Issues of sustainability and resilience are prominent today in light of accelerating climate deterioration, rising populations, and declining resources. But these issues are not new, and numerous past societies have faced these crises before. In this subject you will learn about a series of past societies that innovated and adapted successfully to often challenging environments - resulting in sustainable and/or resilient societies that thrived for centuries. And, you will also learn about societies that failed to adapt, or failed to innovate, resulting in the collapse of their society, the abandonment of their settlements, and maybe even the end of their culture?
This subject explores the success or failure of past and future societies within their respective social environmental systems - including how those systems were impacted by climate change in the past, and how future climate deterioration might impact our own society, or even bring about its end.