As a Canadian, I've been obsessed with Greenland for a long time. It's so close to us, almost as close as the USA yet to get there you currently have to fly to Copenhagen or Reykjavik then backtrack to Kangerlussuaq or Narsarsuaq (both International airports were former US Air Force bases from WWII) before continuing onto Nuuk since its runway is still too short for anything but DeHavilland Dash 8-Q400 flights (ironically a Canadian made aircraft) but the runway expansion/new international terminal project is finally underway so that will change in the coming decades making it much easier to visit from North America... There have been some Iqaluit-Nuuk flights in the past they've never been commercially successful enough to be sustainable... Probably because of the lack of cargo capacity to bring in cheaper goods from Canada to supplement European imports...
What I don’t get is why we(us Americans and you Canadians) have allowed Denmark to continue its claim to Greenland. It’s more on our side of the Atlantic than their side. We should just like, ya know, take that shit lol. It should honestly just be part of Canada, we just want a little oil for our troubles in procuring it from the European colonials :-)
One of my favorite fun facts about Greenland is that the island has one single forest! It’s located entirely within one single canyon, which has to be one of if not the loneliest forest on Earth
There are some lonely "forests" in Australia too but not as lonely as that. The desert in our northwest has dry riverbeds that are filled briefly only by the occasional tropical cyclone. Within a few days they are mostly empty again. But in the deep sand along the bottom of the riverbed there's still a lot of water. And along those riverbeds you can see the trees that used to cover the entire landscape. That lonely forest in Greenland reminds me of those.
@@TheSulross Not really. It makes sense, there's far more green on Greenland than Iceland in terms of square mileage, not to mention temperatures were warmer back then. I like to imagine that when the Norse arrived for the first time at the southern coast and worked their way northwest, they saw nothing but green grass-covered rocks stretching out as far as the eye could see in every direction. A Greenland, indeed.
Most people neither understand the issues with life at high lattitudes having very extreme sunlight cycles of near total light a few months a year and total darkness a few months a year making agriculture near impossible. Nor the drastic effects of climate change as they get more extreme as the lattitudes higher. Even when it's a desert wasteland in the tropics and subtopics little plant life will exist up in the high lattitudes so it will not really be a refuge for humanity when the heat gets here to remove us from existence
@@norml.hugh-mann that's is why we got Elon Musk!!!! Why you think he wants to populate Mars??. My theory is maybe humans already lived on Mars we destroyed it and left it a desolate waste land after several nuclear bombs while only a few escaped landing on Earth or it could of been gradually done. Crazy theory but if we move from planet to planet terriform it our needs use it destroy it and move on sounds way too much like human history already we use it & destroy it.
@@norml.hugh-mann As you say, most of the warming affects the polar regions and *_not_* the tropics. In fact, millions of years ago, when Earth was not in an Ice Age, the tropics were close to the same as they are today. It is a proven *_fallacy_* that our tiny amount of slow warming will "remove us from existence." We are still very close to the BOTTOM of the livable temperature range on Earth. Scientists, today, look with envy toward planets which might be "super Earths" by virtue of being far warmer than our Ice Age world.
I've flown over it on the way to Europe and the ice goes on forever, beautiful in its grandeur. Like you, I figured "Greenland" was the name applied by Norse real estate agents to get people over there, thinking they'd be hoeing verdant gardens instead of hunting seals on ice floes. Real estate agents have a euphemism for every sort of dilapidated property they're peddling.
Have you ever wondier if there is afordable green home with neverending backyard? There is. Nuuk Real/Max offers the best value for suprisingly low amount of money. In the heart of nature, connected with the spirit of the past and without disturbing neighbours. Last 10 000 km2 for sale. :-)
@@akagi007 That's funny, and true, too. Real estate agents have a happy story about everything. One time I was looking for riverfront property in Florida, after a heavy rainstorm. The real estate lady said, "Do you like to fish?" I said I did. She said, "Then you'll love this property. You can fish from your living room." Turned out it was under four feet of water.
@@KaiHenningsen All's I know is that I didn't buy it. I bought a house on a hill, thereby staying above the flood plain. Another good one is when people buy a lake or river property, they typically ask, "Are there any alligators around?" The Realtor typically says, "Alligators? Perish the thought! There hasn't been a gator spotted in these parts in at least 50 years." Then you go out on the deck and stomp on it and 20 alligators come swimming out from under it.
Actually around a thousand years ago when Norse called it Greenland, it was! It was covered with forests and grasslands. Ideal for Norse lifestyle. … then the Little Ice Age started, things got MUCH colder and snowier …. And the Vikings died.
FYI Yes, about half the population would like secession from Denmark, but the Greenland homerule acknowledges dependency of 500 million $ annual subsidies ~ 10k per capita from Denmark so it's not immediately on the table. Around 1 in 4 have mixed Inuit/European ancestry - It's not 100% native Inuit as you made it sound. Equally around 1 in 4 currently lives in Denmark. Canada and Greenland actually have a common land border splitting the tiny uninhabited Hans Island in two. Interesting story behind worth checking out.
Greenlanders DNA are 25% European (predominantly Danish) on awerage. This means that more than 1/4 must have mixed ancestry. (Current Biology, 24 May 2021)
If America wants Greenland, doubling or tripling the amounts they get now would not be difficult. Trump wants something. Maybe it's Greenland, maybe that's a tactic for something else.
If President Trump managed to obtain Greenland, the deal would make native Greenlanders--can I use that? 'Greenlanders?'-very, very wealthy. They could demand a treaty like the rich Cherokee Indians have...; not like the poor Cherokee!
@@chrisfarrell9894 how can 56,000 people demand anything when you can flood them with a million rural American types that have little that they want here.
I think you mean "American" as in a US citizen. Being from there you probably know that the island is considered part of the North American continent, thus technically speaking everybody born there is American.
Erik the Red was a Norwegian explorer Who moved to Iceland. (He had a son there, known as Leiv Eriksson). Erik the red disponeres Hreenland and sounded the first European settlement there. Greenland and Iceland was a part of Norway when Denmark and Norway went into a union in the middle ages. When this union ended in 1814, Denmark kept the Norwegian colonies Greenland and Iceland.
The period of time when the Vikings and Erik were exploring the north Atlantic from around 700 to 1100CE was the Medieval Warm Period. Ice retreated and cropping and agriculture was extended over high latitude areas. Greenland was very green with large expanses of arable land. But as we all know The Little Ice Age AKA the Dark Ages followed for 500 years until the mid 19th century and it has been warming ever since in a natural cycle. Mostly caused by volcanic eruptions and associated ash and aerosol sulphite. Crop failures for decades, the plague, the French Revolution, the Polynesian diaspora. All caused by changes in the climate due to nature taking its course over Millennia. The only constant is change!
Exactly. And the Earth is still cooler than it’s average. And Earth has had no ice at the North and South Poles for millions more years than it has had ice.
20 percent is an area the size of California give or take, of course much of that is rugged rocky land with no chance for agriculture. Also, when Eric the Red discovered Greenland it was during the medieval warm period. When the climate became too harsh for their way of life with sheep farming, they bailed.
I think the context note is for you: There is no climate change prior to the industrial revolution. Ignore the expected bounce back effect after the little ice age. There was no little ice age. There was no medieval warm period. There are 5 lights.
Uh, it was always too harsh. They came during the summer and the dummies figured it was that way all the time. The lack of trees should have told them. When they first came to Iceland, it was forested. They chopped all the trees down, then Erik decided to move on ( he was made to, he was a very nasty man). By the time other ships came to Greenland they'd almost all starved to death in Greenland.
Geoff is MUCH better than Kyle, the other geography guy. He drives me crazy! You know who I’m talking about… with those stupid shirts that always remind me of what Tony Soprano would have worn back in the 70’s and his liberal slant on what should just be about the facts of geography.
If you examine Canadian geography you'll find nearly everyone lives in the very south. Anyplace that is uninhabited is so for very good reasons...not because of lack of will or some real-estate marketing failures.
It's a Maslow's hierarchy of living spaces needs. The dumbest and slowest people live in the worst places or none at all, and the smartest going up the scale live in better and better places. It's nature. Can't be politically correct about nature. Here in the USA the people who live on Malibu beach and penthouses in S.Francisco have the most money and smarts.
@@mutteringmale San Francisco is not even the best place in the SF Bay Area to live. You certainly don't see any of the tech billionaires living in SF penthouses.
