GreenSonqo
Sustainability with heartFrom Cusco to California

Climate stories told with data, systems, and Andean cosmovision

Alfredo Gonzalez Valenzuela weaves peer-reviewed research and ancestral Quechua wisdom into video essays that the English-only climate conversation keeps missing.

Research, press, and partners
Portland State UniversityAmerican Chemical SocietyEnvironmental Research LettersHispanic Access FoundationGreen LatinosPortland State UniversityAmerican Chemical SocietyEnvironmental Research LettersHispanic Access FoundationGreen Latinos

Published by the American Chemical Society. Researched at Portland State University. Reported from the Sacred Valley, Lima, Medellín, Bogotá, and Los Angeles. GreenSonqo is a bridge between abuelo wisdom and peer-reviewed climate data — one video, one paper, one conversation at a time.

Four ways in

Where data meets ayni, and climate meets cosmovisión

Videos, papers, frameworks, and community — one channel, one mission.

Stories

Long-form video essays on LatAm climate, gentrification, air quality, and the blind spots of the green transition.

Research

Peer-reviewed work on eucalyptus isoprene emissions and Andean ecosystems. Published by the American Chemical Society.

Systems

Andean cosmovision as an analytical frame: ayni, cycles, reciprocity — applied to real urban and climate problems.

Community

A home for the bilingual, bicultural climate voices the English-only newsroom keeps leaving off the byline.

How the work is made

Four principles  one in each cardinal direction of the chakana

01 / 04

Ayni — reciprocity

Every video cites the community it reports on. Research findings go back to the neighborhoods whose air was measured. Credit travels both ways.

The conversation

Voices from the ayllu

Alfredo doesn't explain the Andes to you — he translates what the Andes have been saying all along, in a language the English-only newsroom finally has to hear.

MQ

Mariana Quispe

Climate journalist, Lima

The eucalyptus video should be required viewing for every municipal air-quality office in the Andes. He measured what our monitors don't even try to detect.

DO

Daniela Ortega

Environmental engineer, Cusco

Misty Andean forest

Isoprene ppb · Cusco 2025

The data was there. The language wasn't.

About Alfredo

Bilingual. Bicultural. Peer-reviewed.

Alfredo Gonzalez Valenzuela grew up between Cusco terraces and California highways. He is a researcher — his undergraduate work on eucalyptus isoprene emissions was published by the American Chemical Society out of Portland State University. He is a storyteller — his YouTube essays walk through gentrification, air quality, lithium, and the missing Spanish-speaking climate voice, pairing Andean cosmovision with hard data. GreenSonqo is the bridge he's building so that ancestral intelligence and peer-reviewed science can finally be in the same sentence.

Machu Picchu at sunset

Cusco, Peru

From Portland State labs to Cusco's cerros — same question, two languages.

Aerial view of misty Andean forest

Yachay in practice

Cite the abuelos. Then cite the paper.

Connecting people, land, and purpose

The bilingual climate conversation is already here. Pull up a chair.