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History Channel Interviews Professor Thomas McGovern on Why the Vikings Struggled to Survive in Iceland and Greenland

Professor Thomas McGovern, of the Anthropology Department, was recently interviewed for an article on the History Channel's news site http://www.history.com/news/why-the-vikings-struggled-in-iceland-and-greenland-and-some-didnt-make-it.  He discusses how the Vikings altered the environments of Iceland and Greenland, and how this affected their ability to survive the harsh conditions that resulted. According to the article, "when Vikings came to Iceland over a millennium ago, they slashed and burned trees to make room for farming...[they] settled in a forest and turned it into a desert." Although Iceland seemed to survive the deforestation "reasonably well," said McGovern, the Vikings in Greenland didn't fare so well. The Vikings did change in response to the altered environment in Greenland, turning from agriculture to activities like seal-hunting when the weather got colder due to a volcanic eruption, but when the climate changed yet again, turning stormier, it limited their ability to make a living from the sea. 

McGovern notes that in some ways, the new understanding that Greenland’s Vikings were initially able to adapt is “scarier,” because it shows “you can do a lot of things right and become extinct anyway.” Seafaring, which may have helped the Greenland Vikings survive the first wave of changing temperatures they experienced, may also have limited their capacity to further adapt as the climate changed yet again.  “There are unintended consequences of a successful response to one kind of climate threat,” McGovern says, “which may increase your vulnerability to another kind of climate threat.”

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