Madagascar is known for its extremely beautiful rainforests, but those same beautiful rainforests are quickly dying. 90% of the country’s original forest cover of the country is now gone (WWF). The main cause of this major deforestation is a method of clearing out land called 
tavy. Over 64% of deforestation in Madagascar comes from this illegal method (Callahan). The impacts of deforestation in Madagascar are massive. They include climate change, loss of plant
life, but most importantly, and what will be focused on in this blog, soil erosion. What’s most interesting about deforestation in Madagascar is how similar it is to deforestation in America and how similar the environmental effects of abusing the land in Madagascar are to the effects in America.
Ted Steinberg, in his book Down to Earth, writes about how colonists used to cut down their forests, abuse the land by overgrowing crops, and then move on to new forest to cut down. While the word tavy might seem foreign, the meaning of the word is actually very relevant, Tavy is the method of cutting a forest and burning it, clearing out the land for further use. Farmers use this now cleared out land to plant crops and the wood that was cut down is sold as lumber. After one or two years of growing crops, the field is then left alone for a few more and then the cycle is repeated until the land is physically exhausted. Both of these styles did similarly clear out land, but also led to major problems with deforestation in both countries.
The methods that colonists and the people of Madagascar used were indeed very similar, but they also held similarities elsewhere. The massive deforestation of Madagascar had extreme effects on the environment, including the destruction of habitats. With over 90% of the country’s original forest cover being gone, 90% of habitats in the forest then go with it. That right there is a devastating blow to the environment because of how unique the animal life in Madagascar is. “Of more than 200,000 known species found on Madagascar, more than 80 percent exist nowhere else” (Butler) The aye aye, lemurs (which are now the most endangered species (Life Science), and countless other species are now considered endangered because of their loss of habitats due to deforestation (wildmadagascar.org). A very similar, yet downscaled,
version of this also happened when Americans expanded, creating railroads and moving out West in the 1800s. This was especially the case in the Southern states where the forest cover declined by 40% (Steinberg, 110). Building these railroads and traveling with their horses, wagons, and livestock, they cut down trees and trampled vegetation. They cleared paths they could travel through and fed their animals with the food that was naturally there. Those trees they chopped down and that vegetation they destroyed happened to be home of countless lifeforms. “Deers, bears, and turkeys disappeared as the woodlands vanished. Ginseng, mayapple, and other plants, which mountaineers had collected and exchanged at stores for cash, met a similar fate.”(Steinberg, 111)
Soil erosion was another major factor that came from deforestation. In Madagascar soil erosion led to “the filling and clogging of coastal waterways with sediment” (wildmadagascar.org) of the Betsiboka Esturary, which is the mouth of Madagascar’s longest river, as seen in the images. In the past boats had been able to go upstream but now because of this soil erosion they can’t. In America they got much more lucky. In the South farmers had to begin planting their cotton on hills because of how much land was already cleared out and being used. They also had to use fertilizer for the crop because of how badly they physically drained the land. This all led to soil erosion but instead of it flowing down into a river like it did in Madagascar, it instead flowed down into more land, redistributing the soil wealth. American farmers easily could have caused serious environmental issues like the Malagasy farmers did, instead they lucked out and helped themselves out.
Betsiboka Esturary in 2004
Betsiboka Esturary in 1985
When someone is asked what they first think of when they hear the word Madagascar, they’ll either think of the movie Madagascar, or the beautiful rainforests and scenery of the island. So when I learned that the rainforests are being depleted at the rate that they are, it amazed me that this wasn’t more of a known problem. What amazed me even more was howsimilar that the way deforestation in Madagascar occurred and the effects that came with it were so similar to the way deforestation in America occurred.
