Summary

Vikings lived on Greenland for five centuries but then vanished leaving the land to the Inuit who were able to better cope with the rugged environment. The early settlement of Greenland is an example of how the choices and strategies made to deal with environmental challenges can succeed or fail in the same land and at the same time by choices made.

Researchers know more about the environmental problems in Viking Iceland and Viking Greenland than those in other failed societies because of written records and because there are still descendants of the Vikings. The Vikings in Iceland damaged their environment, suffered from climate change and contributed to their own collapse. Viking Greenland had a similar experience but also dealt with adversaries, the native Inuit. There was a “push” and “pull” that drove the Vikings to expand overseas. The...