Rhett Butler

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Founder of Mongabay.

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681 stories
Scorched earth on the banks of the drought-stricken Xingu River on September 12th, 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Will Brazil’s President Lula wake up to the climate crisis? (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 12 Mar 2025
Mid rescue, the moment she realized I was trying to help. Photo by Stephane Thomas.

World Wildlife Day 2025: What I learned speaking spider monkey

Paul Rosolie 3 Mar 2025
Dr. Ajith Kumar. Photo by Ishwar Narayanan

Indian wildlife biologist Ajith Kumar has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Mar 2025
The Cape Orange National Park on the Amazonian coast of the state of Amapá. Block 59 - the site where Petrobras wants to drill - is located offshore 160 kilometers (99 miles) away. Image © Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace.

Oil drilling in the mouth of the Amazon – Lula on a course to disaster (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 24 Feb 2025
Randy Borman. Courtesy of the Cofan Survival Fund

Randy Borman (1955-2025): An unlikely guardian of the Amazon rainforest

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Feb 2025

Ecuador’s next debt-for-nature deal falls short of Indigenous involvement

Ana Cristina Alvarado 10 Feb 2025
Gerry Flynn

Statement on Mongabay journalist Gerald Flynn’s blacklisting from Cambodia following his reporting on illegal logging

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Feb 2025
Gerry Flynn

Cambodia denies re-entry to Mongabay journalist who reported on illegal logging

Mongabay.com 3 Feb 2025
Greenpeace Brazil conducted an aerial survey in southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia to monitor deforestation and fires in July 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Drop in Amazon deforestation confirmed, but degradation soars 497% in 2024

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Jan 2025
Mikkel Larsen

Carbon exchange leader and sustainability advocate Mikkel Larsen dies at 50

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Jan 2025
Jane Goodall in Japan in June 2023. Photo taken by Kaori Nishida

Jane Goodall awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Jan 2025

Rainforest Outlook 2025: Storylines to watch as the year unfolds

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Dec 2024

Conservationists and nature defenders who died in 2024

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Dec 2024
Sani Lodge run by the Kichwa Indigenous community at Sani Isla. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Sani Isla: A Kichwa community that found alternatives to oil in conservation and tourism

Ana Cristina Alvarado 24 Dec 2024
YEAR IN RAINFORESTS BANNER

The year in tropical rainforests: 2024

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Dec 2024
As he stepped carefully along the seafloor in the warm shallows of French Polynesia, I could hardly tell where the boy ended and the sea began. The pink whiptail ray swooped playfully around him and for a moment I could see clearly the path to coexistence between humanity and all the denizens of the sea.

How conservation photographer Cristina Mittermeier uses visual storytelling to inspire action

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Dec 2024
Pinyon pines cut into firewood on the Diné College forest plot. Photo credit: Peter Z. Fulé.

Students and scientists collaborate to maintain Navajo Nation forests

Mark DeGraff 6 Dec 2024
Weddell seals live in Antarctica. They communicate via chirps and trills. Image credit: ELG21 from Pixabay

Colliding icebergs and chirping seals: Polar ocean sounds are reimagined in art-science collaboration

Jasmin Galvan 6 Dec 2024
Tree cover in Kauai. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Trees live out their lives in surprising ways, massive new study finds

Collin Blinder 5 Dec 2024
The Missouri River floods Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base in March 2019. Photo credit: Rachelle Blake on Wikimedia Commons

Eastern U.S. floods could persist longer toward the end of the century

Jenna Ahart 4 Dec 2024
Moose (Alces alces) populations in Ontario, Canada, have declined by 20 percent in the last two decades. Photo credit: Richard Lee on Unsplash

Why are Canadian moose declining? Interviews with Indigenous communities offer new clues

Carly Kay 4 Dec 2024
Killer whales swim in the icy Arctic waters that are newly open to them. Photo credit: Maha Ghazal

Killer whales have found new homes in the Arctic Ocean, potentially reshaping marine ecology

Caroline Hemphill 3 Dec 2024
Green-winged teals (Anas carolinensis) take flight over waters safeguarded in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming. Overall, the state has up to 260,000 hectares (640,000 acres) of at-risk wetlands. Photo credit: Tom Koerner/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision threatens the country’s inland wetlands with new development, study says

Anna Fitzgerald Guth 2 Dec 2024
Antarctic krill swim in swarms of billions. Credit: Aker BioMarine, Pew

Antarctic krill store massive amounts of carbon in the deep ocean, researchers find

Farah Aziz Annesha 29 Nov 2024
River in the Kosnipata valley, Peru. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Why is a landscape approach needed for funding the global environmental agenda? (commentary)

Aida Greenbury, Robert Nasi 26 Nov 2024
Citizen scientist photographing a Northern Queen of Sheba Orchid in Lesueur National Park, Western Australia. Photo credit: Thomas Mesaglio

Citizen scientists can boost IUCN species assessments, but need better guidance from ecologists

Mahima Samraik 26 Nov 2024
Food can pick up chemicals from to-go containers and everything else they contact on their way to your table. Credit: Taklamacuwv Lamia on Wikimedia Commons

Thousands of chemicals from food packaging found in humans, a major study reveals

Rita Aksenfeld 25 Nov 2024

Amazon deforestation in Brazil plunges 31% to lowest level in 9 years

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Nov 2024
Glaciers play an important role in the balance of water cycles and ecosystems. Although receding glaciers can degrade these systems, they also serve as an indicator of climate change. We can use Earth-observation satellite imagery to monitor and track glaciers from space. This Landsat 8 image shows glaciers surrounding Lake Sofron, Alaska. Blue areas indicate glacial extent; red areas indicate extensive moraine from glacier debris.

50 years of geographic insight: In interview with Jack Dangermond on Esri’s journey and the future of GIS

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Oct 2024
Pine forest in California's Sierra Nevada. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

Forests and the Fate of Civilizations: A Conversation with John Perlin

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Oct 2024
Andean Cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus). Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Why biodiversity credits cannot work (commentary)

Byron Swift 14 Oct 2024
Greenpeace Brazil conducted an aerial survey in southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia to monitor deforestation and fires in July 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Deforestation remains low, but fires surge in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest

Mongabay.com 12 Oct 2024

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Why are the British flooding parts of their coast? Once farmland protected by flood defenses, Steart Marshes in southwest England now thrives as a restored salt marsh. As the defences weakened, the land became increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Instead of rebuilding defenses, conservationists, the government and local communities made a bold choice to let the sea reclaim the landscape. Just over 10 years ago the sea wall was breached, allowing the sea to take over the land, transforming the area into a vital wetland habitat. Salt marshes, which have declined by 85% in the U.K. since the 19th century, play a crucial role in coastal ecosystems. They provide shelter for wetland wildlife, act as natural flood defenses by absorbing storm surges, stabilize coastlines against erosion, and store carbon to help combat climate change. Managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Steart Marshes now provides a model for future restoration projects, proving that working with nature can protect communities while rebuilding lost habitats.
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Rainstorm over Pillcopata in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.
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