It all started with rubber trees. Vox Atlas: The Amazon is a three-part series about the world's largest rainforest, why it's in jeopardy, and the people trying to save it. Watch all three parts right here on YouTube. Part 1: youtu.be/SAZAKPUQMw0 Part 2: youtu.be/e1_4JseKlO4 Part 3: Coming November 25. The Amazon rainforest has faced encroachment and deforestation for a long time. But it wasn’t until Brazil’s military dictatorship came to power in the 1970s that deforestation spiked, becoming a big business in the Amazon. When that expansion reached the state of Acre, it met resistance. Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper from the region, took the fight to protect the Amazon from the depths of the rainforest to the global stage. In the process, he gave his life. But the fight he started lives on. To understand the history of the Amazon and how Chico Mendes changed the course of that history, watch the video above, our second episode of Atlas’ Amazon miniseries. You can watch Miranda Productions' feature-length documentary about Chico Mendes here: www.mirandaproductions.com/voice Here's a link to the Amazon Conservation Team's website: www.amazonteam.org If you're interested in learning more about the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, you can visit this website: uc.socioambiental.org/arp/626 Here's a link with more information on the Rubber Tapper movement: books.google.com/books?id=Uj68AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA101#v=onepage&q&f=false And here's another with information on the Amazon's Rubber Boom: etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0000320/FINALMASTER.pdf Subscribe to our channel! goo.gl/0bsAjO Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out www.vox.com. Watch our full video catalog: goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: goo.gl/U2g06o Or Twitter: goo.gl/XFrZ5H