Two weeks after prominent environmental groups unveiled a proposal to end Amazon rainforest destruction by 2015, the Brazilian government announced that its deforestation rate from June through September had risen an estimated 8% over the same four-month period last year. In the recent June-through-September reporting period, loggers, farmers, settlers and others cleared a total of 1,794 square miles (4,570 sq kms), an area nearly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware. Experts attribute the higher deforestation rate to an upturn in farm commodity prices that began early this year and prompted the clearing of land for crops. They say increased use of cropland to cultivate feedstock for biofuels—especially in the United States—adds to the pressure for new food-crop... [Log in to read more]