Rhett Butler

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Founder of Mongabay.

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Rainbow over oil palm plantations and forest in Jambi. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

What happened in the world’s rainforests in 2022?

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Dec 2022

Emmanuel Macron’s “Biodiversity Credits”: What are we talking about? (commentary)

Alain Karsenty 16 Dec 2022
Blue-winged mountain tanager (Anisognathus somptuosus). Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

Bright, unique colors can put tropical songbirds at greater risk

Anna Marie Yanny 15 Dec 2022
Wildfires spark up throughout the summer and early fall in the western United States. (Image by David Mark from Pixabay)

Wildfires are climbing up the snowiest mountains of the western U.S.

Isabel Swafford 14 Dec 2022
A Djouroutou chimpanzee cracks open a panda nut on a wooden anvil. Photo credit: Liran Samuni, Taï Chimpanzee Project

Chimpanzee nut cracking leaves telltale marks on stones, providing clues to human evolution

Kate Hull 13 Dec 2022
Red ants forming chains.

How many ants live on Earth? At least 20 quadrillion, scientists say

Shannon Banks 12 Dec 2022
Fire near the Manicoré River in Amazonas state in August 2022. Photo © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Deforestation accelerated in Brazil while climate talks were underway in Egypt

Mongabay.com 9 Dec 2022
Rainstorm over Turkana, Kenya. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Climate change could force 1.2 billion to move by 2050. Is the world even remotely ready?

Robert Muggah 9 Dec 2022
Two natterjack toads (Epidalea calamita) in mating position. Image courtesy of Christoph Bühler.

If you build it, the amphibians will come: Swiss researchers show new ponds boost species at risk

Elissa Welle 9 Dec 2022
A sea butterfly (Limacina helicina) whose shell has been weakened by ocean acidification. (NOAA Photo Library, CC-BY-2.0)

Melting ice created the perfect storm for a rapidly acidifying Arctic Ocean

Luis Melecio-Zambrano 7 Dec 2022
Although Bitcoin is a virtual currency, some collectors trade metal coins with codes for amounts of Bitcoin printed on them, not unlike a gift certificate. Photo by Dmitry Demidko on Unsplash.

Climate damage from Bitcoin mining grew more than 125 times worse in just five years

Sean Cummings 5 Dec 2022
Evergreen huckleberry, a traditional and ceremonial food for the Karuk Tribe. Image courtesy of Rosewoman on Flickr

Indigenous knowledge guides the conservation of culturally important plants

Roxanne Hoorn 5 Dec 2022
A Humboldt’s woolly monkey (Lagothrix lagotricha) explores the forest floor in Colombia. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

Some tree-dwelling primates may adapt more easily to life on the ground, massive study shows

Elise Overgaard 2 Dec 2022
Fire near the Manicoré River in Amazonas state in August 2022. Photo © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

In final days before Bolsonaro’s defeat, deforestation boomed in Brazil

Mongabay.com 11 Nov 2022
Rainbow over Jambi, Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay

Drive for restoration and remedy behind some NGOs’ cautious support for FSC changes (commentary)

Grant Rosoman 21 Oct 2022
Fire near the Manicoré River in Amazonas state in August 2022. Photo © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Ahead of election, deforestation increased in Brazil

Mongabay.com 7 Oct 2022
Andean bear captured in a camera trap a the Qeros-Wachiperi Conservation Concession, part of study to determine the bear’s habitat preferences. The bears altitudinal range goes from 200 to 4000 meters above sea level. Photo: Conservación Amazónica ACCA.

How bears “make” a forest (commentary)

Enrique Ortiz 30 Sep 2022
The Javari River where it forms the border between Brazil and Peru. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

Cutting down the Amazon does not build prosperity for most Brazilians

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Sep 2022
Fire near the Manicoré River in Amazonas state in August 2022. Photo © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Amazon deforestation in Brazil booms in August

Mongabay.com 9 Sep 2022
Candeias do Jamari, Rondônia state.Greenpeace Brazil flew over the southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia states in Brazil to monitor deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon in July 2022. © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Indepedent watchdog confirms rampant deforestation in the Amazon

Mongabay.com 31 Aug 2022
Apuí, Amazonas state. Greenpeace Brazil flew over the southern Amazonas and northern Rondônia states in Brazil to monitor deforestation and forest fires in the Amazon in July 2022. © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Amazon deforestation on pace to roughly match last year’s rate of loss

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Aug 2022
Scarlet macaws in flight over the Amazon rainforest in Peru. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay

‘Birds are messengers’: Q&A with BirdLife’s Patricia Zurita

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Aug 2022
Global Forest Watch forest cover change alerts near Porto Velho in the State of Rondônia, Brazil in 2022.

Amazon deforestation is off to the fastest start to a year since 2008

Mongabay.com 8 Jul 2022

Peru’s Amazon rainforest is threatened by an ecosystem of environment crime (commentary)

Carolina Andrade, Robert Muggah 4 Jul 2022
Karst mountain in Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

Helping empower the next generation of environmental journalists at Nature’s frontline

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Jun 2022
Lithium evaporation ponds in Salar de Atacama, Antofagasta, Chile. Source: NASA. Image processing by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay

Why Russia should not win the bid for Bolivia’s lithium (commentary)

Joseph Bouchard 7 Jun 2022
WCS’s Dr. Cristián Samper in the Andean Paramo at Chingaza National Park in Colombia. Credit WCS

WCS CEO to depart conservation group for the Bezos Earth Fund

Mongabay.com 11 May 2022
Forest fire in a deforested area in an undesignated public forest in Altamira, Pará on Jul 31, 2021. Photo © Christian Braga/Greenpeace

Amazon deforestation surges in April

Mongabay.com 6 May 2022
Deforestation frontier in Jaru, Brazil

Putin’s financial interest in Brazil’s Amazon highways (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 4 May 2022
Lithium evaporation ponds in Salar de Atacama, Antofagasta, Chile. Source: NASA. Image processing by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay

Contorted energy politics of the Ukraine crisis (commentary)

Nikolas Kozloff 27 Apr 2022
A traditional fishermen in an Indigenous territory on the Tapajós River, in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo credit: Marcio Isensee e Sá. Licensed via Adobe Photo Stock

With record $5.3B in pledges, GEF aims for more flexible environmental funding

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Apr 2022
Forest fire in a deforested area in an undesignated public forest in Porto Velho, Rondônia on July 29, 2021. Photo © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Amazon deforestation dips slightly in March, but remains high

Mongabay.com 9 Apr 2022

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Collage, Jahëna Louisin, Mongabay reporter, and a Vodun ritual
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Photographer Jonathan Bachman was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for capturing a photograph of Ieshia Evans being arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was Ieshia Evans first protest, and Bachman’s first time covering one. The photo was included in The New York Times’ “The Year in Pictures 2016,” among other honors. jonathan bachman / reuters. Shepard Fairey—a prolific artist and activist who often addresses social and political issues in his work—was invited by the authors of ‘Protest’ to interpret Bachman’s photograph for the book. Image credit to Shepard Fairey. Image Courtesy of Patagonia Books.
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