Collapse

Here are some notes from the chapter on Iceland in Jared M. Diamond's, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

• Iceland is ecologically the most heavily damaged country in Europe
• Icelandic diet has been studies and named by 47,000 bones found in garbage heaps
• Cod and haddock enable Iceland to survive the hard centuries and drive the economy today
• One quarter of Iceland was forested at the time of her settlement. During the first few decades, 80% was cleared for land - mainly pastures for sheep, 96% of that one quarter has been cleared as of modern times. Today, 1% of Iceland's total area is forested.
• Today the few trees that exist in the countryside are often fenced off to keep the sheep away
• Why did settlers perform this obvious damage? They were presented with a place seemingly similar to Norway and did not realize the after effects of their actions.
• When prompted by the Danes to export fish, Iceland's first answer was no.
• Icelanders took away the conclusion: we cannot enjoy the luxury of experimenting, we live in a fragile land, don't ask us to change.
• By the late Middle Ages the economy was stimulated by the rise in trade of dried cod. There was no wood to build ships so Iceland exported using ships belonging to foreigners - Norwegians, English, and Germans.
• In the 1900's Iceland developed their own fleet.
• 1950 - 90% of total exports were marine products, dwarfing the importance of their dominant agriculture sector
• 1923 - The urban population overtook the rural population. Iceland now is the most urbanized Scandinavian country. Icelanders today - farmers abandon their farms or convert them to summer houses and move to town to find jobs, coca-cola, and global culture.