Rhett Butler

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Founder of Mongabay.

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1009 stories
American alligator and an invasive Burmese python in Everglades National Park by Lori Oberhofer, National Park Service

Mongabay’s 10 most popular posts of 2020

Mongabay.com 30 Dec 2020
Blackwater oxbow lake, rainforest, and a whitewater river in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

How the pandemic impacted rainforests in 2020: a year in review

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Dec 2020

Notable deaths in conservation in 2020

Mongabay.com 28 Dec 2020
Sea turtle in the Pacific.

Nature drone photos: 2020 highlights (Insider)

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Dec 2020
A world turned weird. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Top 10 environmental news stories of 2020

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Dec 2020
Deforestation on the United Cacao plantation in 2013. Photo by Leoncio Ramirez via Panoramio.

Peruvian court absolves cacao company of illegal Amazon deforestation after “lobbying effort”

Mongabay.com 18 Dec 2020
Pine forest in the Sierra Nevada. Photo by Rhett A. Butler / mongabay

Bold sustainability commitments: An interview with Microsoft’s Lucas Joppa

Rhett Ayers Butler 18 Dec 2020
A canoe on the Maroni river, which forms the border between French Guiana and Suriname. Photo © Didier Gentilhomme.

France’s tropical forest conservation efforts: an interview with AFD’s Gilles Kleitz

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Dec 2020
Degraded forests are highly susceptible to fires set by ranchers and farmers. This August 2019 is burning into degraded forest from a recently cleared area. Image © Fábio Nascimento.

Lasers reveal steep decline in ecosystem function of degraded Amazon forests

Tess Joosse 16 Dec 2020

Our most popular conservation news stories in November 2020

Mongabay.com 9 Dec 2020
Pangolin bust, Medan, Indonesia, April 2015. Over 4000 frozen, 97 live and 77 kg of scale where confiscated during a WCS and national police bust of a wildlife trade. Photo: Paul Hilton for WCS

In China, public support grows to rein in the wildlife trade in the wake of the pandemic

Emily Harwitz 9 Dec 2020
Palm Jumeriah, an artificial island, off the coast of Dubai. Photo credit: Zoom.Earth / Maxar Technologies

Humanity’s construction footprint in the seas amounts to 32,000 square kilometers

Allison Gasparini 4 Dec 2020
Woman slaughtering rats at a market in Dong Thap, Vietnam (left), and vendor selling live rats in cages (right). Photo credit: WCS/Viet Nam (Huong, et al, 2020)

Coronavirus risk grows as animals move through wildlife trade

Stephanie Melchor 3 Dec 2020
Even if snowfall rates returned to those of the 1980s, the ice sheet would continue to shrink. Image credit: Michalea King.

The glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet are running away

Nikk Ogasa 2 Dec 2020
A trail camera captures a rare shot of a New Guinea singing dog in 2016. These pictures were the first solid evidence that the dogs were present around Grasberg mine. Photo credit: James McIntyre.

The New Guinea singing dog, once thought extinct, is alive in the wild

Freda Kreier 1 Dec 2020
Heat spots in areas with Prodes warnings (2017-2019). Area next to the borders of the Kaxarari Indigenous territory, in Lábrea, Amazonas state. Taken 17 Aug, 2020. CREDIT: © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Amazon deforestation tops 11,000 sq km in Brazil, reaching 12-year high

Mongabay.com 30 Nov 2020
Recreation of a wooly rhino made from a preserved baby wooly rhino discovered in Siberia. Photo credit: Albert Protopopov

Why did the woolly rhino go extinct?

Carolina Cuellar Colmenares 30 Nov 2020

Big mammals are at risk in the world’s poorest countries, even within parks

Tess Joosse 27 Nov 2020
Redwood forest in California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

‘Nature is next’: Q&A with Finance for Biodiversity’s Simon Zadek

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Nov 2020
Plastic pollution endangers marine animals, such as this young monk seal, which may get entangled in or ingest litter. Photo credit: the Ocean Cleanup/Matthew Chauvin

Clean up efforts won’t solve the plastic pollution crisis in the world’s seas

Isabella Backman 25 Nov 2020
Nine of the 15 pygmy sperm whales (Kogia breviceps) autopsied for the study were emaciated when they died, zero were considered to be in ‘robust’ condition. Photo Credit: Inwater Research Group

Are industrial chemicals killing rare whales and familiar dolphins?

Cypress Hansen 24 Nov 2020
Tiger in India.

Mongabay launches in Hindi to expand environmental journalism in India

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Nov 2020
School of hammerhead sharks, northwest Galápagos. Photo by Greg Asner / DivePhoto.org

Could China become a partner in Galapagos marine conservation? Yolanda Kakabadse thinks so

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Nov 2020
Burnt forest, in Porto Velho, Rondônia state. 18 Aug, 2020 CREDIT: © Christian Braga / Greenpeace

Amazon deforestation shoots higher in October, reversing 3-month trend

Mongabay.com 14 Nov 2020
Coral garden. Photo credit: Raising Coral Costa Rica

Scientists in Costa Rica are growing new corals to save reefs

Ashleigh Papp 12 Nov 2020

Honoring children and protecting the planet: An interview with musician Raffi

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Nov 2020
Nasrullah, a fisherman from Lombok island, shows one of the lobsters raised in his aquafarm. Image by Fathul Rakhman/Mongabay-Indonesia.

Mongabay’s most popular conservation news stories in October 2020

Mongabay.com 6 Nov 2020
Caribou calf. Photo © Xavier Fernandez Aguilar

Ice breakers in the Arctic: Let’s talk Inuit safety (commentary)

Martin Robards, Beverly Maksagak 3 Nov 2020
Map of Biodiversity. Esri, NatureServe

Esri co-founder Jack Dangermond: ‘People and planet are inextricably linked’

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Oct 2020
The ROV SuBastain with careful guidance by its pilots uses the manipulator arm to collect a geological sample at 500m on Flinders Reef. Photo credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute

Philanthropist Wendy Schmidt: ‘Solutions are always local’

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Oct 2020
Redwood forest in Santa Cruz County, California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

American Forests CEO Jad Daley: ‘We are one nation under trees’

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Oct 2020
Victoria amazonica. © Sir Ghillean Prance

Amazon botanist Sir Ghillean Prance: ‘The environmental crisis is a moral one’

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Oct 2020

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Yo Yaj at Songkhla Lake, Thailand
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Bob Ricklefs. Photo by August Jennewein
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Climate Wayfinding with a design background. Image by Amerpsand. Courtesy of Katharine Wilkinson.
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