There are basically two parts of Canada: the part where all the cities and almost all the people are, along the Canadian/US border and the "Siberia of the Western Hemisphere"...
Baffin Island is pretty cool--it's kinda like a mini Greenland with its own ice sheets, fjords and a small capital, Iqaluit that's quite similar to Greenland's capital. Moreover, (and according to a little bird from the future) these two unique islands will experience massive population growth in coming centuries due to climate change. Coming up: Stanley Cup 2125: Iqaluit vs Nuuk. Won't spoil the result here--you'll just have to wait and find out. (Hint: it will be Canada's first Stanley Cup since 1993--you read it here first!)
Ironically people are talking about settling Mars when Greenland, Nunavut and even Antarctica are much more benign and habitable than the best possible location on Mars. They're a bit closer too.
I wished the planet earth had over 100 Continents instead of just 7 and 8 Continents. I wished that Greenland was a Continent That was Larger than Africa and South America.
If President Trump and the US take it - in 50 years - the loony left will write in their fake HEB-written history books that we "STOLE" from the so-called "native Americans".
Around 800 A.D. there began a four-century period of high global temperatures, known as, The Climatic Optimum. It was not a global disaster back then as today. Many parts of the world previously uninhabitable due to harsh and cold weather, became moderate and open for agriculture. In England, grapes were being grown in the south. In Greenland, much land land in the southern tip around the coastlines became suitable for farming and animal grazing. The weather had greatly moderated in southern Greenland to like that of today's southern Canada where it is warm enough to plant crops once a year while the winter, cold and snowy, was not Arctic freezing as before. The once stormy seas around Greenland calmed enough to make extensive fishing safer and feasible. It was a good time for the Norse settlers. As the four hundred years came to an end, the world began to experience the exact reverse, unusually cold, wet, and prolonged winters. This was a ecological disaster for Europe which led to crop failures, famines, and plagues like the Black Death. In Greenland, the land and seas over the course of just ten to fifteen years reverted to its original state. The Norse descendants could no longer farm the cold, harsh windswept land nor pasture animals. The surrounding seas once again became frigid and stormy, too unsafe for fishing or whaling. According to history, the Norse settlers began to die out from starvation, famine and malnutrition. Those who did not die eventually sailed to the Scandinavian homelands of their ancestors.
I think it was a one two punch because the Dorset also disappeared. The inuit killed them just like in canada during the crazy psycho killer inuit colonization(east asian with genetically zero altruism).
Warmer weather won't be a disaster for modern times either. Warmer weather would be a good thing. The climate is gonna change no matter what we do. It's been changing for billions of years and it's not going to suddenly become static because we eat bugs and pay carbon taxes.
I was flying once from Kopenhagen to the Us. The captain decided to go way down to show us Greenland. It was totally amazing. A big empty beautiful and snow covered space. Although we were still high up in altitude I could see to my amazement a polar bear moving in the snow. You could clearly see his shadow. I will never forget.
That's amazing! I didn't get to see Greenland, but I did fly close to it once, on a flight from the US to Frankfurt in Germany. At the time the plane was close to Greenland, it was night and the Aurora Borealis were visible in the sky for a couple of hours. It's still one of my fondest memories.
A polar bear? You saw a polar bear from an airplane? Surely, you cannot expect us to believe you. That's preposterous. You must have been several miles away.
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 There was an air plane full of people that saw it too. Ask any flight crew if that is possible. We could see the bear because it's shadow was bigger and dark and moved against the blinding snow. I'm 77 and not in the business of making up stories. My real life has been so great that I don't need to invent excitement. But hey, suit yourself.
A pretty glaring error at 07:09. The geothermal and volcanic activity of Iceland has almost ZERO effect on its climate. In fact, there are almost no places on earth where the geological activity affects the day to day climate in any meaningful way. Iceland's climate is significantly milder than Greenland's because of the Gulfstream's effects, the fact it is a much smaller island and the warm westerly Atlantic Winds which do not impact Greenland as much due to its proxmity to Canada. I'm honestly surprised that as a geography educator you could even float the idea that geothermal springs have a major effect on climate.
Iceland is NOT warmer because of volcanism, come on do your research. Icelands southeast coast is warm because of the North Atlantic Current. That current is warmed by the gulf current and also helps to make South West Greenland more habitable.
In Greenland the Southeast coast is not settled because of the massive storms that occur regularly when adiabatic winds blow down from the ice sheet. It's impossible to land ships or operate aircraft under such conditions for much of the year. The Southern most settlements on the East Coast are around Tasiilaq. From there to the Southern tip there are no settlements at all afaik, despite the vicinity of the Gulf Stream.
@@eljanrimsa5843 Youre correct, I messed up. I meant the south west is more habitable because the NA Current has less effect on the south west coast of Greenland.
Research? It’s common sense that volcanoes don’t make the climate warmer. Sure, there are hot springs and opportunities for geothermal power but why would it warm up the climate?
@@TheGrindcorps what are you on about? Did I even come close to what you are saying? No. I clearly said Iceland isn't warm because of volcanism. I even capitalized the word "NOT".
Uh, also don't forget that when the ocean's major currents shift ( See El Nino and La Nina) people starve to death. Used to be same all over the world. Which is a good form of Darwinism that improves the human race. The smart get off their butts and move away, take the land and goodies away from less smart people and then settle down there, and the cycle goes on and on.
You need to get out of the city, there is more open ground around the world than you can imagine....Some of it is so over grown and green you can't find a path through it....Due to so propaganda very few know it...
It’s my understanding that vikings were farming Greenland during the medieval warm period, but abandoned those farms due to the coming “ little ice age.”. Weather was getting colder, summers were too cold and short for crops, and by 1400’s, they had left.
Very little is "known" about the underlying minerology of Greenland, subsequently speculation is rampant. It is a potential source of angular sand, valuable for making high quality concrete, but of little economic value since it has to be shipped so far to be used. The island is actually rather concave and the miles deep ice in the center is significantly trapped and largely resistant to massive flow into the sea. The edges of Greenland that are not ice covered, are rock and unsuitable for agriculture or significant ranching. The potential to exploit hydropower along the coast and use it to produce hydrogen for export has been proposed. Greenland is a very harsh place and most of it will remain so even as global temperatures rise.
What happened to Thule Air Force Base on Greenland? Americans were deployed there! Had to be there in early to mid 2000s as knew someone based there! It’s very strategic to American safety!
I feel like the naming convention for Iceland and Greenland came about as described for Iceland but Greenland was just the name given to the green SW portion of the massive ice sheet and it stuck as the entire land mass rather than just the green region that was inhabited. The settlers disappeared so I’m sure there were stories told of the green land beyond the ice and it just became called Greenland
why? the video could be 3 minutes long if he didn't repeat himself or state false facts...the volcanic activity doesn't raise the temp...greenland does not have that much Inuit....just false fact after false fact like hes making it up using real info.
the US doesn't want it, Trump does. They want their independence from Denmark , Greenland's former prime minister, Kuupik Kleist, has repeatedly expressed the need to diversify Greenland's economy, which mainly relies on fishery, tourism and a substantial annual block grant from the Danish state. As Denmark is their country, Denmark gets the bigger cut out of Greenland. Even though without Denmark, Greenland would be royally screwed. So they would have to join another country, like Canada, USA or UK. But any other country it doesn't make sense since Greenland is Self Governing. They make their own laws but do have members in the Danish Parliment.
The medieval warm period was officially 950 to 1250 A.D.. It really started just a few years earlier. When Erik the Red settled there, the glaciers were smaller and the growing season longer than today. The local native population moved further north, helping reduce the interactions between the two group -- initially a good thing (less bloodshed) but ultimately a bad thing when the current weather -- during a massive global cooling event we've still not fully recovered from --- patterns enlarged the ice sheets and shortened the growing season. The Vikings had no idea how to change their lifestyles to adjust to the new, colder reality. Instead of doing more fishing, they kept trying to raise the same cattle and plant the same crops. At the same time Greenland was greener, Europe and American civilizations thrived. The medieval warm period that helped the majority of the world do better was slightly cooler than the warming temperatures the political leaders claim we should fear. Very interesting.
And now "smart people talk about Global warming " as an existential threat to the earth when it was much warmer 1000 years ago. Also note that in this "warmer" time that the seas werent significantly higher.
