THIS news item over the weekend was perhaps more depressing because it did not come as a surprise: Inpe, the Brazilian space research agency, reported that 13,235 square kilometers of Brazil's Amazon rainforest had disappeared in the past year, a 22-percent increase in deforestation from the year and the most in 15 years.

The biggest implication of the news is that it indicates that effective concerted action against anthropogenic climate change is extremely unlikely and that the best anyone can hope for are smaller, localized efforts that will ultimately not add up to enough to save the planet.