First of all, let's be sure to understand that there probably is some global warming going on. The earth has always been either cooling or warming. Greenland, which is mostly covered in ice, is called Greenland because hundreds of years ago it was "green" with farmlands and forests. But as the earth cooled down, it was slowly covered in ice, but the name Greenland stuck. During the building of the Siberian railroad, the builders routinely found palm trees under the ice, proving that that area was once very warm. Obviously, the earth has had many cycles of cooling and warming.
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"... called Greenland because hundreds of years ago it was "green" with farmlands and forests."
Check the Norse Sagas' It was Called that as a con to induce people to move there,
There's that superior homeschool lernin in action.
Greenland has always been colder than its counterpart, Iceland.
It was called "Greenland" because the Vikings were jerks.
I hate people who try to indoctrinate kids politically, right or left. Let a kid go play and learn. Stop messing them up.
"The theory currently held to be most likely is that the etymological origin of 'Greenland' is "Hronland", which means "Land of the Whales" in ancient Norse. The waters around Greenland's southern tip are indeed full of whales. The words 'Hron' and 'Groen' sound alike, and when transcribed into Latin characters it is highly possible that the Icelandic Saga was changed from the original."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland
@Orestes
"Greenland has always been colder than its counterpart, Iceland."
Who here is claiming otherwise?
"Lesson learned: No one can really tell us what the ideal temperature of the earth should be."
Lesson learned: fundies are as happy to lie for business and corporate interests as they are to lie for Jeebus.
The trouble is, of course, that AGW is a myth; studies have clearly shown that recent global temperature increases correlate with increased solar activity, though you'd never know it from listening to the Luddite eco-freaks and Democrats fearmongering for political gain. But that doesn't excuse crap like "Greenland was a tropical paradise". Yeah, in fact, it was tropical around 65 million years ago, and I'm sure the dinosaurs enjoyed the climate very much - but that doesn't count!
Greenland *did* have farmlands, and possibly trees (though not "forests") in Viking days ... but it was still more than 80% covered in ice.
It's a big place (about the size of Mexico, in fact).
No one has ever suggested that earth hasn't experienced extreme weather fluctuations. All of recorded history has occurred during a brief 10,000-year interval between glaciations. But on this subject I have the choice of believing 2,000 specialists in climate-related disciplines from around the world, or this numbnuts. Geee, I dunno ...
There was a period called the little ice age which is said to have impacted the end of settlements there, around the 15th century. However, your claim that it was green because it was rich with farmlands and forests, is an outright lie. Life there was difficult and although the area had a healthy supply of birch trees, they still needed to import wood for ship building. One of their chief problems was that they insisted on living European lifestyles (such as depending on difficult to maintain farms) instead of properly embracing some of the ways native cultures used to survive.
As for the name, there are two sources that say that Erik called it Greenland because he claimed that by giving it a good name people would come. Whatever the case may be, it had nothing to do with your description, which is a complete fantasy (there was only a small part of Greenland that was even habitable enough for them). You either made it up or misunderstood the impact of the little ice age.
AGW is true, when 99.99% of all scientists agree on something I tend to buy it. I've heard all the bullshit arguments deniers put out there to explain away the data, and all of them act like the scientific community hasn't already shredded every other possible conclusion or option before they arrived at this consensus.
AGW was first proposed in the 18-fucking-90's! Those wacky scientists have been checking this out for 120 years! It was only in the 1960's onwards that anybody actually sat up and took notice as a scientific consensus was reached!
The most conservative estimates of sea level rise from melting ice are around 2m (average, New Scientist). Doesn't sound like a lot, but go down to the beach, stand toes in the water and raise your hand as high as you can. Then turn around and look at how much higher that would be on the shore behind you. Scares the shit out of me.
Conservative Kids. Yeah, kids is as far as it goes. From babies, advancing through infancy, becoming kids, dying as kids. They are perpetual kids.
Wanna be a big boy. wah! Denial, denial, denial. Me big boy now mummy, me do as me wants. Me so very independent. Me big boy pioneer. Wah! Mummy! Must worship Mammon. Must, must. I'll be a big boy with loadsa money. Wah! Mummy! Wah!
Interestingly, the timing of the seasons also seems to be changing ("Changes in the phase of the annual cycle of surface temperature", Nature 457:435-440). Of course, the seasons are not caused by changes in the sun's output, but by changes in incident solar radiation, which varies due to the Earth's orbit and axial tilt.
