And as for the ice packs, they come and go. They were smallest since the last Ice Age, in the era of 900 - 1.300 A.D. (when there was a shocking lack of SUVs and coal-fired electricity generating plants. That's when the Vikings colonized Greenland and Newfoundland. Greenland then was actually "green;" imagine that! Rather than 90% covered in ice as it is now. And man's activities had diddly squat to do with that warming, which was far more than anything today.
The most telling statistic, however, is to put a chart of the up-down spikes in radiation from the Sun on top of the up-down spikes in warmth in the troposhere on Earth. The matchi is almost perfect. Anyone who talks about global warming without also discussing changes in Sun radiation is committing journalistic malpractice.
Congressman Billybob
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Green·landic (-lndk) adj.Word History: How did a glacier-covered island get the name Greenland? In Norse legends written in the 12th century and later, it is told that Eric the Red explored the southeast and southwest coasts of Greenland in A.D. 983-986 and gave the country its name because people would be more likely to go there if it had an attractive name. Greenland was warmer in the tenth century than it is now. There were many islands teeming with birds off its western coast; the sea was excellent for fishing; and the coast of Greenland itself had many fjords where anchorage was good. At the head of the fjords there were enormous meadows full of grass, willows, junipers, birch, and wild berries. Thus Greenland actually deserved its name. Another attraction of Greenland was that Iceland and northwestern Europe, including England, had a grievous year of famine in 976, and people were hungry for food as well as land. |
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition |
Climate and weather in Iceland
Climate
Considering the northerly location of Iceland, its climate is much milder than might be expected, especially in winter. The mean annual temperature for Reykjavík is 5 C, the average January temperature being -0.4 C and July 11.2 C. The annual rainfall on the south coast is about 3000 mm, whereas in the highlands north of Vatnajökull it drops to 400 mm or less.