Wiki says that Greenland's name was either a trick to encourage settlers or a mistranslation of "Ground-land":
"..it is said that Norwegian-born Erik the Red .. named the land Grœnland ("Greenland") in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers. Greenland was also called Gruntland ("Ground-land") and Engronelant (or Engroneland) on early maps. Whether green is an erroneous transcription of grunt ("ground"), which refers to shallow bays, or vice versa, is not known. The southern portion of Greenland (not covered by glacier) is indeed green in the summer and was probably even greener in Erik's time during the Medieval Warm Period...
Regarding is Global Warming man-made or not debate. I cannot understand this as an argument against dealing with Global Warming consequences and trying to minimise the warming. It is like finding your house on fire and refusing to put it out because you claim it was caused by a hot summer - so why should you interfere? It wasn't you who caused it.
"..it is said that Norwegian-born Erik the Red .. named the land Grœnland ("Greenland") in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers.
Greenland was also called Gruntland ("Ground-land") and Engronelant (or Engroneland) on early maps. Whether green is an erroneous transcription of grunt ("ground"), which refers to shallow bays, or vice versa, is not known. The southern portion of Greenland (not covered by glacier) is indeed green in the summer and was probably even greener in Erik's time during the Medieval Warm Period...
Regarding is Global Warming man-made or not debate. I cannot understand this as an argument against dealing with Global Warming consequences and trying to minimise the warming. It is like finding your house on fire and refusing to put it out because you claim it was caused by a hot summer - so why should you interfere? It wasn't you who caused it.