Rhett Butler

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Rhett Butler is the founder and CEO of Mongabay. He also servers as managing editor.

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Image taken September 24 from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite shows the "haze" as its peak. Red outlines indicate hot spots where the sensor detected unusually warm surface temperatures associated with fires. Thick gray smoke hovers over both islands and has triggered air quality alerts and health warnings in Indonesia and neighboring countries. Visibility has plummeted. NASA image by Adam Voiland (NASA Earth Observatory) and Jeff Schmaltz (LANCE MODIS Rapid Response). Caption by Adam Voiland.

50+ companies being investigated or punished for Indonesia’s haze crisis

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Dec 2015

The year in rainforests: 2015

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Dec 2015

Giant squid caught on video in Japanese harbor

Mongabay.com 28 Dec 2015
Critically endangered Sumatran Rhino

Mongabay’s 10 most popular conservation news stories in 2015

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Dec 2015
Young orangutan in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Christmas gift to the planet: massive rainforest reserve created in Borneo

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Dec 2015

An unconventional trinity: conservation, religion, and evolution

Fred Bercovitch 22 Dec 2015
Chevron's Duri oil field in Riau, Sumatra. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

How does the global commodity collapse impact forest conservation?

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Dec 2015

Loss of big animals reduces forests’ carbon-storing capacity

Loren Bell 19 Dec 2015

Norway extends forest conservation initiative

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Dec 2015
Sunset over the Sumatran rainforest

New short film urges world to ‘stop the burning’

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Dec 2015

Palm oil expansion triggers ecological cascade, boosting pigs but hurting other species

1 Dec 2015

Controversial Nicaragua canal on hold

Mongabay.com 30 Nov 2015
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A Butler

Amazon deforestation jumps in Brazil, but remains historically low

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Nov 2015

Rainforests could provide half global climate solution by 2050

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Nov 2015
Muskrat Falls in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, the future site of the hydroelectric dam. The falls will be flooded in 2017. Photo by Amina Schartup.

New dams may expose Canadian seafood consumers to higher levels of neurotoxin

Emily Benson 23 Nov 2015

Preservatives from cosmetics build up in the bodies of far-flung marine mammals

Bethany Augliere 23 Nov 2015

Poisonous amphibians may be more likely to go extinct

Erin E.A. Ross 23 Nov 2015

Environmentalist gunned down by illegal miners in Peru

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Nov 2015

New fund lands $4M to protect the Amazon

Mongabay.com 20 Nov 2015

Birds, butterflies, and flowers might be blander than expected in the tropics

Alison F. Takemura 20 Nov 2015

New rat species find sheds light on Philippine mammalian diversity

Kolawole Talabi 20 Nov 2015
A kelp forest off the California Coast, where pockets of full protection alternate with zones allowing limited fishing. Photo by Greg Asner.

Ocean protections drift behind those on land, but science can help

Natalie Jacewicz 20 Nov 2015
Firefighters created fire breaks by setting back burns during the 2013 Rim Fire in California’s Sierra Nevada. Photo by Mike McMillan, U.S. National Park Service.

Small, controlled fires are the only way to prevent large wildfires, researchers argue

Lindzi Wessel 20 Nov 2015
Tourists can spread invasive species on unwashed fishing kits. Photo courtesy of Paula Rosewarn.

Invasive species hop on tourists worldwide

Amy McDermott 20 Nov 2015
The study authors counted carcasses from hundreds of markets like this one, where visitors can purchase whole birds and their body parts. Photo by Gerhard Nikolaus.

Vanishing vultures: Africa’s fetish and bushmeat trade is driving its scavengers to extinction

Brendan Bane 19 Nov 2015
Air pollution from outdoor cooking fires like this contribute to millions of global deaths, according to the study. Photo by Engineering for Change / Flickr.

Air pollution causes millions of preventable deaths in East Asia, say scientists

Ramin Skibba 17 Nov 2015
A giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) climbs a tree at the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding and Conservation Center in Sichuan, China. Photo by Binbin Li, Duke University

Protecting pandas shields other species in China

Laurel Hamers 17 Nov 2015

Singapore court: illicit timber trafficking through our ports not our problem

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Nov 2015
Members of the indigenous community live at the riverbanks in Kapuas river where the air is engulfed with thick haze at Sei Ahass village, Kapuas district, Central Kalimantan province on Borneo island, Indonesia. These fires are a threat to the health of millions. Smoke from landscape fires kills an estimated 110,000 people every year across Southeast Asia, mostly as a result of heart and lung problems, and weakening newborn babies.

Indonesia bans peatlands destruction

Mongabay.com 10 Nov 2015

An optimistic call for saving life on Earth

Jeremy Hance 10 Nov 2015
Oil palm in Sabah

With fires wreaking havoc across Indonesia, Malaysian state targets greener palm oil

Mongabay.com 8 Nov 2015
Sierra del Divisor's famed cone. Photo by Diego Pérez / El Taller.pe

Peru creates ‘Yellowstone of the Amazon’: 3.3M acre reserve home to uncontacted tribes, endangered wildlife

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Nov 2015

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Collage of a red-bellied toad and a bridge broken by flood
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Farmers sow rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.
Articles
The WeMUNIZE program in Nigeria, significantly disrupted by aid cuts, used digital record keeping and community engagement to increase early childhood immunizations. Image by KC Nwakalor for USAID/Digital Development Communications via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
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