Works Cited
http://www.wildmadagascar.org/conservation/erosion.html
http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/project/projects_in_depth/conservation_program2/
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/20madagascar.htm
http://www.wwf.mg/ourwork/cssp/species_report/factsmada/
http://www.livescience.com/21592-madagascar-lemurs-endangered.html
http://www.wildmadagascar.org/wildlife/animals.html
Steinberg, Theodore. Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History. New York Oxford UP, 2013. Print.
ing other alternatives including replacing glass fibers with natural fibers, reducing weight of the plastic by 40%, with no reduction in its strength. ‘Mucell’ plastics are also being explored which involve injecting nitrogen and CO2 gas bubbles into the plastic before it is molded, using less plastic and speeding up production time (Edmunds). Nonetheless, Ford isn’t alone in its search for organic alternatives, they have been in talks with Heinz Ketchup Company to find a way to use left over tomato skins and stems from their production to create plastic for auto parts. In production Heinz uses 2 million tons of tomatoes annually when making their famous ketchup (citifmonline). The only problems researchers are running into with these biodegradable plastics, is making them last. The goal is to find a way to prevent biodegrading while they are in use. (Edmunds)
In mid-May of 2015, a broadcast announced that hundreds of saiga antelopes suddenly died in the Kostanay region of Kazakhstan. Soon after, a wave of similar occurrences were reported all across central Kazakhstan. Fatalities promptly rose from hundreds to thousands, then to tens of thousands, and finally to over a hundred thousand animals. More than 140,000 saigas, about half of the world’s remaining population, mysteriously died over the span of a few days. Researchers are flummoxed by the mysterious cause of death; although it’s almost certainly viral.
Scientists expect that pasteurellosis, a digestive illness, may be the cause of this epizootic. But the presence of this bacteria in the saigas intestinal tract is natural, so it is unknown what ignited the collapse of their immune systems. Whatever the cause, the result an affliction that has 100% mortality rate for the males, females and calves. It begins with sluggishness and disorientation. The affected animals froth at the mouth and suffer from diarrhea. A few hours later, they become unable to stand and breathe properly. Death soon follows.
ce of brush. They also serve as a vital food source for predators; having once even fed poor, rural inhabitants after the collapse of the Soviet Union
ry similar threat in the form of an unknown pathogen. This is unfortunate, as the herd has recovered significantly since the 1990s. The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 nearly pushed the saigas to extinction. The collapse of government spiked rural poverty and eliminated the means of protecting the saiga. This resulted in an explosion of hunting and poaching, almost 95% of the population was destroyed. Saigas provided easy meals and their horns became highly valued in Asian medicine (This actually led to the saigas’ extermination in China during the 1960s). Their condition mirrors the historical devastation of our own American bison. The North American species of bison once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds. The buffalo began to disappear as they were hunted for food by railroad workers and relocated Indians. Now they reside only in pockets of their once expansive territory.
A group of researchers, Xia Li, Hang T Pham, Amanda Janesick, and Bruce Blumberg,
icide is an obesogen because, “it nudges gene expression and stem cell differentiation toward becoming a fat cell” (Brown).
Of India’s 1.25 billion people, only 300 million have electricity, making demand for energy extremely high. While trying to bring electricity to the rest of the population, India has ignored the international push to reduce carbon emissions. Currently, India consumes 800 million tons of coal yearly to produce a whopping 70% of its energy. Only 17% of India’s power comes from hydropower, while 10% comes from renewable sources such as wind, and 2% from nuclear power (Martain). India relies heavily on their domestic coal resources because it is the cheapest way to create energy and continue their recent economic growth (Cropper). Regardless of this fact, using the domestic resource has weighed a rather heavy cost, as the burning of coal to produce energy has left its mark on not only the environment, but also human health.
environment suffers. Like many forms of energy, coal burned energy is created through the boiling of water that creates steam, which rises to spins large turbines. Coal combustion releases emissions of CO2, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and various trace metals like mercury over large areas of land (Guttikunda). As theses pollutants enter the atmosphere, smog, acid rain, and toxic air pollution begins to create a chain of environmental destruction. Effects such as smog and acid rain contaminate the water cycles allowing rivers, lakes, drinking water sources, and soil to become contaminated (Guttikunda). As the environment around the plant becomes effected, enormous amounts of health effects are placed on residents within the area. Lung cancer, respiratory illnesses, and heart diseases all have been ruled into relation with coal burned energy. And in 2010, Global Disease Studies noted India’s air pollution among the top ten health risks of the country, with an estimated 695,000 premature deaths from respiratory illnesses (Guttikunda).
Environmental History 
