Green Myth-Busting: Greenland was Once Green
Greenland MYTH: When Eric the Red and his Viking buddies settled Greenland, it was a lush pastoral paradise fit for farming and raising animals.
Facts: As climate change skepticism has developed into a full-blown industry, a number of myths have filtered out about historical patterns of warming and cooling: just mention the “Little Ice Age” or the “Medieval Warm Period” to your favorite skeptic, and let ‘em go…
As a history buff, I always found today’s myth fascinating. As Coby Beck at Grist notes, Viking leader Eric the Red gave Greenland its name not because it was lush and green, but because he wanted folks back home to think it was:
Greenland was called Greenland by Erik the Red (was he red?), who was in exile and wanted to attract people to a new colony. He thought you should give a land a good name so people would want to go there! It likely was a bit warmer when he landed for the first time than it was when the last settlers starved due to a number of factors — climate change, or at least some bad weather, a major one.
But it was never lush, and their existence was always harsh and meager, especially due to the Viking’s disdain for other peoples and ways of living. They attempted to live a European lifestyle in an arctic climate, side by side with Inuit who easily outlasted them. They starved surrounded by oceans and yet never ate fish! (Note: this was not a typical European behavior, and is a bit of a mystery to this day.)
The issue here, of course, really isn’t Greenland’s name; it’s the idea of a Medieval Warm Period that skeptics claim was comparable to the present day in terms of the average temperature (or even warmer!). By extension, ice melts on Greenland aren’t that big a deal: it’s happened before.
Coby has thoughts on the Medieval Warm Period, and points to information from NOAA. RealClimate, the blog for anyone interested in hardcore climate science, also presents a number of reasons why the perception skeptics have about the Medieval Warm Period are likely incorrect.
Greenland wasn’t green in the tenth century… and we don’t want it to become green this century…
December 16th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Hi Max,
Climate P0rn
“”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
This may end-up as a duplication, but I’m trying a resend which disconnects two web-links to the sus’ spam-word ‘p0rn’, wondering if that might be the cause of delay.
I wish this site would say that something is in mediation, rather than an alternative thought of; was the wrong button fingered!!!!
“”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
I started a draft “GO Journal” on “clim8 p0rn” back in November, but never finished it. You would probably enjoy the broader ranging radio programme podcast below, from which it comes, but I think it will be going onto “Repeats” over the long Australian summer typical shutdown of things, until around end January. Have you heard Bruce Shapiro talking about Americana?….every Tuesday….and Bea’ Campbell British-Euro stuff?… and there is much more!
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Draft blog for “GO people”:
Here is an interesting expert discussion concerning disappointing progress in reducing CO2 emissions. The parties are all seeking progress, but elaborate some unproductive consequences of the alarmist treatment sometimes given out on climate change.
In brief it is concluded that there is a big turn-off out there, because among other things, some people feel it is out of control, even to the bizarre point maybe of; Oh well, let’s crack-the-champagne and go out and buy a Hummer while we can!
The parties are:
Simon Retallack; Head of the Low Carbon Programme at the Institute for Public Policy Research, in London.
Jim Macnamara; Adjunct Professor of Communication, UTS; Group Research Director, Media Monitors.
Presenter; Phillip Adams; I describe him as Australian media genius, and strong climate activist.
Download ~ 15 minutes of Audio (item 2, of Nov.19):
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2007/2095148.htm
Or access Podcast or RSS feed for 5 daily programs/week:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/
Example of silly alarmism from Tim Flannery….”Australian Of The Year” (Unfinished)
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Regards, Black Wallaby
December 16th, 2007 at 8:59 am
REASIC,
WE ARE CURRENTLY ON WEB-PAGE 51, GOING ON 52.
PLEASE GO BACK TO PAGE 2O, ABOUT 300 POSTS AGO, ON NOVEMBER 1st 2007, AND SEE IF YOU CAN RECALL THE TOPIC OF PLACING OURSELVES WITHIN A DEBATE THAT IS “UNDER-CONTROL” AND OF SENSIBLE PROPORTIONS AND EXPOSURE.
IN MORE RECENT TIMES YOU HAVE BEEN ASKED REPEATEDLY TO TRANSFER THE DISCUSSION ONTO A SENSIBLE BASIS, OPEN TO STRUTINY BY GO VISITORS, GIVEN THAT YOU HAVE INFLUENCE AS A SITE AUTHOR, AND ALSO BEING RESPECTED BY THE CHIEF EDITOR.
YOUR BEST EXCUSE FOR NOT DOING SO MAY BE “I’M TOO BUSY” YET YOU HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO CREATE WORLD-RECORDS IN WORD-COUNT GOBBLE-GOBBLE.
THUS IT IS HARD TO AVOID THE CONCLUSION THAT YOU ARE A COWARD, AND WANT TO HIDE IN ANONIMITY.
PLEASE PROVE MY CONCLUSION TO BE WRONG.
CHEERS, BLACK WALLABY
December 17th, 2007 at 5:53 am
Hi Reasic,
I repeat the essentials of my December 11th, 2007 at 10:35 pm page 47 a SECOND TIME below, so that it does not escape your attention: A quick simple one-word answer is all that is required!
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Here’s a bit of fun for you Reasic….a quickie….all it needs is a yes or no answer.
Firstly, let’s describe columns # 1-4 in the tabulation following:
1, The alphas S and W represent “summer” (or “day”) and “winter” (or “night”) of 1992 -2003 inclusive, throughout which TWO satellites continuously surveyed Greenland.
2, A period of two months when ATM (airborne topographic mapper) was adapted over the NORTHERN part of the island, if there were no clouds etc.
3, A period of two months when ATM was adapted over the SOUTHERN part of the island, if there were no clouds etc.
4, The year when ICESat data first became available
1……2……3……4
S……………..(1992)
W
S……=
W
S…………..=
W
S
W
S
W
S
W
S……=
W
S…………..=
W
S
W
S
W
S
W………………………except Zwally
…………………….?
…………………….X (2004)
Johannessen identified VERY IMPORTANTLY that there was high inter-annual variability, (impossible for Thomas to determine). I therefore submit that Thomas was WRONG to claim that columns 2, 3 & 4 (combined) have ANY similarity to column 1.
(Thomas also admitted inadequate flight paths and poor accuracy for ATM.)
It also follows that with such scant data within high variability, that Thomas was incapable of projecting any sensible trend. Even Johannessen with his mountain of CONTINUOUS data over eleven years, declared inability to determine meaningful trends, because of the many variabilities!!!!!!
C’mon Reasic, give us a good laugh, and tell us that Thomas was RIGHT in his claim of similarity!
Or, give the correct answer that he was WRONG!
Cheers Black Wallaby
December 17th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Hi Black Wallaby,
Re your last message to Jason, as well as my unanswered messages to him of the past few days.
It appears that Jason has acknowledged defeat in this debate and given up.
Can’t really blame him, because it was quite obviously the case.
Too bad that he did not have the courage to concede defeat before slinking away.
Regards,
Max
December 17th, 2007 at 7:39 am
Hi Max,
REUR December 17th, 2007 at 7:16 am,
Well that may well be the case with the long departed fundomotie, but it could be that Reasic will yet gird his loins and come back with some verbose hilarious denial of reality.
Did you get my Email? I think we can carry this forward better elsewhere anyway.
Regards Black wallaby