How do you global warming defenders explain the 700 year old Viking settlements on Greenland?

Question

Please listen to another point of view for a minute. Melting ice is uncovering civilizations. That has to mean something.

Answer 1

Greenland was first settled in approx 900AD by a Norwegian voyager called Snaebjörn Galti but it wasn't until 982 that the first setlement was established.

The Norwegian Eirik Raude, better known as 'Eric the Red' had been exiled from his native country because of his murderous ways, after taking up residence in Iceland he was again exiled for the same reasons. Setting sail in 982 he came upon Greenland and after rounding the southern ice pack he landed and established a settlement. Three years later, when his period of exile had expired, he returned to Iceland in search of a population for his new settlement. To entice people he told them of green lands and a warmer climate, he christened the new land Greenland because "people would be attracted to go there if it had a favourable name". The plan worked and Erik returned to Greenland with the intrepid emigrants.

Alas, they were to be disappointed, their new home failed to live up to Erik's promises and instead of a lush green land they found a barren wilderness of ice where crops could only be grown in two locations and at certain times of the year. They has become the victims of Viking propaganda.

Erik's community divided and a second settlement became established - again, confined to the southwestern extremity.

Had Erik and his fellow settlers arrived in Greenland a few hundred years earlier they would have found nowhere in which to establish their settlement as the land at that time was fully covered with ice.

Fortunately for Erik, a period of natural global warming had commenced a thousand years earlier and by now temperatures in the northern hemisphere has risen by 1°C allowing enough ice to melt to expose the first land in Greenland since before the last ice age. Temperatures rose a little further and remained above average for the best part of the next 500 years. This helped to further melt the ice around some parts of the Greenlandic coast but the Vikings greatest ally was the North Atlantic Conveyor.

This ocean current, also known as the Gulf Stream, carries warm water from the Carribean region to the North Atlantic and can have a significant effect on the climate of countries in its path. In Viking times the Conveyor was flowing further west than it does today with the result that Greenland warmed by a few degrees. Today the current flows more towards the United Kingdowm with the result that the UK climate is some 7°C warmer than it would otherwise be.

This combination of higher temperatures and the Gulf Stream caused the retreat of ice, most notably along Greenland's southern coast. By 1400 several small communities had become established and it was possible to grow limited crops, some trees and to herd livestock. Life was never particularly easy and there was little available farmland, most of the year temperatures were below freezing but the communities struggled by as best they could.

With the onset of a natural cooling period and the movement away from Greenland of the Gulf Stream, temperatures once again returned to normal. The crops failed and famine set in, there were conflicts between the Norsemen themselves and with the Inuit who had migrated southwards. These factors, coupled with the advancing ice forced the inhabitants to abandon Greenland and the country was left to the Inuit.

In time, the ice advanced and engulfed the communities and farms leaving little trace that there has once been an established population.

With the onset of modern global warming the ice is again retreating, as it does the remains of these communities are being exposed and are providing a wealth of information for archaeologists, climatologists and other scientists.

What we're seeing now is very different warming to that experienced by the Vikings. Back then it was primarily the Gulf Stream that led to the melting of the ice and this was restricted to the parts of the coastline directly benefitting from the flow of warm water. Today, with the increase in global temperatures, it's the ice around the complete coastline that is retreating. Had Eric the Red set sail today he could have settled almost anywhere on the coast and in places he would have found a coastal strip free of ice for up to 200km inland.

Presently there's about 20 times the amount of land available as there was during the reign of the Vikings and with glaciers retreating by up to 40 metres a day the amount of land is rapidly increasing.

Answer 2

If melting ice is uncovering settlements covered for 700 years, then a current warming trend is melting that ice, right?

Starting by at least in the 980s the Vikings were in Greenland for centuries. It has been colonized by the Inuit for at least 2500 years, although they apparently were't present when the Vikings arrived. As noted below, the "Little Ice Age" may have covered some of those settlements since then.

Greenland was unknown to Europeans until the 10th century, when Icelandic and Norwegian Vikings discovered it. Before this discovery, it had been inhabited for a long time by Arctic peoples, although it was apparently unpopulated at the time when the Vikings arrived; the direct ancestors of the modern Inuit Greenlanders did not arrive until around 1200 AD from the northwest. The Norse settlements along the south-west coast eventually disappeared after about 450 years. The Inuit survived and developed a society to fit the increasingly forbidding climate (see Little Ice Age) and were the only people to inhabit the island for several hundred years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Greenland

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.
http://www.answers.com/topic/greenland?cat=travel

Answer 3

These Vikings barely survived so far we know. The colonies were extremely small so far we kow. The scarcity of food never allowed them to really develop.

The main factor for their Fall is the "Hanseatic League" which took over the trade in Northern Europe and was not interested in trading up to Greenland.

"Green" land has been chosen as a catch instead of "Ice" Land which had troubles attracting settlers.

Answer 4

I am not sure why you think we should have to explain us. Is your theory that there is global warming but this is explained by natural causes and cycles?
There is evidence that there are changes in weather over the ages but that these can be explained mostly by the tilt of he earth in relation to the sun and the movement of plates around the world.

Answer 5

They can only explain it by ignoring it. Or indicating that the Earth had a major axial tilt event within the last 1100 years.

http://www.longrangeweather.com/images/GTEMPS.gif

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Answer 6

Trevor's answer is superb, even by his very high standards.

Answer 7

Nickel Johann there is an Island named Iceland. Maybe you need to study geography.