vagrant

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Some more images from Madagascar.  Toward the middle there some footage of part of the process of making charcoal which is one of the only cash enterprises in the area.  Massive trees are felled by hand and moved to ovens which are layers of grass, earth and chunks of wood.  The ovens burn for about a week and produce charcoal which is sold to passing motorists for use as cooking fuel in the cities of Mahajunga and Antananarivo.  This practice has resulted in massive deforestation of northwestern Madagascar.  Where there were once dry, deciduous forests running all the way to the ocean there is now an ocean of invasive grass species and cattle.  The destruction of the forest has precipitated environmental changes including changes in weather patterns and huge amounts of erosion; the characteristic red topsoil of the region is pouring into the oceans.

The music was all recorded in Madagascar by myself.  Molly Nelson helped with putting this video together.  I used some of the same fire footage I’ve already posted; we originally produced this to show at some schools and the fires are too striking to leave out.