Just the facts, mam.
I’ve never wondered why Greenland is called Greenland. I had a gut feeling it was nothing to do with Greenland being, at some point in history, entirely green – but I didn’t know it for sure.
A little research online reveals two possible explanations. Firstly, that Erik the Red (!) named it Grønland (“Greenland”) after the lush green areas in the south of the island. Second is the idea that it was a poor translation of Gruntland (“Ground-land”), which also appeared on many early maps.
However, as far as we can tell Greenland has always sat, for the most part, under a glacier. A glacier which, according to NASA, is shrinking at an alarming rate. Where that meltwater goes, and what effect that has, is of grave concern for us all.
Greenland melt ‘speeding up’ from the BBC.
‘Greenland ice sweels oceans rise’ from the BBC.
‘It’s all a conspiracy’ from The New Scientist.
‘Greenlands Glacier’s losing ice at faster rate’ from MSNBC
From the other side of the arguement, consider
‘Astray in Greenland’ from The Washington Times
Or check out just the facts and tourist info at
‘Greenland‘ the Official Tourism Site
‘Greenland’ from Wikipedia
