Abstract: Modern climate change issues can be better understood by examining how humans have interacted with their environments in the past. Norse agricultural practices and interactions with Iceland’s geography, for example, reflect many of the modern practices and mindsets seen today in places like Northwestern Europe and North America. Studying these settlement practices and the consequential environmental degradation in Iceland could act as a cautionary tale for the trajectory of our own practices of settlement and resource management. Erosion and deforestation as a result of our agricultural practices and the consequential environmental degradation will impact us all in the future. Iceland makes for a valuable case study due to its geographical isolation and being uninhabited by humans prior to Viking settlement, allowing us to see how settlement and the introduction of intensive agriculture impacted the ecosystems and environment. Using the past to better understand both beneficial and harmful agricultural practices can allow us to implement change in our current systems, bettering the chances of environmental repair before the damage becomes irreversible.