Chapter 1: Living Sustainably (2 activities)
Team-Based Class Activity #1: Reasons for the Greenland Colony Collapse (~10 minutes)
Objective: Understand the five factors that may contribute to societal collapse proposed by Jared Diamond
Materials needed: Handout and textbook
One-page handout follows: This activity engages the students to analyze the Greenland Viking colony example from the perspective
of Jared Diamond’s “five factors of collapse.” Students will find answers in the text. This activity can be done as homework or as a
team-based classroom activity.
Analysis: Diamond’s Five Factors
Identify how each of these five factors played a role in the demise of the Greenland Viking Colony.
Factor
Natural climate change
Self-inflicted environmental damage
Failure to respond to the natural environment
Hostile neighbors
Loss of friendly neighbors
How it applies to the Vikings
Answers
Analysis: Diamond’s Five Factors
Identify how each of these five factors played a role in the demise of the Greenland Viking Colony.
Factor
Natural climate change
How it applies to the Vikings
The Little Ice Age brought colder weather and reduced the ability of ships to
sail from Europe to Greenland.
Self-inflicted environmental damage
They overgrazed grasslands and overharvested sod and trees. This degraded
the area and reduced its ability to produce these resources.
Hostile neighbors
They did not notice, or ignored, the degradation of their ecosystem and
continued to try to live as they would have in Europe (building wood
structures, raising livestock). They also avoided the use of locally abundant
food resources such as fish.
They had clashes with the Inuit. This prevented them from befriending the
Inuit and learning from them how to live in this area.
Loss of friendly neighbors
The sea ice reduced, and eventually stopped, the visits of European ships, so
they lost their source of imported goods on which they depended.
Failure to respond to the natural environment
Team-Based Class Activity #2: Greenland Colony vs. Modern Society (20–30 minutes; will be quicker if done as one “big group”
during lecture, asking for volunteers to offer answers)
Objectives:
a) Understand the four characteristics of a sustainable ecosystem.
b) Evaluate the actions of the Greenland colony by identifying how their choices violated some of these characteristics and
propose alternative actions that would have allowed the colony to mimic a sustainable ecosystem.
c) Evaluate the actions of modern society by identifying how our choices violate all of these characteristics and propose
alternative actions that would allow us to mimic a sustainable ecosystem.
Materials needed: Handout (textbook may come in handy if you choose to let students use it—this generally takes more time,
however, since unprepared students will take the time to look up and read about these topics.)
Two-page handout follows: This activity asks students to apply the concepts of the characteristics of a sustainable ecosystem, as
presented in Chapter 1, to the examples of the Greenland Viking colony and to modern society. This is an application activity that
requires the students to make these connections themselves (examples of how modern society could avoid violating these actions
are in IG 1.5, but examples of how it violates them are not). This works well as a team-based activity and can be used as a graded
activity or an ungraded activity. It can also be done with the class at large during lecture by asking for volunteer answers or calling
on students at random. (If students are called on for an answer, allow them to “phone a friend”—i.e., ask another student in the
class for help.)
Application Activity: Sustainability and Greenland (Refer to IG 1.5 to answer the following.)
TEAMS: You are GREENLAND COLONY. What did you do wrong, and what sustainability characteristics did these actions violate? What could
you have done to avoid that?
GREENLAND COLONY
Sustainable ecosystems
Was this characteristic violated? If so, how?
Alternate action to avoid this?
(Write N/A if not violated)
What about MODERN SOCIETY? Identify one way we are violating each sustainability characteristic. What can we do to address that?
MODERN SOCIETY
Sustainable ecosystems
How is this characteristic violated?
Alternate action to avoid this?
(Write N/A if not violated)
Answers
Application Activity: Sustainability and Greenland (Refer to IG 1.5 to answer the following.)
TEAMS: You are GREENLAND COLONY. What did you do wrong and what sustainability characteristics did these actions violate? What could you
have done to avoid that?
GREENLAND COLONY
Sustainable ecosystems
Was this characteristic violated? If so,
how?
Not violated – relied on plant-based
energy sources
Trees and grasses were harvested faster
than they regrew; the use of livestock on
pastures degraded the pastureland,
reducing its ability to recover.
Alternate action to avoid this?
(Write N/A if not violated)
N/A
They should not raise cattle on these pastures;
alternate building and insulating materials
should have been used and perhaps smaller
structures built. Alternate food sources should
have been used such as fish.
Livestock populations were too large for
the ecosystem (perhaps none could be
tolerated). The Viking population size
may have been bigger than the area
could support.
Reduce or eliminate livestock herds; reduce
family size.
Rather than using local resources, they
continued to depend on imports and
when ships stopped coming, they had no
alternative materials to use.
Depending only on local resources for food and
building materials (like the Inuit) would have
allowed them to survive, even when the
European ships stopped coming.
What about MODERN SOCIETY? Identify one way we are violating each sustainability characteristic. What can we do to address that?
MODERN SOCIETY
Sustainable ecosystems
How is this characteristic violated?
Alternate action to avoid this?
(Write N/A if not violated)
Yes. We depend heavily on fossil fuels rather
than renewable energy sources. And in some
cases, when we do use renewable energy
sources, we use them faster than they are
replaced (i.e., wood).
Turn to renewable energy sources such as solar,
wind, geothermal, and biomass (harvested at a
sustainable rate).
We use matter resources faster than they are
replaced and often use matter once and then
discard it or leave it in a form that is not
readily used again.
Conservation to reduce wasteful use of matter
resources; use matter in a way that allows it to be
re-used and recycled; reduce the release of toxins
that degrade the environment that provides these
resources.
Our own population is huge—7 billion+. There
are indications that the rate of resource
consumption by our population far exceeds
the ability of the Earth to renew these
resources.
Steps to reduce further population growth are
needed. (This is preferable to the reduction of
human populations through war or disease.)
Our actions endanger species, shrinking
biodiversity. We also tend to rely on a small
number of food species, energy sources or
other matter resources, relative to what is
available in nature.
Protecting biodiversity allows nature to produce
the resources and ecosystem services we need. We
can also emulate the diversity of nature in other
choices. Examples: No single energy source can
replace fossil fuels, but a variety can; growing or
harvesting food that naturally grows in an area is
better than forcing corn or rice to grow
everywhere.