(scroll down for episodes).......................................Dr. Jones
Mongabay's Rhett Butler
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..Rhett Butler ...........................
When you want information about the tropical rain forest, maybe diverse information like, the effects of rainforest destruction on climate change, the mining practices for gold in Brazil, the breeding behavior of jaguars, or of the use of drones in monitoring wildlife in Borneo - where would you go? Online, for sure - but to which website? Well, teachers, students, company CEOs, academic PHDs, environmental NGOs, and government officials have been going to the most visited website on the subject of Tropical Rainforests in the world: Mongabay.com. Mongabay was started 14 years ago by a college student and is today, still piloted by its creator, Rhett Butler.
Rhett's website is HUGE! It contains information geared for children, and information formulated for the most advanced sectors of society. You can learn about animals, plants, cultures, jungle politics, climate, news, and current events. Rhett has gone on to found many conservation websites, an academic journal called, Tropical Conservation Science Journal , and a organization of rainforest experts and university students that meet regularly in the San Francisco Bay area called, Bay Area Tropical Forest Network.
Rhett's work demonstrates what he readily admits - he is more of an academic than an activist. Yet he is passionate about the importance and beauty of the rainforests. In his own quiet, hardworking, networking way, Rhett is one of the foremost leaders in the rainforest conservation movement. I am pleased to bring him to you now, on Jungle Deep.
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Rhett Butler founded mongabay.com in 1999 with the mission of raising interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging local and global trends in technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development. Today he serves as president and editor-in-chief of the web site. He is also the senior writer and photographer, creating much of the site's content, including writing more than 10,000 articles and taking more than 75,000 of the photos that appear on the site. Unless noted otherwise (usually at the top or bottom of a page), all content and pictures on mongabay.com have been written or produced by Rhett Butler.
Beyond mongabay.com, Rhett Butler runs WildMadagascar.org, a site that highlights the spectacular cultural and biological richness of Madagascar and reports on environmental news for the Indian Ocean island nation.
Rhett Butler is also co-founder of Tropical Conservation Science, an open-access academic journal that aims to provide opportunities for scientists in developing countries to publish their research, and the Tropical Forest Network, a social network in the San Francisco Bay Area broadly interested in tropical forest conservation and ecology.
Outside of these pursuits, Rhett Butler has advised a wide range of organizations, including governments, multilateral development agencies, media outlets, academic institutions, foundations, and private sector entities. He has been an information source for the BBC, CNN, CBS, NBC, Fox News, National Geographic, the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Business Week, Bloomberg, the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Reuters, Voice of America, the Associated Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the L.A. Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Forbes, among others.
Rhett Butler also speaks regularly on topics surrounding forests and the environment (especially trends in deforestation) and new media. He has spoken at Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Santa Cruz, the National University of Singapore, ETH Zurich, the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation 2010 meeting in Bali, UNFCCC COP 16 in Cancun, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and Stony Brook University, among other places and events. In 2011 and 2012 he participated in the U.S. State Department Speakers Program in Indonesia.
Rhett Butler's work has been published outside of his web sites, including magazines, newspapers, online media, and academic journals (see below). His photos have appeared in hundreds of publications.
In September 2011 Rhett Butler published RAINFORESTS, a book about rainforests geared toward kids. The text is based on the popular mongabay kids' section and includes more than 150 photos.
In April 2012 Rhett Butler hired a team in Indonesia to run mongabay.co.id, an Indonesian-language provider of environmental news and analysis. Mongabay.co.id officially launched in May 2012.
Rhett Butler has been profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle (2006), the Wall Street Journal (2006 and 2008), and Voice of America (2008).
TropicalConservationScience.org