@@DT-yl6yb The sea level won't rise from a reduction in sea ice. It's when the Ice that's accumulated on land that melts you have a problem. If the Greenland Ice sheet melted sea level would rise by around 25ft.
correct Thule people were afraid of the Inuits according to Inuit folklore and they were never seen in Greenland after the Inuits arrived 7-800 years ago, dna show they were not related, Inuits in Greenland are related to Inuits in Canada and that is where they originate
@@veronicajensen7690 Funny you say that, because every genetic study shows that modern Greenlanders are the direct descendants of the Thule, and the Thule are Inuit.
Not sure if it's completely factual but what I had hear is Iceland didn't want people immigrating to it and Greenland was trying to get people to immigrate back when only stories and written maps existed.
@@JonGZBOS This is a funny story that I've heard of, Though I have never seen factual basis of it. When I was doing undergrad in Anthropology a professor said that it was actually due to the fact that the aurora borealis in Greenland makes the ice sheets reflect the green of the aurora. Whereas the name of Iceland comes from Leif Erickson passing through straits nearby during the warm months but the glaciers were mistaken for ice sheets from far away so they chose not to land there.
what country are you from? they clearly state in school in the USA multiple times....and I am talking about grade school and middle school, so no classes you had to chose? Did most people just not pay attention in school and now they are curious about the things they actually taught? like you thought school was for socializing instead of learning, I know my sister did.
I think a big part of it is that Nuuk is just not a great location for a capital. It’s right on the coast, so summers are pretty cold. Inland locations have much warmer summers. Also southern Greenland have warmer winters too. Nuuk (capital) July avg high: 52F Feb avg low: 12.4F Kangerlussuaq July avg high: 62.2F Feb avg low: -12.8F Narsarsuaq July avg high: 60.3F Feb avg low: 12.0F I think if Greenland had chosen a capital further inland it for one would have more land to develop a larger city, and secondly would have a much more attractive climate, a climate that can actually support trees!
Before planes the supply ships from Denmark could only arrive half the year. The rest of the time it was too dangerous because of the sea ice floating around and either freezing the ships or destroying them. There is no "inland" on Greenland. The choice is rocky coast or ice that moves towards the sea.
@@24jh42 Kangerlussuaq is 80 miles inland from Sisimiut, there are plans to connect the two towns by road, but as of yet I think only a gravel road exists. To put that in perspective that’s like San Francisco to Sacramento. And everything in between is relatively flat tundra and glacier free which could be developed into grazing land, and if not for sheep than definitely Reindeer. That region is roughly 13,500 sq mi, that’s about the size of the state of Maryland or Moldova. I get that back in to 1700s during the end of the little ice age things were different. But post WWII when the US built military infrastructure on the Island, Greenland could’ve focused their efforts to develop in particular this region instead of just Nuuk which just sits on a rocky peninsula with nothing but fishing industry.
@@greasher926 Take a look at the satellite image. Connecting a 200 km road between Sisimiut and Kangerlussuaq (or more considering the bridges and tunnels needed). Not even the Norwegians would attempt such a massive investment considering the 6000 people living in the area. The maintenance alone could cripple the Greenlandic economy. Far cheaper to sail up the fjord, and in the months were sailing might be hampered by ice and bad weather, I can guaranty the road would not be of any use either.
@@greasher926 What you call "nothing but fishing industry" is 90% of Greenland's export. The capital is located where it is because it's a logical place for a main port. The waterways are the roads of Greenland and the sea itself is the natural resource that makes it possible for people to make a living there.
3:00 Small correction, this is the first time the Inuit were the sole inhabitants of Greenlands, as when the Inuit first arrived in Greenland, it already had Norse settlements
@@MikiLund yes true Inuits migrated from Canada to Greenland 7-800 years ago they are not related to Thule people in fact Thule people was never seen again after the Inuits arrived, and according to their own folklore the Thule people were afraid of them, Vikings arrived in Greenland in 986 (Erik the red) there might have been Vikings up to 30 years before that in Greenland but Erik settled there
When Erik the Red landed in Greenland, the global climate had nearly reached its peak during the *_Medieval Warm Period_* (a global phenomenon). After AD 1000, global climate started to cool, and by 1350, it had become very difficult to grow crops. Today, we are not yet up to Viking standards in Greenland. Thus, it seems that the Modern Warm Period, so far, is the coldest of the Holocene's 10 major warm periods (1,000-year cycle).
Greenland was settled BECAUSE it used to have trees. Iceland similarly used to have forests but they were mostly felled for housing and ships. There is an effort to reestablish the Icelandic forests however. The Qinngua valley in Greenland has a remnant native forest.
My understanding is that both China and the United States are interested in developing commercial mineral extraction industries in Greenland. The Danes don't seem to be interested in developing this area, so it would seem some growth may be in the future.
@@MarchHare59they say outright its not for sale tho. Dont want us to have to manipulate them into selling it but we need them to reconsider letting others develop it if they dont want to and i hope it doesn’t take us having to threaten to leave NATO. Tho we were threatening to do that anyways to get better terms for us, so maybe that will provide outside pressure to encourage the sale from denmark to keep us in since we provide much of the protection in nato
@@Bizeecentral Greenland is not an official part of Denmark so it doesn't fall under the NATO umbrella but the fact that the U.S. and Denmark are NATO partners while China and Russia are not could give the U.S. a leg up in any negotiations. Denmark spends over $600 Million Dollars yearly on Greenland which might make cutting it loose from their budget an attractive option but a lot would depend on the deal offered. I guess we'll see.
@@MarchHare59 It's nothing to do with Denmark. The Greenland Parliament is in control of allocating mining rights. In 2021 they banned Uranium mining because of issues around environmental damage by the associated toxic waste.
you must be a trump supporter if you can't do any fact checking yourself and then believe something just because your logic says it makes sense....look it up, the people were Anglo Saxons, they spoke OLD ENGLISH....In Old English, "land of ice" would be translated as "Īs-land", where "īs" means "ice" and "land" refers to land itself. so you are wrong. Is-land sounds like iss land which is why it now is Ice.... but then you must realize it was a Norwegian who named it not Anglo Saxons....The name "Iceland" comes from the Norse explorer Flóki Vilgerðarson, who named the island after seeing icebergs in a bay. The Vikings were known for naming things as they saw them, so Flóki chose the name after seeing icebergs that weren't common in Iceland at the time. But the norse also called it Is-Land which means iceland again........took one minute, is that too hard for you or would you just rather believe something you made up and tell people like its the truth?
First of all, thumbs-up and I am subscribed. But, two questions: why is population of people what determines whether or not a place is "empty"; and, why would Greenland's long history be considered "surprising"?
It hardly makes any sense that a tiny island in a vast sea would be responsible for raising the earth’s sea level by a whopping 25 feet if the ice on that tiny island melts. doubt it!
You think Greenland is 'tiny'? It's approaching a million square miles if I recall correctly, well over 800,000. Further. pulling out another vague memory, I think the icecap is a couple of miles thick. The climate has, for a very long time made Greenland its dumping ground for snow. So do the math before you "doubt it."
The powers don't show correctly here (x106 is x10^6) but: Volume of Ice (only 80% of Greenland is covered by ice): Surface area of Greenland covered by ice: 0.80×2.16×106 km2=1.728×106 km20.80×2.16×106km2=1.728×106km2. Volume of ice = Surface area ×× Average thickness of the ice: Volume of Ice=1.728×106 km2×2.135 km=3.692×106 km3 Volume of Ice=1.728×106km2×2.135km=3.692×106km3 Convert the volume to cubic meters (since 1 km³ = 109109 m³): Volume of Ice in cubic meters=3.692×106×109=3.692×1015 m3 Volume of Ice in cubic meters=3.692×106×109=3.692×1015m3 Determine the rise in sea level: Surface area of the Earth's oceans is 3.61×1014 m23.61×1014m2. Sea level rise: Sea level rise=Volume of IceSurface area of Oceans=3.692×1015 m33.61×1014 m2 Sea level rise=Surface area of OceansVolume of Ice=3.61×1014m23.692×1015m3 Sea level rise≈10.2 meters
@@scholaroftheworldalternatehist Arable land usually refers to land that you can plough. If there is no rain, nothing grows. The present Australian politicians are taking irrigation water away from irrigation farms to tip the fresh water out into the ocean.
well they both are deserts....Antarctica is a desert. A desert doesn't mean it has sand it just means it has very very little precipitation. And even though Greenland and Antarctica are covered in frozen water, they are deserts from the lack of rain they get. Just like the Outback in Australia But blimey, I would rather get stuck in Greenland than the outback. At least in Greenland you can melt snow, down under....you best be ready to get dehydrated and maybe box a kangaroo, maybe real or just a Mirage.
