As Fatem and her sisters are leaving the village, they meet their cousin Souad outsider her house.  Together the girls head for the third mountain up the river.

Souad tells Fatem about how they used to find firewood at the base of the next mountain, before the flood.  Now, that mountain has been picked bare and the next has wood only at the base.  Every day they have to walk further and climb higher for their firewood.  She wonders aloud what will happen when their paths begin to bump against those of the next village.    

The conversation falls off as they reach the valley floor.  When the flood waters came in 1995, the village lost its crops and the topsoil from the valley.  Later, that afternoon, her father will spend hours on the slow process of rebuilding the soil with composted grasses and leaves from higher up the mountain.  It is tedious process and one that will only provide help until the next flood comes to claim it.  Their days are a race against an uncertain future.  Another flood before they have had a chance to rebuild their stores of food and fatten their animals could mean the end of the village.  

Pushing these thoughts from her mind, Fatem quickly begins a melody and lets the sound of their feet crunching on bare gravel count off the time. 

What Happens When the Wood is Gone?

Morocco is experiencing desertification at a rate of 30,000 hectares per year.  With this comes:

Global warming: Carbon trapped in trees and plant life is released into the atmosphere in the form of green house gases.  There it traps the sun’s energy and causes the earth’s temperature to rise.

Reduced rainfall and increased danger from flooding:  Bare ground reflects twice the sunlight of grassland and lacks the surface roughness necessary to stimulate the convection currents in the air that bring rain.  When the rains do come; the baked earth is often unable to absorb the waters and dangerous flooding occurs. 

Massive soil erosion occurs when land is stripped of vegetation.  Without the roots of even the smallest bushes to hold it in place, valuable top soil is carried away by winds and flooding.  No top soil means no farming or animal grazing can occur.  

Dramatic swings in temperature between day and night:  Plants hold water and heat near the surface of the earth.  When the plants are gone, the sun’s heat is felt at its full intensity during the day and is lost quickly at night.