While many occurrences, including societal norms, contributed to the collapse of Greenland, environmental factors played the largest role. The largest environmental issues leading to the collapse of Greenland were climate change and inadvertently inflicted damage to the environment. Climate change was a major factor in the collapse. Greenlanders based a lot of decisions around farming. Belonging to a farm was essential for survival and social identity. While some resources were hunted or gathered, the majority of food was collected from farms. When the ice age hit, the temperatures plummeted too low for animals to survive and to have a growing season, therefore the farming industry collapsed. Without farms the Greenlanders had a lack of resources. …show more content…
We can apply many things from the Norse in Greenland during the Iron Age to the USA today: both good and bad. The main lessons we can take from the Norse are to learn to adapt to your environment and to use your resources well and wisely. The Norse in Greenland struggled with having enough resources to survive. The U.S. today can learn from that. For example, fossils fuels. We need to start better preserving fossil fuels because we could run out. Once you use them, they’re gone. the U.S. wastes so much and could use many more non renewable resources. Another resource we take for granted and waste too much of, is food. Food is needed for survival, and without it we would be in big trouble. The U.S. in one year wasted more then thirty five tons of food. That is extremely excessive and needs to be cut back. Today, we can look at the Norse many years ago of Greenland and see how without resources, especially such valuable ones like food, survival is impossible. Learning to adapt to the environment and situations well is another important lesson that we can take from the
P.2 Some causes are melting and also some animals dying like polar bears. This could cause global warming. It also could cost most of the sea level to rise. And this could cause major flooding and crops and plants to die. Some places will be so flooded people will have to leave their houses.
Land, water, air. Our lives rely on them. The Earth has liberally given us these assets for a large number of years. Since people advanced, our populace has become quickly. We have utilized and mishandled our Earth.
Our world is wasting valuable resources left and right, as addressed in both essays “Waste Not, Want Not”” by Bill McKibbens, and “Forget Shorter Showers” by Derrick Jensen. In “Waste Not, Want Not”” Bill McKibbens focuses on the importance of preserving our recourses. He mentions how wasteful the human race is, and how un-necessary all of the things that cause waste really are. In “Forget Shorter Showers” Derrick Jensen leans more towards the idea that no matter what humans do, they are incapable of wining. Either they lose their opportunity for economical and intellectual growth, or they lose their precious recourses and clean world. Both writers realize that we are wasting recourses, and believe that change is necessary for advancement. While the writers may have similar views, they have different ideas on how to solve the issue, and use different methods of communicating their ideas.
As a society of Takers, what can we do to curb the destruction of our planets resources? As Ishmael states, “What were you expecting a magic word that would sweep all the nastiness away?” (Quinn 250). Here, Quinn is saying that our culture’s destructive tendencies are not something that will self correct it self or just simply disappear. He also reminds us that all of our industrial and agricultural accomplishments have been based on inventions. Therefore, that is there inventions and
It is true that some of these resources produce a valuable use such as energy, in the case of petroleum, but we have exploited it too much. We use more than we are supposed until one of these days we ran out of it. We should just live with what we can and what we already have. Also I believe that some other natural resources should remain untouched by the human hands. We need to find a way to protect our environment since this our planet, our only home. We also need to change our characters. Good people still exists in the world nowadays, but the problem is that we care too much about ourselves. We want everything for ourselves. If necessary, we need to go back to the age of the gold race. Where people used to live in peace, used to respect and care for each other, where there was no
The Land of a your Viking Future Iceland and America, are two nations that are relatively close neighbors. One a country of former Vikings and the other a country founded on the concept of individualism and the dream that each man can earn what he’s worth that no one is oppressed and all are treated equally no matter what. The values, culture, and economy of these two country are somewhat the same and vastly different at the same time. In this augmentative essay it is my hope to convince people Iceland is better than the U.S. The United States of America, a name that brings to mind a land where anyone can make their fortune and have a good life.
The winter is what we currently believe was a major contributor to the failure of the greenland colony. The “mini ice age” which lower temperatures in winter led to a crop failure which in turn led to a lack of hay for the animals, which led to a mass starvation of the animals, which led to a mass starvation of the people which ultimately led to the death of the colony
I have learned that even though change can be difficult at first, it can help someone grow as a person. The initial fear of the population, the change in environment
Natural resources are a vital part of communities throughout the United States. Concerns regarding energy and the alternatives to using energy. The issues concerning natural resources have been apparent for multiple decades.
Resources are important to all facets and forms of life. From the smallest microorganism that feed on the small particles, to the largest whales which feed on a vast supply of krill. Even the plants that require sunlight for photosynthesis finds the sunlight as a valuable resource. Some organisms found that stockpiling resources or controlling a territory where resources are plentiful allows them to have the greater chance of survival. Humans found a way to utilize both methods, and effectively maximized their chances of survival. In the case of stockpiling resources, we see those who grow their own resources like farmers or people who hunt down for their food and save the surplus. This strategy is effective when we are talking about the individual, but in a society, we are presented with a problem. Nature only can provide so much substance to care for the people. This means that there will be people who will be able to prosper since they reaped all that nature has to offer,
The most important lesson, that not everybody able to learn, is that we need to listen to each other, communicate and cooperate in order to see picture bigger, greater and to learn wiser. “Soon someone suggested that a list could be made of all of the parts: the elephant had four pillars, one tub, two fans, a water pipe, and two staffs, and was covered in tough, hairy leather or dried mud.”
Now that we’ve talked about the challenges faced on the smaller North Atlantic islands, let’s go over the problems faced on Greenland by the Norse. Greenland agriculture was so minimal that most native Norse never saw wheat, bread, or beer made from barley in their lifetime. In fact, if the Norse did grow any crops, they would have made only an extremely minor contribution to the diet. Probably just as an occasional luxury food for a few chiefs and clergy (Collapse pg. 227). As far as the Greenland Norse economy went it was vital that they were able to work together for the greater good of the whole community. On page (235) of Collapse it states, “Different Greenland locations produced different things, such that people at different locations depended on each other for the things that they did not produce.” Clearly that sentence shows how interlinked Greenland Norse society was at the time.
One of the most important life lessons learned in this book is presented towards the
The melting ice caps are having a dramatic affect on the polar regions of the earth. For example, the average temperature in the Arctic is rising twice as fast than the rest of the world (nrdc.org). The once prominent ice is now melting at a dramatic speed, which is affecting native people, wildlife, and plants. When the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf splintered, the freshwater lake that it surrounded drained into the ocean, along with the ecosystem that inhabited it. Polar bears, whales, walrus and seals are changing their feeding and migration patterns, making it harder for native people to hunt them (nrdc.org). Because of the flooding, entire villages will be uprooted order to avoid being swamped. Also, the Arctic coastlines are beginning to move as well. The melting ice caps are threatening the native peoples’ cultural identity and their very survival. Ice-dependant animals, such as walruses and ring seals will be greatly affected by the melting ice caps (treehugger.com). They have fewer places to rest on, as well as fewer places to hunt. If the ice caps keep melting, their lives will become in great danger. The melting ice caps are not only affecting the Polar Regions, but they are also affecting the rest of the world as well in the form of rising ocean levels.
Constantly learning and growing in our lifetime, allows us to gain an understanding of the world around us. Analyzing, admiring and reaching for what the world has to offer, we are able to