WIthout the glaciers, Greenland might be an archipelago like northern Canada. I wonder if the open sea between Canada's big open islands were once solid glacier and been mistaken for a continuous island.
It’s the polar days and nights, most of the country sits inside the arctic circle so they’re very long with only shorts periods of regular days. People that live on the danish mainland would rather live there than go to Greenland and have the sun in the sky or absent for months. There’s no draw.
I spent a year stationed at a Air Force radar base high atop Pingarsuit Mt. near Thule, Greenland. When I arrived, there was a note on my mirror. It said, "If you can sleep 12 hours a day, you'll only be here in this godforsaken place for 6 months" I was glad I slept.
Nice video. I will say you repeat information you already said a few times. Hopefully your future vids that have come after this one have less repeated info. Still, Im going to subscribe bc I found this fascinating.
G'day, mate! Love your channel and all the great information. Just one small request. If you could do us a favour outside the USA and add metric units, that would be totally awesome. Cheers! 😊
@etrestre9403 Greenland is not a continent because it sits on the North American plate: geologically, it's an annexe of North America :) Antarctica has its own continental plate.
I just found your channel and find it very interesting, thank you! I'm in USA and would love to hear your take on the effect of immigration (thinking specifically of Mexico and parts south) on the various states and regions you discuss.
Interesting/informative/entertaining 😉. Excellent still-motion photography pictures 📷/geographical drawings& maps. Enabling viewers 👀 to better understand what the orator is describing. Make for a short vacation in the summer months 😎. Reminds me of Australia. People reside 100-miles or 160 kilometers from the ocean.
Hi from Montreal! I love winter, many perks including "Quiet!", I majored in Sylviculture and re-wild the place but left my trade cuz they refuse to listen! Happy New Year!
The Inuits are not descendants from Dorset culture but from the Thule people which emerges near Bering strait. Inuits ancestors arrived from the north-west roughly 1000 years ago, at the same time or slightly before the Vikings. Plaeo-Eskimo have almost no living descendants today.
the Inuits are not decendants from Thule people in Greenland either , they are not related, Inuits came from Canada to Greenland 7-800 years ago and Thule people was never seen again after they arrived so Inuits arrived 2-300 years after the Vikings, the Vikings did interact with Thule people amd later Inuits, according to Inuit folklore Thule people were afraid of them, so either they killed them or scared them off
Geoff, love your perspective and knowledge. Why don’t you image the maps of large areas by their projections on the globe instead of flattened perspective?
if it didn't work in the USA where people are dying to watch videos, it won't work anywhere else...thats why streaming has gone international. but if you want to be like the one blockbuster in Bend Oregon....you do know they are always on the verge of bankruptcy right? Their main income is merchandise and not renting videos...
What about Svalbard (Spitsbergen Island)? It has a population of 2,530 and a highway tunnel system you won't believe. It's far, far North of Iceland and Norway at the southern edge of the Arctic Ocean.
I’ve heard that when Eric and the new settlers were there it was warmer than it later became and the settlements dwindled. So when it was named Greenland it was more green and fit it’s name better, but even then it was still mostly ice.
You couldn’t pay me to live in this hellhole. Bad weather year round, nothing to do, nothing to see. I understand why it has such high depression rates.
@@Nukannguaq. Sorry man I just really hate the cold and I’m easily claustrophobic so I would just feel trapped living there. I respect the people who have called it home for such a long time, I don’t have the stones for it tho.
The southernmost tip of Finland (North of the Gulf of Finland with Estonia on its southern side) also appears to lie on the 60N latitude line, which passes north of Stockholm, Sweden, and straight through Oslo, Norway as it heads west to the southern tip of Greenland and then on to Canada. Note, 60N may also go through Sankt Petersburg, Russia, which is placed at the end of the Gulf of Finland
Those who live there (the native Inuit) do not want anyone else to come live there. They have had to accept the Belgian’s but don’t want anymore to come with their modern ideas or disturbing the ecology. Keep to your Inuit ideals. Protect your fishing and hunting areas.
Most people in Alaska and Canda also populate closer to milder climates of the Southern portions.. Like he says the Gulf stream is the reason Greenland is an ice bucket.
As an inhabitant of Iceland find it rather amusing that a channel purporting to be run by geography enthusiasts, if not experts, seriously makes the boneheaded claim that Iceland has a warmer climate due to volcanic and geothermal activity. Guys, did you do even a tiny amount of research into this? You apparently didn't even research the effects of the Gulf stream either, a significant branch of which flows to the west and north of Iceland. This takes two seconds of googling to find out. Embarrassing.
A family from greenland moved to my apartments in the 90's in Texas was friends with the son spent the night and had rolled up pancakes with icing or syrup thought it was the best dinner ever
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
As a Canadian, I've been obsessed with Greenland for a long time. It's so close to us, almost as close as the USA yet to get there you currently have to fly to Copenhagen or Reykjavik then backtrack to Kangerlussuaq or Narsarsuaq (both International airports were former US Air Force bases from WWII) before continuing onto Nuuk since its runway is still too short for anything but DeHavilland Dash 8-Q400 flights (ironically a Canadian made aircraft) but the runway expansion/new international terminal project is finally underway so that will change in the coming decades making it much easier to visit from North America... There have been some Iqaluit-Nuuk flights in the past they've never been commercially successful enough to be sustainable... Probably because of the lack of cargo capacity to bring in cheaper goods from Canada to supplement European imports...
Why not take the Amtrak to Greenland
What I don’t get is why we(us Americans and you Canadians) have allowed Denmark to continue its claim to Greenland. It’s more on our side of the Atlantic than their side. We should just like, ya know, take that shit lol. It should honestly just be part of Canada, we just want a little oil for our troubles in procuring it from the European colonials :-)
You can buy a sailboat and sail there
@@charlesbrown4483 Right after you give back the American colonies you stole.
@@KaiHenningsen Whose gonna make us?
One of my favorite fun facts about Greenland is that the island has one single forest! It’s located entirely within one single canyon, which has to be one of if not the loneliest forest on Earth
There are some lonely "forests" in Australia too but not as lonely as that. The desert in our northwest has dry riverbeds that are filled briefly only by the occasional tropical cyclone. Within a few days they are mostly empty again. But in the deep sand along the bottom of the riverbed there's still a lot of water. And along those riverbeds you can see the trees that used to cover the entire landscape. That lonely forest in Greenland reminds me of those.
Got threes in Nanortalik, in southern greenland.
It’s a valley not a canyon
After watching this vid, there needs to be a petition to the UN to have Greenland and Iceland swap names
@@TheSulross Not really. It makes sense, there's far more green on Greenland than Iceland in terms of square mileage, not to mention temperatures were warmer back then. I like to imagine that when the Norse arrived for the first time at the southern coast and worked their way northwest, they saw nothing but green grass-covered rocks stretching out as far as the eye could see in every direction. A Greenland, indeed.
2/3 of the landmass is above the Arctic Circle, and the southernmost tip is on roughly the same latitude line as Anchorage Alaska. Yikes!
Most people neither understand the issues with life at high lattitudes having very extreme sunlight cycles of near total light a few months a year and total darkness a few months a year making agriculture near impossible. Nor the drastic effects of climate change as they get more extreme as the lattitudes higher. Even when it's a desert wasteland in the tropics and subtopics little plant life will exist up in the high lattitudes so it will not really be a refuge for humanity when the heat gets here to remove us from existence
😂@@norml.hugh-mann
@@norml.hugh-mann that's is why we got Elon Musk!!!! Why you think he wants to populate Mars??. My theory is maybe humans already lived on Mars we destroyed it and left it a desolate waste land after several nuclear bombs while only a few escaped landing on Earth or it could of been gradually done. Crazy theory but if we move from planet to planet terriform it our needs use it destroy it and move on sounds way too much like human history already we use it & destroy it.
@@norml.hugh-mann "global warming" is not real.
@@norml.hugh-mann As you say, most of the warming affects the polar regions and *_not_* the tropics. In fact, millions of years ago, when Earth was not in an Ice Age, the tropics were close to the same as they are today. It is a proven *_fallacy_* that our tiny amount of slow warming will "remove us from existence." We are still very close to the BOTTOM of the livable temperature range on Earth. Scientists, today, look with envy toward planets which might be "super Earths" by virtue of being far warmer than our Ice Age world.
