The new rubber boomlet

摘要

Brazil's first rubber boom, sparked by the invention of the car, ended abruptly with the successful cultivation of the rubber tree in Asian plantations. Its second, supplying the Allies after Japan cut off their rubber sources during the second world war, barely outlasted the fighting. Both made millionaires of rubber bosses-and near-slaves of those who tapped and cured the latex. Now, in the Amazon's most remote regions, rubber is making a tentative comeback. This time the rubber-tappers are trying to write the script. The murder by ranchers in 1988 of Chi-co Mendes, who led the rubber-tappers' struggle against loggers and ranchers, sealed an alliance with environmentalists.