Nice try.
Thanks for the reminder, I had forgotten that.
I don`t think this is about tires. Firestone makes tires, yes, but they have a rubber division as well.
The companies official name is : The Firstone Tire AND RUBBER CO.
Not taking sides on this lawsuit though. I`ll wait for more details.
"Tire rubber is butadiene -- synthetic. It does not come from rubber trees. Nice try."
Unfortunately, you have no idea what you are talking about. Natural rubber IS used in tires:
"Another issue for synthetic rubber, particularly for polybutadiene and emulsion SBR, is competition with natural rubber, which can be substituted for polybutadiene in tire applications by 3 to 5% and up to 20% in other applications, according to Goodyear's Nelson. When natural rubber prices are low, tire makers change their formulations.
"Jack McLaughlin--head of Bayer's marketing unit for tires and high-impact polystyrene--says that five years ago, when natural rubber prices were very low, tire producers added more natural rubber to their formulations. Recently, natural rubber prices have climbed significantly, although tire makers have not yet switched back to synthetic rubber."
From this source:
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/8115/8115rubber.html
Firestone started this plantation decades ago. It was vital in WWII as Malaysia was lost to the Japanese.
Then again, maybe you have superior knowledge about tires, runbber and chemistry than Goodyear, Bayer and the American Chemical Society.