Rhett Ayers ButlerRhett Ayers Butler is the Founder and CEO of Mongabay, a non-profit conservation and environmental science platform that delivers news and inspiration from Nature's frontline via a global network of local reporters. He started Mongabay in 1999 with the mission of raising interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife.
It doesn’t seem like the news is getting much better. What gives you hope for the future? This was one of the questions, Jennifer Wu asked during our conversation on The Founder Spirit podcast. 🌳 A summary of my response:I see progress in many areas—education, poverty reduction, and health outcomes have improved. People are living […]
Yesterday the latest Living Planet Index (LPI) report was released by WWF and Zoological Society of London (ZSL). It paints a sobering picture: wildlife populations have plummeted by an average of 73% over the past half-century. Based on nearly 35,000 monitored population trends spanning 5,495 species, LPI documents a collapse in biodiversity that extends across […]
Ryan Killackey, who died on October 4th, aged 46, was a man of singular purpose. Born in Homewood, Illinois, he came of age with a fascination for nature that would eventually drive him to the farthest reaches of the Amazon rainforest. But his was no simple journey of exploration or adventure; it was a pursuit […]
Orangutans have long captured the human imagination, their expressive eyes and human-like behaviors drawing parallels with our own species. Yet few individuals have had the opportunity to dive as deeply into the minds and lives of these great apes as Gary L. Shapiro. A pioneer in primate communication, Dr. Shapiro’s work spans five decades, encompassing […]
On World Octopus Day 🐙, it seems fitting to reflect on a creature whose intelligence is as intriguing as its ability to blend into its surroundings. The octopus, a soft-bodied mollusc with eight limbs, has long mesmerized audiences ranging from scientists and storytellers. With over 300 species scattered across the oceans—from shallow coral reefs to […]
A recent study has put the Indonesian government’s claims about the economic benefits of oil palm cultivation in Papua under scrutiny, reports Hans Nicholas Jong. Papua is the Indonesia-controlled portion of the island of New Guinea The Pusaka Bentala Rakyat Foundation’s analysis reveals that the environmental and social costs tied to the palm oil industry […]
Global interest in reforestation as a climate solution is growing, but with it comes a proliferation of inexperienced organizations and opaque strategies, often resulting in failures and unintended consequences. This trend has led to calls for greater transparency in reporting outcomes and best practices. A recent study led by researchers at the University of California, […]
I recently had the pleasure to speak with Brodie Hopkins for the “Protect the World” podcast. The episode is titled Journalism for People and the Planet with Rhett Butler. Protect the World is dedicated to the people and orgs making the world a better place. Every month, Hopkins connects with an NGO that’s addressing inequality […]
Planet has unveiled Project Centinela, an initiative designed to bolster conservation efforts in some of the world’s most vulnerable biodiversity hotspots. The program will provide cutting-edge satellite imagery and analytical tools to scientists and conservationists working in areas at the highest risk of species extinction. By offering access to high-resolution, high-frequency data, Planet seeks to […]
The notion that climate change poses a significant health risk is not as widely acknowledged as it should be. Yet the relationship between a warming planet and human well-being is profound, with impacts ranging from heat waves to the spread of infectious diseases. Alan Dangour, Director of Climate and Health at Wellcome, is determined to […]
Today is World Gorilla Day The lush forests of equatorial Africa, once a riot of life teeming with an unimaginable richness of plants and creatures, are yielding to a more ordered world—trees and crops planted in straight lines, forest sounds replaced by the hum of chainsaws and motorbikes, the rich, earthy scent of understory vegetation […]
Today is International Rhino Day We share the planet with five rhino species: the white and black rhinos of Africa, and the Sumatran, Javan, and Indian (Greater One-Horned) rhinos of Asia. While the Indian and southern white rhinos have seen significant recoveries, most rhinos remain critically endangered, teetering on the edge of extinction. The Northern […]
Jane Goodall had some nice things to say about Mongabay’s work during a conversation with Climate One’s Greg Dalton and myself in San Francisco on September 16th. I tell everybody, if you really want to know the truth about a particular issue, go to Mongabay.” “We know we’re going through dark places on the planet […]
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak with David Casselman, a philanthropist and retired trial lawyer who is the founder of Ecoflix. Ecoflix is a video streaming platform dedicated to sharing uplifting and positive stories about nature and wildlife. With a focus on conservation and environmental awareness, it aims to inspire […]
Today is World Manta Day. In conservation, economic valuation is increasingly recognized as a potent tool to incentivize species protection. Manta rays exemplify how their worth, alive, far surpasses the value placed on their body parts in global fisheries. Both the reef manta (Manta alfredi) and the giant manta (Manta birostris) face significant threats, particularly […]
Here’s an example of how we fund nature journalism. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet that relies on grants and donations, rather than advertising or a paywall, to bring our audience news and inspiration from nature’s frontline. I’m often asked how this works. The short answer is that we’re constantly pitching donors to secure support […]
At last night’s Climate One event, nearly 1,700 attendees, including more than 600 students and educators, gathered to hear Jane Goodall deliver a heartfelt plea for the future of our planet. In a conversation moderated by Greg Dalton, Goodall’s words pierced through the often numbing barrage of crises that dominate our daily news. “Please vote,” […]
Today is International Vulture Awareness Day. That makes it a fitting moment to recognize the crucial role these birds of prey play in our world. Vultures, long maligned as harbingers of death, are emerging as unsung heroes in the field of public health. In India, their precipitous decline in the 1990s—caused by the veterinary use […]
The destruction of tropical forests is often framed as a carbon issue, but it has more immediate consequences for people living nearby. One of the most tangible effects is local temperature. Deforestation in Borneo, for instance, has left the island significantly hotter and drier, with severe consequences for both the environment and local communities. A […]
Today is Amazon Rainforest Day. To mark the occasion, here are a few facts and figures about the world’s largest tropical rainforest: 🌳 The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest, bigger than the next two largest rainforests — in the Congo Basin and Indonesia — combined. 🌳 At 6.9 million square kilometers, the Amazon Basin […]
Today is International Primate Day. While most people are familiar with monkeys, the great apes, and possibly lemurs, fewer may realize that there are over 500 known species of primates, making them one of the most diverse groups of mammals. These species range from the diminutive Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur of Madagascar to the formidable […]
The amphibian apocalypse, it seems, has been momentarily postponed. Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, or Bsal, a fungal pathogen that has wreaked havoc on amphibian populations globally, remains conspicuously absent from North America. For a decade, scientists from the North American Bsal Task Force have combed forests and swabbed salamanders, searching for any trace of the pathogen. Their […]
Today is International Whale Shark Day. In a world that often exalts the loud, the fast, and the fierce, there exists a creature that quietly defies convention. The whale shark, the largest fish in the ocean, glides through warm seas with an elegance that belies its immense size. Despite their bulk—reaching up to 40 feet […]
In the shadow of the Andes, a quiet revolution is unfolding, reports James Hall for Mongabay News. The Queuña forests, once covering vast stretches of the mountains, have dwindled to a mere fraction of their former glory, leaving behind a landscape where biodiversity & water security hang in the balance. This ecological collapse has triggered […]
On South Africa’s Wild Coast, the amaMpondo people have long resisted the advances of outsiders eager to exploit their land’s resources, reports Leo Joubert for Mongabay News. Xolobeni, a village on the eastern shore, became a flashpoint in this struggle, where traditional beliefs intersect with environmental activism. For over two decades, the amaMpondo have successfully […]