|
“IT'S SO SYNTHETIC, I JUST DON'T GET IT" A RUBBERY ISSUE IN THE RAINFOREST: SERINGUEIRA TREES BY MEGAN The “Rubber Boom” began in 1839, when Charles Goodyear invented vulcanization, a process that made latex tough enough to use in many products. Demand for rubber grew and this economical period for Brazil was what touched off the “boom”. One of our most important and interesting raw materials is rubber. It is used for many reasons, especially ones such as holding air, keeping out moisture, and not readily conducting electricity. Rubber is also in everyday things we use like a rubber band, when you stretch it and let go, it goes back to its original form; a rubber ball bounces because of this same springiness. There’s even rubber in the heels of your shoes to absorb shock when you walk because of its elasticity. Think of tires on vehicles and bicycles. Could you imagine them being made of anything besides rubber? An ordinary automobile has about 600 rubber parts! The only natural material out there that is elastic, airtight, water-resistant, shock absorbing, and long-wearing is rubber. The list of materials made from rubber is endless. In fact, manufacturers make between 40,000 and 50,000 rubber products. In the U.S., around three fifths of the rubber used goes into tires and tubes. Humanity depends on rubber for all these things; it would probably be impossible for us to survive in the world we know today without it. During the great rubber boom, which was mentioned earlier, rich landowners bought up rainforest land and hired hundreds of thousands of people to get the latex from the trees in such a way that they wouldn’t be destroyed. These people were mostly poor, and were called rubber tappers. They had to buy all of their tools from the landowners, and were charged with high prices. So in other words, the rubber tappers were pretty much the landowners’ slaves. The rubber boom ended in 1910, when it was discovered that people in Southeast Asia could grow the trees on bigger plantations. And since latex was so much easier to get from trees in plantations, it could also be sold for less. After this happened, most of the Amazonian landowners abandoned their businesses. This left the rubber tappers on their own. They continued their work on the plots of land, called seringals, but they could barely live off of them. Then they faced a big threat in the 1970s and 1980s. Cattle ranchers claimed the tappers’ land and wanted to clear it, but the rubber tappers wouldn’t give up without a fight. They would hold hands in a long line of protest when the men came with bulldozers and chainsaws to clear the forest. Although some of these attempts worked, the ongoing battle between the tappers and ranchers was often deadly. Government agents were supposed to keep order; ranchers bribed them so the agents would look the other way when the difficult tappers were murdered. A man called Francisco “Chico” Mendes was one of the main rubber tapper organizers. He was shot down and murdered in 1988, and that finally got the world’s attention on their plight. And though the situation has gotten better, the rubber tappers still are struggling to preserve their way of life along with the forest that provides it. Unlike many other materials, latex is taken from the seringueira by hand. It is obtained from the conduction cells and tapped by cutting into the trunk. They cut into the trees starting from the top left and extending to the bottom right. A V-shape edged knife is used to cut channels into the tree at 25-30 degree angles. Right now there are nine different species of Hevea. The Hevea Brasiliensis is the most important of them, but is more prone to disease. Diseases such as the South American Leaf Blight are a major plague, and have caused much devastation to rubber trees planted in the Amazon region. So, by growing other species of rubber trees, the diseases can be defeated. Today there is limited production of wild rubber in the Amazon. Hevea grow best in warmer temperatures of about 20-28 degrees with lots of rainfall. It can grow up to 600 meters above sea level, but near the equator can grow much higher, close to 1,000 meters! It will perform on most soils, provided the drainage is sufficient. The Hevea is most damaged during high winds. Hevea trees on plantations are a different story though. Mature Heveas on rubber plantations will only grow 20-30 meters high. They only flower once a year, and depending on growing and weather conditions, they take 5-10 years to reach ‘maturity’. ‘Maturity’ is defined as the stage when tapping can be started. We
use rubber so much; we have no idea of the things that we have in our
homes alone that are rubber. Destroying the rainforest is killing off
so many animals and plants. If we destroy such an important plant, the
seringueira, how will we drive, walk in comfortable shoes, insulate
clothes, play sports without balls? Would we use metal? Wood? Plastic
maybe? I doubt it. What would you do?
|
