. We have also worked to amplify the experiences of affected communities in Yucatán through investigative reporting, including the work of journalist Patricio Eleisgui.

This victory belongs first and foremost to the people of Santa María Chí, whose persistence, solidarity, and defense of their territory made it possible.

Happy the elephant spent decades confined in captivity before her death this week.

Her story is part of a larger question: what does it mean when living beings are treated as objects for entertainment, profit, or production?

There is not a separation between animal rights and environmental justice. In Brighter Green’s recent paper on industrial megafarms in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, we document how systems of confinement harm animals, ecosystems, and Indigenous communities alike. From elephants in captivity to factory-farmed animals confined by the millions, the same systems treat living beings and ecosystems as expendable.

Exploitation, Resistance, and Resilience in Mexico’s Yucatán – Brighter Green Stories of Human and Nonhuman Rights under Pressure from Animal Megafarms By Mia MacDonald and Isis Alvarez To read the entire paper, click here. Summary Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula is known for its beaches, Mayan archaeological sites like Tulum and Chichén Itzá, and its forests and cenotes (a n...

The second annual MOTH Festival of Ideas will take place in London this year, May 14th–16th!

Our Executive Director Mia MacDonald and Associate Isis Alvarez will present “Exploitation, Resistance, and Resilience in Mexico’s Yucatán: Stories of Human and Nonhuman Rights under Pressure from Animal Megafarms.” Their paper is an analysis of the investigative reporting in Mexico that Brighter Green has supported for the past two years.

If you’re in London, the discussion will take place on May 14th at 2:30pm!
Purchase tickets for the festival at

MOTH 2025 Festival of Ideas The living world is stitched together by a diversity of beings whose rich and complex interactions define its everyday drama. Humans—despite their disproportionate capacity to modify the living world—comprise only a small part of this vast web of relations. Yet, anthropocentrism has been a hallm...

In honor of Earth Month and before the semester ends and graduation, please join the Department of Environmental Studies for career and job advice and insights from four NYC-based professionals, including two NYU adjunct faculty members. The event will be held in person on Wednesday, April 29th at 5:30pm in the 6th-floor conference room at 79 Washington Square East. Come earlier for food, beverages, and mingling!

Our Executive Director Mia MacDonald will be a panelist!

New York University NYU Animal Studies

In a recent interview with Guardian, author Rebecca Solnit described today’s reactionary backlash as evidence that “a new world is being born.”

Two decades earlier, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai delivered a similar message in her Nobel lecture:

“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness… A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.”

For Brighter Green, Maathai’s legacy is deeply personal. She mentored our founder, Mia MacDonald, and collaborated with her on several books exploring the connections between environmental protection, justice, and the dignity of all life.

That time is still now.

The work of building a more just and sustainable world continues.
Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

Source: Zoe Williams, “ ‘A new world is being born’: author Rebecca Solnit on the ‘slow revolution’ the far right cannot tolerate,” The Guardian, March 25, 2026.