'' 'It offends me to see fingers pointed against clean energy from biofuels, fingers soiled with oil and coal,' President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said."

As the politicians were hurling accusations in Rome, a new Brazilian study indicates that Amazon rainforest depletion is intensifying. Read about it here. Brazil's new environment minister is blaming it on cattle ranchers.

That nine-month total surpassed the entire acreage in the Amazon that was destroyed over the previous 12 months, according to DETER data. What's worse, the satellites couldn't see about half of the forest in April due to cloud cover, suggesting that actual deforestation likely was much greater.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/557332.html

The minister, Carlos Minc, says Brazil's government will impound cattle caught grazing on illegally cleared pastures with an operation, dubbed "Rogue Bull," to attack deforestation in the rain forest.

http://www.miamiherald.com/915/story/556812.html