I've flown over it on the way to Europe and the ice goes on forever, beautiful in its grandeur. Like you, I figured "Greenland" was the name applied by Norse real estate agents to get people over there, thinking they'd be hoeing verdant gardens instead of hunting seals on ice floes. Real estate agents have a euphemism for every sort of dilapidated property they're peddling.
Have you ever wondier if there is afordable green home with neverending backyard? There is. Nuuk Real/Max offers the best value for suprisingly low amount of money. In the heart of nature, connected with the spirit of the past and without disturbing neighbours. Last 10 000 km2 for sale. :-)
@@akagi007 That's funny, and true, too. Real estate agents have a happy story about everything. One time I was looking for riverfront property in Florida, after a heavy rainstorm. The real estate lady said, "Do you like to fish?" I said I did. She said, "Then you'll love this property. You can fish from your living room." Turned out it was under four feet of water.
@@alansewell7810 Did they sell it to Aquaman?
@@KaiHenningsen All's I know is that I didn't buy it. I bought a house on a hill, thereby staying above the flood plain. Another good one is when people buy a lake or river property, they typically ask, "Are there any alligators around?" The Realtor typically says, "Alligators? Perish the thought! There hasn't been a gator spotted in these parts in at least 50 years." Then you go out on the deck and stomp on it and 20 alligators come swimming out from under it.
Actually around a thousand years ago when Norse called it Greenland, it was! It was covered with forests and grasslands. Ideal for Norse lifestyle.
… then the Little Ice Age started, things got MUCH colder and snowier …. And the Vikings died.
FYI
Yes, about half the population would like secession from Denmark, but the Greenland homerule acknowledges dependency of 500 million $ annual subsidies ~ 10k per capita from Denmark so it's not immediately on the table.
Around 1 in 4 have mixed Inuit/European ancestry - It's not 100% native Inuit as you made it sound. Equally around 1 in 4 currently lives in Denmark.
Canada and Greenland actually have a common land border splitting the tiny uninhabited Hans Island in two. Interesting story behind worth checking out.
Greenlanders DNA are 25% European (predominantly Danish) on awerage. This means that more than 1/4 must have mixed ancestry.
(Current Biology, 24 May 2021)
If America wants Greenland, doubling or tripling the amounts they get now would not be difficult. Trump wants something. Maybe it's Greenland, maybe that's a tactic for something else.
You can't be and are not independent if you rely on subsidies from others.
If President Trump managed to obtain Greenland, the deal would make native Greenlanders--can I use that? 'Greenlanders?'-very, very wealthy. They could demand a treaty like the rich Cherokee Indians have...; not like the poor Cherokee!
@@chrisfarrell9894 how can 56,000 people demand anything when you can flood them with a million rural American types that have little that they want here.
My grandchildren learn more on this channel than they do on any other channels
The internet gives you a university at your fingertips. It really is astounding if you use it in the right way.
I'm with you , I love this channel lots of facts you didn't realize well done
I'm from Greenland brother, very lucky my parents met at thule so I'm the only greenlandic american on earth. Best video about greenland👍
glad to see another greenlander !
Do they have many women there? Seems like it would be another Anchorage where the men outnumber something like 12 to 1.
Du er ikke den eneste :)
@@malikjones7320 For sure, you are not the only American with a Inuit mother. And for sure your ignorance is very American.
I think you mean "American" as in a US citizen. Being from there you probably know that the island is considered part of the North American continent, thus technically speaking everybody born there is American.
Erik the Red was a Norwegian explorer Who moved to Iceland. (He had a son there, known as Leiv Eriksson). Erik the red disponeres Hreenland and sounded the first European settlement there. Greenland and Iceland was a part of Norway when Denmark and Norway went into a union in the middle ages. When this union ended in 1814, Denmark kept the Norwegian colonies Greenland and Iceland.
yep, stolen from Norway....
Trump wants it i wonder how much oil has been discovered!
@@liquid7105 like USA did to Mexico
@@chitosanchez2386 like Europe did to America...
The period of time when the Vikings and Erik were exploring the north Atlantic from around 700 to 1100CE was the Medieval Warm Period. Ice retreated and cropping and agriculture was extended over high latitude areas. Greenland was very green with large expanses of arable land. But as we all know The Little Ice Age AKA the Dark Ages followed for 500 years until the mid 19th century and it has been warming ever since in a natural cycle. Mostly caused by volcanic eruptions and associated ash and aerosol sulphite. Crop failures for decades, the plague, the French Revolution, the Polynesian diaspora. All caused by changes in the climate due to nature taking its course over Millennia. The only constant is change!
YO MAMA CHICKENTULA??
The Dark Age was pretty much over by 800 A.D.
And everyone wonders why the viks went rampaging during that time. Anyone figure out why? I'm curious to see how 'your' minds work.
@@David-rc6ne you are the only person I have heard refer to the medieval warming period and large expanses of land with no ice...thank you
Exactly. And the Earth is still cooler than it’s average. And Earth has had no ice at the North and South Poles for millions more years than it has had ice.
20 percent is an area the size of California give or take, of course much of that is rugged rocky land with no chance for agriculture. Also, when Eric the Red discovered Greenland it was during the medieval warm period. When the climate became too harsh for their way of life with sheep farming, they bailed.
I think the context note is for you: There is no climate change prior to the industrial revolution. Ignore the expected bounce back effect after the little ice age. There was no little ice age. There was no medieval warm period. There are 5 lights.
Uh, it was always too harsh. They came during the summer and the dummies figured it was that way all the time. The lack of trees should have told them. When they first came to Iceland, it was forested. They chopped all the trees down, then Erik decided to move on ( he was made to, he was a very nasty man). By the time other ships came to Greenland they'd almost all starved to death in Greenland.
@@Steve-318 they didn’t bail, they died
Yeah, they all perished - very likely through unpleasant starvation
And the entire population of 56,000 can fit into one stadium.
As a geography FAN. I LOVE Geography By Geoff. Best geography channel. Always answering interesting questions
fr
Geoff is MUCH better than Kyle, the other geography guy. He drives me crazy! You know who I’m talking about… with those stupid shirts that always remind me of what Tony Soprano would have worn back in the 70’s and his liberal slant on what should just be about the facts of geography.
If you examine Canadian geography you'll find nearly everyone lives in the very south. Anyplace that is uninhabited is so for very good reasons...not because of lack of will or some real-estate marketing failures.
It's a Maslow's hierarchy of living spaces needs. The dumbest and slowest people live in the worst places or none at all, and the smartest going up the scale live in better and better places. It's nature. Can't be politically correct about nature. Here in the USA the people who live on Malibu beach and penthouses in S.Francisco have the most money and smarts.
@@mutteringmale San Francisco is not even the best place in the SF Bay Area to live. You certainly don't see any of the tech billionaires living in SF penthouses.
Yep, 80% of Canadians live within 100 mile of the USA. Lots of good fishing and hunting, but very few live in the wilderness.
There are basically two parts of Canada: the part where all the cities and almost all the people are, along the Canadian/US border and the "Siberia of the Western Hemisphere"...
Interesting 😊
Next you can do Baffin Island, Elsesmere Island, northeastern Siberia, then the Moon and Mars.
I would've thought you'd want do a talk about Devon Island before moving onto a talk about Mars.
Baffin Island is pretty cool--it's kinda like a mini Greenland with its own ice sheets, fjords and a small capital, Iqaluit that's quite similar to Greenland's capital.
Moreover, (and according to a little bird from the future) these two unique islands will experience massive population growth in coming centuries due to climate change. Coming up: Stanley Cup 2125: Iqaluit vs Nuuk. Won't spoil the result here--you'll just have to wait and find out. (Hint: it will be Canada's first Stanley Cup since 1993--you read it here first!)
Ironically people are talking about settling Mars when Greenland, Nunavut and even Antarctica are much more benign and habitable than the best possible location on Mars. They're a bit closer too.
chukotka is a fascinating place
I wished the planet earth had over 100 Continents instead of just 7 and 8 Continents. I wished that Greenland was a Continent That was Larger than Africa and South America.
Who’s here after hearing Trump wants to buy it?
Me : D we are gonna need to learn more about it after all for the future
Just wish that does not happen
@@minnesotajack1 lol
If President Trump and the US take it - in 50 years - the loony left will write in their fake HEB-written history books that we "STOLE" from the so-called "native Americans".
