2006-09-01 13:58:38.26466+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments
Hundreds of years ago, Greenland was so named because it was... well... green. But then the colder climate came, and it hasn't been. Now Greenland's farmers are welcoming global warming.
[ related topics: Politics Nature and environment ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2006-09-01 15:43:06.50139+00 by: petronius
Some years ago I stumbled on Jane Smiley's book The Greenlanders, which tells the first half of the story. Its set in Greenland during the Norse colonization, when the weather was good enough to have farms and herds, and there were several fairly prosperous settlements. They even maintained fairly close communications with Iceland and Europe, trading furs and walrus ivory.
The story, however, tells of the collapse of the colony, as the weather begins to turn colder, the herds diminish, and problems back in Europe, like the Black Death, cut off communication. Its a grim story as settlements shrink and the Skraelings (Eskimos) begin to move in.
#Comment Re: made: 2006-09-01 16:58:58.561592+00 by: ebradway
As a geographer, I've been wondering about the global impact of a year-round navigable Northwest Passage. I think latest estimates say we'll be there in about 30 years.
#Comment Re: made: 2006-09-01 17:54:39.164845+00 by: Shawn
Greenland was so named because it was... well... green.
Whoa. All this time, the history I'd been told was that Greenland was so named in order to distract people from Iceland - which was so named to keep people from migrating there in large numbers.