Here's an example ....i don't know the exact numbers but by a math example it perhaps means this kind of thought experiment, last year brazil had 400 trees, let's say a little over 25% out of that 100% forest were chopped / cut down, hopefully replanted ...but maybe not....and maybe not replanted, 400 trees/forest down 25% that means brazil cut over 100 and has almost 300 trees left over. If with this 300 left, they continue cutting at 25% percent of forest that means they would cut 75 and have 225 forest trees left over. but if you increased cutting by 88% that is the original number multiplied 88% equals 66 trees PLUS the original 75 you were going to chop down. In simple terms the rate of DE-forestation is getting larger and larger. Also because he works in space i assume he is not counting each and every individual cookie or candy in the jar, he is using space technology and programs, he is using satellite mapping which would mean he does not have to count individual trees and can just look at a gridded area of Brazil on a map and see how the cutting is getting bigger and bigger. The Satellites these science guys and admin chief guys have access to are very sophisticated with their data they map Topography, have sensors to map chemical changes, look in different spectra which allows them to penetrate deep into jungle like a radar cutting through clound and see what is really going on.