He was looking at buying it on his last term this is nothing new. However it would be a great strategic move on are part I hope it happens.
Great video. Thanks always been fascinated with this place. Thanks for all the great info
Thanks!
Around 800 A.D. there began a four-century period of high global temperatures, known as, The Climatic Optimum. It was not a global disaster back then as today. Many parts of the world previously uninhabitable due to harsh and cold weather, became moderate and open for agriculture. In England, grapes were being grown in the south.
In Greenland, much land land in the southern tip around the coastlines became suitable for farming and animal grazing. The weather had greatly moderated in southern Greenland to like that of today's southern Canada where it is warm enough to plant crops once a year while the winter, cold and snowy, was not Arctic freezing as before. The once stormy seas around Greenland calmed enough to make extensive fishing safer and feasible. It was a good time for the Norse settlers.
As the four hundred years came to an end, the world began to experience the exact reverse, unusually cold, wet, and prolonged winters. This was a ecological disaster for Europe which led to crop failures, famines, and plagues like the Black Death.
In Greenland, the land and seas over the course of just ten to fifteen years reverted to its original state. The Norse descendants could no longer farm the cold, harsh windswept land nor pasture animals. The surrounding seas once again became frigid and stormy, too unsafe for fishing or whaling. According to history, the Norse settlers began to die out from starvation, famine and malnutrition. Those who did not die eventually sailed to the Scandinavian homelands of their ancestors.
this was an interesting read. Can you please droop the source?
Wikipedia @@umerghaffar4686
I think it was a one two punch because the Dorset also disappeared. The inuit killed them just like in canada during the crazy psycho killer inuit colonization(east asian with genetically zero altruism).
Warmer weather won't be a disaster for modern times either. Warmer weather would be a good thing. The climate is gonna change no matter what we do. It's been changing for billions of years and it's not going to suddenly become static because we eat bugs and pay carbon taxes.
Why did the video seem like it repeated itself?
I was flying once from Kopenhagen to the Us.
The captain decided to go way down to show us Greenland.
It was totally amazing. A big empty beautiful and snow covered space. Although we were still high up in altitude I could see to my amazement a polar bear moving in the snow. You could clearly see his shadow.
I will never forget.
I heard a lot of polar bear would show up at the base and they’d have to go into lockdown as those bears are vicious!
That's amazing! I didn't get to see Greenland, but I did fly close to it once, on a flight from the US to Frankfurt in Germany. At the time the plane was close to Greenland, it was night and the Aurora Borealis were visible in the sky for a couple of hours. It's still one of my fondest memories.
@@liesascott5414 so beautiful and so empty that trump will build the biggest golf course in history in greenland
A polar bear? You saw a polar bear from an airplane? Surely, you cannot expect us to believe you. That's preposterous. You must have been several miles away.
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 There was an air plane full of people that saw it too.
Ask any flight crew if that is possible.
We could see the bear because it's shadow was bigger and dark and moved against the blinding snow.
I'm 77 and not in the business of making up stories.
My real life has been so great that I don't need to invent excitement.
But hey, suit yourself.
A pretty glaring error at 07:09. The geothermal and volcanic activity of Iceland has almost ZERO effect on its climate. In fact, there are almost no places on earth where the geological activity affects the day to day climate in any meaningful way. Iceland's climate is significantly milder than Greenland's because of the Gulfstream's effects, the fact it is a much smaller island and the warm westerly Atlantic Winds which do not impact Greenland as much due to its proxmity to Canada. I'm honestly surprised that as a geography educator you could even float the idea that geothermal springs have a major effect on climate.
Amoc
Yah, I kind of lost interest and moved away when I heard that, and a couple of other woke comments.
Iceland is NOT warmer because of volcanism, come on do your research. Icelands southeast coast is warm because of the North Atlantic Current. That current is warmed by the gulf current and also helps to make South West Greenland more habitable.
In Greenland the Southeast coast is not settled because of the massive storms that occur regularly when adiabatic winds blow down from the ice sheet. It's impossible to land ships or operate aircraft under such conditions for much of the year. The Southern most settlements on the East Coast are around Tasiilaq. From there to the Southern tip there are no settlements at all afaik, despite the vicinity of the Gulf Stream.
@@eljanrimsa5843 Youre correct, I messed up. I meant the south west is more habitable because the NA Current has less effect on the south west coast of Greenland.
Research? It’s common sense that volcanoes don’t make the climate warmer. Sure, there are hot springs and opportunities for geothermal power but why would it warm up the climate?
@@TheGrindcorps what are you on about? Did I even come close to what you are saying? No. I clearly said Iceland isn't warm because of volcanism. I even capitalized the word "NOT".
Uh, also don't forget that when the ocean's major currents shift ( See El Nino and La Nina) people starve to death. Used to be same all over the world. Which is a good form of Darwinism that improves the human race. The smart get off their butts and move away, take the land and goodies away from less smart people and then settle down there, and the cycle goes on and on.
Glad there are still some places left on the planet not packed full of people.
Why are go going there soon? Sooner than later, I hope. "Make America Clean Again" - leave it. ha, ha
You need to get out of the city, there is more open ground around the world than you can imagine....Some of it is so over grown and green you can't find a path through it....Due to so propaganda very few know it...
Me too.
It’s my understanding that vikings were farming Greenland during the medieval warm period, but abandoned those farms due to the coming “ little ice age.”. Weather was getting colder, summers were too cold and short for crops, and by 1400’s, they had left.
Very little is "known" about the underlying minerology of Greenland, subsequently speculation is rampant. It is a potential source of angular sand, valuable for making high quality concrete, but of little economic value since it has to be shipped so far to be used. The island is actually rather concave and the miles deep ice in the center is significantly trapped and largely resistant to massive flow into the sea. The edges of Greenland that are not ice covered, are rock and unsuitable for agriculture or significant ranching. The potential to exploit hydropower along the coast and use it to produce hydrogen for export has been proposed. Greenland is a very harsh place and most of it will remain so even as global temperatures rise.
Happy Holidays Geoff. I really enjoyed ur geography videos 😃 Thanks 👍 😃 🧡
What happened to Thule Air Force Base on Greenland? Americans were deployed there! Had to be there in early to mid 2000s as knew someone based there! It’s very strategic to American safety!
Thule its renamed now, but still there. About 800 troops stationed there, it is up north.
I saw -75 degrees farenheit on my computer in Greenland...
🥶😱🥶
Outside or inside?
explains why nobody lives there
No thanks!!!
that must have been in Eismitte in the interior. there is a research station there
I feel like the naming convention for Iceland and Greenland came about as described for Iceland but Greenland was just the name given to the green SW portion of the massive ice sheet and it stuck as the entire land mass rather than just the green region that was inhabited. The settlers disappeared so I’m sure there were stories told of the green land beyond the ice and it just became called Greenland
No mention at all of the mercator projection. the map that makes so many people think Greenland is larger than it actually is?
You’ve convinced me, I’ll take it.
Merry Christmas. Love this channel
why? the video could be 3 minutes long if he didn't repeat himself or state false facts...the volcanic activity doesn't raise the temp...greenland does not have that much Inuit....just false fact after false fact like hes making it up using real info.
You didn’t answer why the us was interested in purchasing it, and you also didn’t talk about they were trying to get their independence from Denmark.
the US doesn't want it, Trump does. They want their independence from Denmark , Greenland's former prime minister, Kuupik Kleist, has repeatedly expressed the need to diversify Greenland's economy, which mainly relies on fishery, tourism and a substantial annual block grant from the Danish state.
As Denmark is their country, Denmark gets the bigger cut out of Greenland. Even though without Denmark, Greenland would be royally screwed. So they would have to join another country, like Canada, USA or UK. But any other country it doesn't make sense
since Greenland is Self Governing. They make their own laws but do have members in the Danish Parliment.
exactamundo
@@tsukasamike1234 I wouldn’t have expected to see either of those topics, given the title of the video.
Good quality, interesting videos, youve earned a new sub
The medieval warm period was officially 950 to 1250 A.D.. It really started just a few years earlier. When Erik the Red settled there, the glaciers were smaller and the growing season longer than today. The local native population moved further north, helping reduce the interactions between the two group -- initially a good thing (less bloodshed) but ultimately a bad thing when the current weather -- during a massive global cooling event we've still not fully recovered from --- patterns enlarged the ice sheets and shortened the growing season. The Vikings had no idea how to change their lifestyles to adjust to the new, colder reality. Instead of doing more fishing, they kept trying to raise the same cattle and plant the same crops.