Now neither the orbit nor tilt of the Earth have changed (I think we'd have noticed by now if the north star wasn't), so this change in seasonal change must be entirely an atmospheric effect. Ironically, most climate models do not predict this shift in the seasons because they over estimate the impact of solar forcing and too strongly bind the seasons to Earth's orbit.
You know, I think that given enough time, the critics of AGW will be proven right...
[First decade.] "There's no warming!"
[Second decade.] "Okay, there's warming, but we're not responsible for it!"
[Third decade.] "Okay, we're responsible for it, but it's not a bad thing!"
[Forth decade.] "Okay, it's a bad thing, but there's no way to stop it!"
[Fifth decade.] "Okay, there's a way to stop it, but it's too late now!"
[Sixth decade.] "Glug!"
See? Give it 60 years and they'll be right on the money!
"During the building of the Siberian railroad, the builders routinely found palm trees under the ice, proving that that area was once very warm."
They found the palm trees next to the frozen woolly mammoths who died with half chewed coconuts in their mouths and a velociraptor with its teeth still clamped on its ass.
Actually, Greenland was named that as propaganda to get gullible Icelanders to move there. It failed spectacularly, because for the past 1000 years (at the very least) it has been a frozen wasteland where nothing can grow.
Not really <Anonymous Tosspot>, I am swayed by evidence not rhetoric. It is not the shouty tree-huggers that convinced me, but the quiet scientists. Very very few climate critics have advanced anything like a scientific objection to AGW, and most of thew few that have been raised, such as the lack of stratospheric warming, have been investigated and addressed.
Ignoring a huge body of scientific evidence from independent lines of enquiry because you don't like the conclusion. Now that's fundie.
No, it was a tropical paradise when the vapor canopy covered the earth and all animals ate plants before the fall... or was it the global flood? Anyway, get your facts straight. It only became a frozen wasteland because man sinned against God.
And before you go [citation needed] on me, I give you this: Hovind, Kent The Vapor Canopy Theory 2003 speech given to the First Evangelical Church. That, and answersingenesis.com.
(no, I am not fucking serious)
Bullshit. As far as I know, it was named 'Greenland' as a marketing exercise by the Viking leader Erik the Red, who led an expedition to colonise the place around the year 1000 (forget the exact date and can't be bothered to look it up.) If Erik had told his colonists that the place they were bound for was largely frozen, most of them would never have gone with him, so he lied and said the place was warm and green.
The Global Climactic Optimum and Little Ice Age were uncontentious science during my high school years in the 1970's.
Blame Old Viking for that one, he trolled the shit out of the whole place intentionally.
And I mean, god damn. Sending people to rather hazardous trip with little to no rations and they end up right-the-fuck-out-of-nowhere in place where there is absolutely nothing to be had.
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Do you understand that global warming denial is another form of the same idiocy that has infected the fundamentalists whose quotes we collect and comment here?
Hyperthermophilic bacteria told me that it is 110 degrees Celsius.
hundreds of years ago it was "green" with farmlands and forests. But as the earth cooled down, it was slowly covered in ice, but the name Greenland stuck.
So it's been named Greenland and had farms since before the last ice age. But that was only a few hundred years ago -- the Earth being just 6,000 years old (?).
Its correct that Greenland once had a lush forest. Some 500.000 years ago!
So, the notion that it is named Greenland because it was "green" at the time - is completely inaccurate. When Eric the Red named it Greenland it was a "sales trick" to get people to come to Greenland! This was in the year 982 and the Viking vanished by the end of the 15th century with the coming of the Little Ice Age.
"studies have clearly shown that recent global temperature increases correlate with increased solar activity,"
[citation seriously fucking needed]
..."it was slowly covered in ice, but the name Greenland stuck. During the building of the Siberian railroad, the builders routinely found palm trees under the ice, proving that that area was once very warm."
Yes the Siberian railway goes through Greenland. Geography fail as well as all the other fails.
Excuse me for shouting, please, BUT WHAT THE FUCK, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK does Greenland, which was an island last time I looked, do with the Siberian railroad, which is in Russia, which is in thrice-goddamn Eurasia?! I think this is actually more ridiculous than the whole name thing.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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