This week the Mongabay Newscast published an interview with me about developments in the Amazon, my recent travels, and what’s upcoming for Mongabay.
Category: Media appearances
A few months ago I was a guest on Dr. Mark Plotkin’s “Plants of the Gods: Hallucinogens, Healing, Culture and Conservation” podcast which explores medicinal plants, Indigenous cultures, and conservation. Plotkin is a conservationist, ethnobotanist, and author who co-founded the Amazon Conservation Team and has won many accolades. I’ve interviewed Plotkin for Mongabay in the […]
An interview with Alejandro Muñoz for Sinc (Ciencia Contada en Español): “No vamos detrás del clic, nuestro periodismo busca mejoras reales en el medioambiente”. A few extracts translated from from the interview: Do you think interest in environmental journalism has increased? Yes. I think the effects of environmental degradation are more evident than ever. This […]
Spanish media published multiple stories about Mongabay winning the 2023 Biophilia Award. Here are two examples: La Fundación BBVA galardona a ‘Mongabay’ por crear una plataforma mundial de periodismo ambiental (ABC.es) Rhett Butler, fundador de la web ambiental Mongabay: “La gente prefiere creer lo que encaja con su visión del mundo” (El Mundo)
Last week I participated in the Sun Valley Forum. Beyond meeting lots of interesting and inspirational people, I did a fireside chat with the forum’s founder Aimée Christensen on the state of reporting from Nature’s frontline; conducted interviews with author David Ewing Duncan and artist/activist Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri; and moderated the “Mega Deals For Nature” panel […]
The Heinz Family Foundation produced a short video that provides a nice overview of Mongabay’s work and how we think about the impact environmental journalism can have.
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Interview with Eco-Business
In September I met with Robin Hicks of Eco-Business to talk about Mongabay, non-profit media, and trends in environmental journalism. The resulting interview was published at ‘Page views are not real impact’: Mongabay founder Rhett Butler. A few excerpts from the interview: The challenge for newsrooms in finding the balance between gloomy environmental news and […]
In September I spoke with Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb about the latest trends in tackling deforestation in the world’s tropical forests. The conversation touched on the importance of including Indigenous and local communities in conservation efforts, the development of Mongabay’s tree-planting transparency tool, and more. Progress on deforestation: where are the chinks of light?
In June 2022, I spoke with Aimée Christensen at the Sun Valley Forum on “Reporting on the State of Nature”. I talked about the origin of Mongabay; how Mongabay works; the current state of environmental journalism including trends, threats, and opportunities; and more. I also shared some of my nature and wildlife photos. Here is […]
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BNN Bloomberg appearance
Today I spoke with Jameson Berkow at BNN Bloomberg about the impact of macroeconomic factors on tropical forests in 2022.
In November, I was interviewed for Praveen Gupta’s Diversity Blog: “Net zero without the proper standards leaves huge loopholes for environmental degradation, human rights abuses, and other harms.” Praveen Gupta (PG): How do you suggest we address the biodiversity hotspots of the world? Both in terms of containing and regenerating them? Rhett Butler (RB): I think most […]
Today I spoke with Bobby Bascomb on NPR’s Living on Earth about the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use.
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Jane Goodall’s Hopecast Podcast
A few weeks ago Jane Goodall interviewed me for her Hopecast podcast. The episode came out today: RHETT BUTLER – HOPE IS SHARING KNOWLEDGE TO EMPOWER (JANE GOODALL HOPECAST EPISODE #19). Here is the episode description: For this episode of the Hopecast, Dr. Jane Goodall meets with longtime collaborator and fellow storyteller, Rhett Butler! Rhett is the founder and […]
Andreas Dahl-Jorgensen of Norway’s International Climate & Forest Initiative (NICFI) joins Planet Explore 2021 to share recent progress from one of the most ambitious global forest monitoring programs, and highlights the range of users who are benefitting from access to Planet’s high-resolution Basemaps across tropical forest countries.
Reporting in jungles isn’t for the faint of heart. Rhett Butler, founder and editor-in-chief of environmental news website Mongabay, talks about getting stranded in a dangerous situation in Suriname, the many jungle diseases he has gotten, and some tips for getting phone signal in the rainforest. He also tells us the origins of Mongabay go […]
Rhett Barker interviews Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay.com, about running the internet’s premiere conservation news website. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW
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The Almanac profiles Mongabay
The story, “How a curious kid from Atherton started and grew a global environmental news site” was published by Barbara Wood in The Almanac on Nov 8, 2017. The way Rhett Butler tells the story, he was inspired to become a champion of the natural environment by a childhood full of family travel to out-of-the-way […]
On January 24th, I did an interview with Chicago Public Radio’s Jerome McDonnell, host of Worldview, on the impact of U.S. biofuels policy on deforestation in the Amazon [minutes 22:15-38:00 on the podcast]: https://www.wbez.org/stories/the-dark-side-of-biofuels/56779a3c-1dac-4233-a0f0-dee2a41548ac
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WSJ mention – January 15, 2008
A piece in The Wall Street Journal by Kelly Spors included a quote about my work at Mongabay: Some bloggers already are seeing results. Rhett Butler, founder of Mongabay.com, a site with articles on rainforest conservation and other environmental issues, makes $15,000 to $18,000 a month from AdSense, using various types of ads. Mr. Butler says his […]
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WSJ mention – September 8, 2006
Yesterday, my work got a mention in The Wall Street Journal. Emily Meehan’s “Not Letting Success Get to Your Head” piece opened with some background on Mongabay. The excerpt: High school reunions promise a treasure of surprises about former classmates, whether they invented a new type of digital movie camera, starred in a shampoo commercial […]
This is an excerpt from “A site of inspiration“, by Jessica Guynn, which appeared on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle’s business section on July 5, 2006. Frankly, he gave a damn. It all began in 1996 when Rhett Butler — a young Silicon Valley vagabond named for the “Gone with the Wind” […]