At the same time Greenland was greener, Europe and American civilizations thrived. The medieval warm period that helped the majority of the world do better was slightly cooler than the warming temperatures the political leaders claim we should fear. Very interesting.
And now "smart people talk about Global warming " as an existential threat to the earth when it was much warmer 1000 years ago. Also note that in this "warmer" time that the seas werent significantly higher.
@@DT-yl6yb The sea level won't rise from a reduction in sea ice. It's when the Ice that's accumulated on land that melts you have a problem. If the Greenland Ice sheet melted sea level would rise by around 25ft.
The Thule, Dorset and Inuit people were not thought to have intermixed significantly, from what I understand.
correct Thule people were afraid of the Inuits according to Inuit folklore and they were never seen in Greenland after the Inuits arrived 7-800 years ago, dna show they were not related, Inuits in Greenland are related to Inuits in Canada and that is where they originate
@@veronicajensen7690 Funny you say that, because every genetic study shows that modern Greenlanders are the direct descendants of the Thule, and the Thule are Inuit.
There was a Viking settlement there before the Little Ice Age
There is on close to Qaqortoq ( Julianehåb) in south greenland. Cruise Ships goes there.
Temperature winter/summer variation of Nuuk would have been handy.
Good show.
Great video. I've wondered why the two islands were called "Iceland" and "Greenland" when they seemed to be the opposite.
Not sure if it's completely factual but what I had hear is Iceland didn't want people immigrating to it and Greenland was trying to get people to immigrate back when only stories and written maps existed.
@@JonGZBOS This is a funny story that I've heard of, Though I have never seen factual basis of it. When I was doing undergrad in Anthropology a professor said that it was actually due to the fact that the aurora borealis in Greenland makes the ice sheets reflect the green of the aurora. Whereas the name of Iceland comes from Leif Erickson passing through straits nearby during the warm months but the glaciers were mistaken for ice sheets from far away so they chose not to land there.
Viking "humour"?
Exactly, when vikings ( Leif Eriksson ) reached north america ( new foundland) it was named vinland (wine land, land of the wild grapes)
what country are you from? they clearly state in school in the USA multiple times....and I am talking about grade school and middle school, so no classes you had to chose? Did most people just not pay attention in school and now they are curious about the things they actually taught? like you thought school was for socializing instead of learning, I know my sister did.
I think a big part of it is that Nuuk is just not a great location for a capital. It’s right on the coast, so summers are pretty cold. Inland locations have much warmer summers. Also southern Greenland have warmer winters too.
Nuuk (capital)
July avg high: 52F
Feb avg low: 12.4F
Kangerlussuaq
July avg high: 62.2F
Feb avg low: -12.8F
Narsarsuaq
July avg high: 60.3F
Feb avg low: 12.0F
I think if Greenland had chosen a capital further inland it for one would have more land to develop a larger city, and secondly would have a much more attractive climate, a climate that can actually support trees!
Before planes the supply ships from Denmark could only arrive half the year. The rest of the time it was too dangerous because of the sea ice floating around and either freezing the ships or destroying them. There is no "inland" on Greenland. The choice is rocky coast or ice that moves towards the sea.
@@24jh42 Kangerlussuaq is 80 miles inland from Sisimiut, there are plans to connect the two towns by road, but as of yet I think only a gravel road exists. To put that in perspective that’s like San Francisco to Sacramento. And everything in between is relatively flat tundra and glacier free which could be developed into grazing land, and if not for sheep than definitely Reindeer. That region is roughly 13,500 sq mi, that’s about the size of the state of Maryland or Moldova.
I get that back in to 1700s during the end of the little ice age things were different. But post WWII when the US built military infrastructure on the Island, Greenland could’ve focused their efforts to develop in particular this region instead of just Nuuk which just sits on a rocky peninsula with nothing but fishing industry.
@@greasher926 Take a look at the satellite image. Connecting a 200 km road between Sisimiut and Kangerlussuaq (or more considering the bridges and tunnels needed). Not even the Norwegians would attempt such a massive investment considering the 6000 people living in the area. The maintenance alone could cripple the Greenlandic economy. Far cheaper to sail up the fjord, and in the months were sailing might be hampered by ice and bad weather, I can guaranty the road would not be of any use either.
@@greasher926 What you call "nothing but fishing industry" is 90% of Greenland's export. The capital is located where it is because it's a logical place for a main port. The waterways are the roads of Greenland and the sea itself is the natural resource that makes it possible for people to make a living there.
3:00 Small correction, this is the first time the Inuit were the sole inhabitants of Greenlands, as when the Inuit first arrived in Greenland, it already had Norse settlements
not true !!
@@MikiLund The Norse settlers arrived in Greenland in the 10th century, the Inuit in the the 13th to 15th centuries.
@@MikiLund yes true Inuits migrated from Canada to Greenland 7-800 years ago they are not related to Thule people in fact Thule people was never seen again after the Inuits arrived, and according to their own folklore the Thule people were afraid of them, Vikings arrived in Greenland in 986 (Erik the red) there might have been Vikings up to 30 years before that in Greenland but Erik settled there
@@veronicajensen7690 you got it all mixed up !!
he seems wrong on almost everything he said...
My father went to Thule regularly for work in the 70s and 80s, Greenland was a major topic in my childhood.
they sell car roof carriers there?
@@tinhinnh not many borther!
That's nice :)
When Erik the Red landed in Greenland, the global climate had nearly reached its peak during the *_Medieval Warm Period_* (a global phenomenon). After AD 1000, global climate started to cool, and by 1350, it had become very difficult to grow crops. Today, we are not yet up to Viking standards in Greenland. Thus, it seems that the Modern Warm Period, so far, is the coldest of the Holocene's 10 major warm periods (1,000-year cycle).
This was great - Thank you.
Elsewhere I have read of important mineral deposits. Shame that was not covered.
Nice video info and Al but it would have been nice if you showed more video of towns , flora /funa of Greenland rather than cartoon maps.
Good job in your summary and background production re Greenland.
Missed opportunity to have this video just be 5 minutes of silence then you saying "cold" followed by 5 more minutes of silence
Thank you, Geoff!! I enjoyed your lecture, and I subscribed to your channel.
It should be noted that trees grow in Iceland but not in Greenland.
There is a small “forest” in southern Greenland
@@hawthornedan Yes there is, introduced and planted by scientists and not native. Iceland can claim a few native species of tree.
Greenland was settled BECAUSE it used to have trees.
Iceland similarly used to have forests but they were mostly felled for housing and ships. There is an effort to reestablish the Icelandic forests however.
The Qinngua valley in Greenland has a remnant native forest.
Do they have birds there since they have no trees
@@johnpaki1534 Ground nesting bird are a “thing”.
Erik the Red: Marketing is my passion 😂
It's location is very strategic to the US and control of the Arctic.
Indeed
Thanks. Very informative.
My understanding is that both China and the United States are interested in developing commercial mineral extraction industries in Greenland. The Danes don't seem to be interested in developing this area, so it would seem some growth may be in the future.
Denmark lacks the money to do anything with Greenland so they might be interested in selling to the highest bidder.
@@MarchHare59they say outright its not for sale tho. Dont want us to have to manipulate them into selling it but we need them to reconsider letting others develop it if they dont want to and i hope it doesn’t take us having to threaten to leave NATO. Tho we were threatening to do that anyways to get better terms for us, so maybe that will provide outside pressure to encourage the sale from denmark to keep us in since we provide much of the protection in nato
@@Bizeecentral Greenland is not an official part of Denmark so it doesn't fall under the NATO umbrella but the fact that the U.S. and Denmark are NATO partners while China and Russia are not could give the U.S. a leg up in any negotiations. Denmark spends over $600 Million Dollars yearly on Greenland which might make cutting it loose from their budget an attractive option but a lot would depend on the deal offered. I guess we'll see.
@@MarchHare59 Actually it is an official part of the Kingdom of Denmark
@@MarchHare59 It's nothing to do with Denmark. The Greenland Parliament is in control of allocating mining rights. In 2021 they banned Uranium mining because of issues around environmental damage by the associated toxic waste.
