Rhett Ayers Butler
I recently contributed a section on how to communicate about the Amazon for The Endangered Amazonia report, which came out this week in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Here’s a brief summary of my contribution. From doom to agency: Talking about saving Amazonia Many stories about the Amazon read like elegies. Drought, smoke, lawlessness—each headline darker [Continue reading]
When I think about what makes someone care about the natural world, it rarely begins with statistics or graphs. It begins with a moment. For me, it was an encounter I had at age 12 with frogs in the Ecuadorian Amazon—a fascination that turned to urgency when I later read about an oil spill near [Continue reading]
In September 2025, James Marriott argued in Cultural Capital that we are entering a “post-literate society.” He traced how the eighteenth-century “reading revolution” seeded democracy, science, and civil society, and warned that the dominance of the smartphone and short-form video is now eroding the habits of deep reading that underpinned those gains. It is a [Continue reading]
For decades, conservationist Enrique Ortiz has worked to protect some of the world’s most vital ecosystems. But in his recent commentary for Mongabay, he voiced a stark truth that many in conservation rarely say aloud: Environmental messaging is failing to inspire enough people to act. The facts are known, yet they rarely change minds. To [Continue reading]
Not all platforms are worth it After I shared the story behind Mongabay’s decision to deprioritize Facebook, several people asked: Where should impact-driven organizations focus their energy instead? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The best platform depends on your audience and what you want them to do with the information you share. Are you trying to [Continue reading]
You can’t fact someone into caring. Facts inform, but stories move. That idea came up often last week during discussions at The Villars Institute. The science is clear: our planetary systems are under immense stress. Yet, we’ve failed—dramatically—to communicate that reality in ways that resonate with most people. The challenge is compounded by the worsening [Continue reading]
I trust you are well. It’s meant to sound polite. It often isn’t. Over the years, I’ve come to see that how we open conversations matters. Yet this phrase lingers—empty, impersonal, and detached. This may seem trivial given everything happening in the world, but communication matters. If we want it to be meaningful, let’s rethink [Continue reading]