Synopsis
Act 4 concerns the rise of global-scale resource crises in the ‘80s. It focuses on the struggle to save the Amazon led by Chico Mendes and the rubbertappers. Against cattle ranchers clearing their land they begin a campaign to establish extractive reserves. The showdown comes in 1988 over a seringal called Cachoeira. Chico wins -- but is assasinated. His death proves to be the turning point. Reserves now total a third of the Amazon. But the greatest rainforest on earth is still in danger of becoming a desert, ground zero of interlocking crises – the sixth great extinction and climate change.
This act concludes with a look at resource issues – not just forests, but soil and water and arguments over equity and sustainable development. We sketch movements from Chipko in India and the Greenbelt Movement in Kenya to anti-globalization activists rising up against WTO in Seattle.