Rhett Ayers Butler
Earlier this month, Jeremy Hance’s “‘An epidemic of suffering’: Why are conservationists breaking down?” and the follow-up commentary “Emotional and psychological stresses beleaguer conservation professionals” by Vik Mohan and Nerissa Chao gave fresh urgency—and language—to a crisis many in conservation have been naming quietly for years. This piece builds on their reporting and reflections, and [Continue reading]
The following is some of what I shared during a recent conversation with Matt Pycroft on The Adventure Podcast’s ‘The Far Reaches’ series. For a long time Mongabay existed in a way that was almost embarrassing to describe. People would write to ask about the organization and imagine an office somewhere with editors, departments and [Continue reading]
I am often asked what Mongabay’s legacy is, or what it might turn out to be. The question usually comes with an assumption that a quarter-century of publishing should yield a tidy answer. It does not. Mongabay did not begin with a theory of media change, nor with an ambition to redefine environmental journalism. It [Continue reading]
Extinction is rarely a moment. It is a process that unfolds offstage, marked by missed sightings, thinning records, and the slow reassignment of hope to footnotes. Discovery, too, is rarely a moment. It is a process of comparison, argument, and waiting—years spent persuading other experts that what you are seeing is, in fact, new. A [Continue reading]
As I approach my 100th obituary—of people and, occasionally, species—it feels like an appropriate moment to explain why I write these tributes at all. I was recently interviewed about this work, and found myself reflecting on the questions I’ve been asked about the project. The instinct behind these pieces is a simple one. Over the [Continue reading]
For a movement so often framed by loss—and confronting a particularly difficult moment—conservation is relearning how to talk about itself. This shift may signal something deeper than messaging: a recalibration of what persuades people to care, to fund, and to act, especially as the world edges toward 2030 amid ecological strain, political volatility, and thinning [Continue reading]
People often say that good journalism requires a 30,000-foot view. I’ve found the opposite to be true. The stories that move the world rarely start in boardrooms or at summits; they start with someone standing knee-deep in a mangrove swamp, notebook in hand, asking a fisherman what has changed. At Mongabay, we built a network [Continue reading]
Long before humans built computers, nature built a better one. Razan Al Mubarak sees biodiversity as the planet’s original information network. In a commentary published on Mongabay, Al Mubarak, president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, offers a framing that has stayed with me. She argues that biodiversity is not simply a collection [Continue reading]
I find it hard to believe Jane Goodall is gone. She was more than an icon to me. She was a friend, a mentor, and someone whose presence—whether with presidents, students, or my own children—felt like both a gift and a lesson. Our friendship began in the most Jane way possible: an email that opened, [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]
The forest in northern Gabon didn’t look like a battleground. It was a patchwork of hunting trails and village paths, home to fruit trees and ancestral graves. When a logging concession encroached and the community of Massaha protested, their pleas traveled poorly through official channels. Then the story was reported, documented and read by people [Continue reading]
I never set out to be a journalist. Journalism wasn’t the plan. It wasn’t even on the horizon. When I was younger, my passions were rivers and fish tanks, frogs and forests—the small but miraculous lives unfolding in the creases of leaves or beneath the surface of water. I loved to lose myself in those [Continue reading]
There is a place where the Amazon meets the Andes, where forests climb the lower slopes of mountains before giving way to the mists of the cloud forests. To stand there is to feel the weight of two great worlds converging. The immensity of the Amazon basin stretches out below, while above, the Andes rise [Continue reading]
For the first fifteen years of Mongabay, I wrote almost constantly. I was reporting from nature’s frontlines, producing investigative pieces, and drafting analytical articles at a relentless pace. Writing was my craft, my joy, and my connection to the world. But when Mongabay transitioned into a non-profit, I knew something would have to give. The [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]
I often return to this series of images, which I took in Jambi, Indonesia, in 2022. At first glance, it seems to capture something hopeful: a full-circle rainbow arcing over a lush green landscape. But look closer, and you’ll see what lies beneath the beauty—a vast palm oil plantation, carved out of what was once [Continue reading]
I was recently asked to “write a letter to the future” for an art exhibition created by Ann Hamilton. Here’s the letter. Dear Future, I don’t know if you’ll read this from a lush and living world, or from the dry husk of one we failed to protect. But I’m writing from the in-between—a moment [Continue reading]
This post is an abbreviated response to a recent question about my journey into sustainability My journey into sustainability didn’t begin in a classroom or a boardroom—but in a rainforest in Borneo. I was a teenager, cooling my feet beside a jungle creek, when a wild orangutan emerged in the canopy overhead. We made eye [Continue reading]
Takashi Amano, master of the underwater landscape, died ten years ago this August. A new photo exhibition honors his legacy. NOTE: The first time I saw photographs of Takashi Amano’s aquariums, it changed everything. The glass walls disappeared. Inside was not a tank, but a window into a living world—verdant, balanced, utterly alive. It was [Continue reading]
On a recent trip, Mongabay board member Debby Ng shared a story that keeps replaying in my mind. It’s been 19 years since her account, but it still cuts raw. I’m sharing it because I’ve witnessed losses like this too. Debby had joined a team of scientists from the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity to salvage [Continue reading]
20 years ago, I started Mongabay News with a laptop, a dream, and a sense of urgency — here’s what’s next. Last month marked 20 years since I started Mongabay’s news service. In those early days, it was just me—working from my apartment or traveling with a laptop, publishing articles primarily about tropical forests. My [Continue reading]
This month marks 20 years since I started the Mongabay news service. At the time, it was just me—writing, editing, and publishing from a desk with more ambition than resources. The idea was simple: provide consistent, fact-based environmental reporting that filled a gap I saw between advocacy groups and mainstream media. Coverage of tropical forests [Continue reading]
It’s difficult to describe the feeling of standing beneath Auyán-Tepuí, that towering table mountain in southern Venezuela, except to say that something in me changed. In the mid-1990s, I visited this place—part of Canaima National Park—drawn by the allure of Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall on Earth. But nothing prepared me for the sheer presence [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]
In 2021, I grappled with a difficult decision. At the time, Facebook accounted for more than 80% of Mongabay’s external referral traffic — but we were increasingly questioning the value of that traffic. Mongabay’s mission as a nonprofit newsroom is to produce journalism that informs and drives impact, not just generate clicks. Years earlier, we’d [Continue reading]