Nature World: New data indicate that the deforestation rate in Brazil has risen by 28 percent this year, marking an about-face after four consecutive years of declining deforestation, the Brazilian government announced Thursday.
Environmental activists linked the increase in deforestation to a recent loosening of Brazilian environmental law, but the annual deforestation rate was still the second lowest Brazil has seen in the past quarter century.
"The government can't be surprised by this increase in deforestation,...