Love this timing for some reason
i've heard that 'Iceland' is an anglicization of the Icelandic word for 'island'; and given that Iceland is an island, i'm tempted to believe that
Iceland is the english translation of the icelandic name Ísland, literally meaning ice land. The word for island in icelandic is eyju.
you must be a trump supporter if you can't do any fact checking yourself and then believe something just because your logic says it makes sense....look it up, the people were Anglo Saxons, they spoke OLD ENGLISH....In Old English, "land of ice" would be translated as "Īs-land", where "īs" means "ice" and "land" refers to land itself. so you are wrong. Is-land sounds like iss land which is why it now is Ice....
but then you must realize it was a Norwegian who named it not Anglo Saxons....The name "Iceland" comes from the Norse explorer Flóki Vilgerðarson, who named the island after seeing icebergs in a bay. The Vikings were known for naming things as they saw them, so Flóki chose the name after seeing icebergs that weren't common in Iceland at the time.
But the norse also called it Is-Land which means iceland again........took one minute, is that too hard for you or would you just rather believe something you made up and tell people like its the truth?
First of all, thumbs-up and I am subscribed.
But, two questions: why is population of people what determines whether or not a place is "empty"; and, why would Greenland's long history be considered "surprising"?
It hardly makes any sense that a tiny island in a vast sea would be responsible for raising the earth’s sea level by a whopping
25 feet if the ice on that tiny island melts. doubt it!
Its not tiny. Its huge
@@llschnitz I found it interesting comparing the ice sheet melt would raise sea levels by 25 feet, almost as much as Antarctica if it lost it's ice.
You think Greenland is 'tiny'? It's approaching a million square miles if I recall correctly, well over 800,000. Further. pulling out another vague memory, I think the icecap is a couple of miles thick. The climate has, for a very long time made Greenland its dumping ground for snow. So do the math before you "doubt it."
@@llschnitz, it seems someone already forgot that that they were told it's the largest island on the planet. It's nearly 1/3 the size of Australia.
The powers don't show correctly here (x106 is x10^6) but:
Volume of Ice (only 80% of Greenland is covered by ice):
Surface area of Greenland covered by ice: 0.80×2.16×106 km2=1.728×106 km20.80×2.16×106km2=1.728×106km2.
Volume of ice = Surface area ×× Average thickness of the ice:
Volume of Ice=1.728×106 km2×2.135 km=3.692×106 km3
Volume of Ice=1.728×106km2×2.135km=3.692×106km3
Convert the volume to cubic meters (since 1 km³ = 109109 m³):
Volume of Ice in cubic meters=3.692×106×109=3.692×1015 m3
Volume of Ice in cubic meters=3.692×106×109=3.692×1015m3
Determine the rise in sea level:
Surface area of the Earth's oceans is 3.61×1014 m23.61×1014m2.
Sea level rise:
Sea level rise=Volume of IceSurface area of Oceans=3.692×1015 m33.61×1014 m2
Sea level rise=Surface area of OceansVolume of Ice=3.61×1014m23.692×1015m3
Sea level rise≈10.2 meters
Those high rises on stilts are pretty wild. The permafrost makes digging a foundation impossible.
I think it's more about preventing the ground the building is standing on from melting.
An island that makes Hudson Bay look small. Amazing.
It’s actually about the same size as Argentina. It looks huge on a flat map because of “Mercator Projection.”
Indeed
Thanks so much. Very educational.
It's the same with Australia. But they have desert instead of ice.
and politicians.
sigh.
I'm pretty sure Australia still has a lot of undeveloped arable land, it's population is quite low
@@scholaroftheworldalternatehist Arable land usually refers to land that you can plough. If there is no rain, nothing grows. The present Australian politicians are taking irrigation water away from irrigation farms to tip the fresh water out into the ocean.
well they both are deserts....Antarctica is a desert. A desert doesn't mean it has sand it just means it has very very little precipitation. And even though Greenland and Antarctica are covered in frozen water, they are deserts from the lack of rain they get. Just like the Outback in Australia But blimey, I would rather get stuck in Greenland than the outback. At least in Greenland you can melt snow, down under....you best be ready to get dehydrated and maybe box a kangaroo, maybe real or just a Mirage.
Thank You for a great upload
WIthout the glaciers, Greenland might be an archipelago like northern Canada. I wonder if the open sea between Canada's big open islands were once solid glacier and been mistaken for a continuous island.
Mistaken by who? I don't think people could had planes back then. But i see your point.
It’s the polar days and nights, most of the country sits inside the arctic circle so they’re very long with only shorts periods of regular days. People that live on the danish mainland would rather live there than go to Greenland and have the sun in the sky or absent for months. There’s no draw.
Just to remind ourselves that the area of Greenland is grossly exaggerated in the map shown due to the nature of the map projection.
I spent a year stationed at a Air Force radar base high atop Pingarsuit Mt. near Thule, Greenland. When I arrived, there was a note on my mirror. It said, "If you can sleep 12 hours a day, you'll only be here in this godforsaken place for 6 months" I was glad I slept.
Greenland is now icier than during the relative warm period when Erik the Red named it.
Nice video. I will say you repeat information you already said a few times. Hopefully your future vids that have come after this one have less repeated info. Still, Im going to subscribe bc I found this fascinating.
G'day, mate! Love your channel and all the great information. Just one small request. If you could do us a favour outside the USA and add metric units, that would be totally awesome. Cheers! 😊
Thanks for the video.
Hold on, isn't Anarctica less populated than Greenland?
yes, antarctica has around 1,000-5,000 people (almost none of them if any are permanent)
@etrestre9403 Greenland is not a continent because it sits on the North American plate: geologically, it's an annexe of North America :) Antarctica has its own continental plate.
@@DieFlabbergast He was referring to Antarctica as a continent, not Greenland.
He called it the "least densely populated region of the world." The graphic substituted "area" for region. Not "island."
I would assume all regions with 0 population would be the least populated.
Thank you. I have learned about Greenland more, not to confuse with Iceland. 😊
I just found your channel and find it very interesting, thank you! I'm in USA and would love to hear your take on the effect of immigration (thinking specifically of Mexico and parts south) on the various states and regions you discuss.
Interesting/informative/entertaining 😉. Excellent still-motion photography pictures 📷/geographical drawings& maps. Enabling viewers 👀 to better understand what the orator is describing. Make for a short vacation in the summer months 😎. Reminds me of Australia. People reside 100-miles or 160 kilometers from the ocean.
It’s so incredibly empty because when we 🇬🇧 got there we realised there was no one to take it from.
😂😂
Very interesting 🧐 Thanks!
Hi from Montreal! I love winter, many perks including "Quiet!", I majored in Sylviculture and re-wild the place but left my trade cuz they refuse to listen! Happy New Year!
Next do a video about why the Mercader Projection look larger than it really is.
The Inuits are not descendants from Dorset culture but from the Thule people which emerges near Bering strait. Inuits ancestors arrived from the north-west roughly 1000 years ago, at the same time or slightly before the Vikings. Plaeo-Eskimo have almost no living descendants today.
the Inuits are not decendants from Thule people in Greenland either , they are not related, Inuits came from Canada to Greenland 7-800 years ago and Thule people was never seen again after they arrived so Inuits arrived 2-300 years after the Vikings, the Vikings did interact with Thule people amd later Inuits, according to Inuit folklore Thule people were afraid of them, so either they killed them or scared them off
The people of Greenland don’t want out siders in their affairs, that includes the United States, Russia and China
"Arrived"is a nice woke way of saying "fleeing".
Geoff, love your perspective and knowledge. Why don’t you image the maps of large areas by their projections on the globe instead of flattened perspective?
I'm going to open a video store in Greenland.
if it didn't work in the USA where people are dying to watch videos, it won't work anywhere else...thats why streaming has gone international. but if you want to be like the one blockbuster in Bend Oregon....you do know they are always on the verge of bankruptcy right? Their main income is merchandise and not renting videos...
What about Svalbard (Spitsbergen Island)? It has a population of 2,530 and a highway tunnel system you won't believe. It's far, far North of Iceland and Norway at the southern edge of the Arctic Ocean.
Please use metric units alongside the imperial system!
It would be very difficult to get at any minerals under a mile of ice.
I think a bigger question is why the Hell does anyone live there? What a miserable place
Right? Plus it looks kinda ugly and depressing.
It's the perfect place to get away from people.
How would you know if you have never been there? Im danish and grew up there, if you are and outdoors person like me? It's a great place to be living.
And you wouldn’t need a refrigerator
I’ve heard that when Eric and the new settlers were there it was warmer than it later became and the settlements dwindled. So when it was named Greenland it was more green and fit it’s name better, but even then it was still mostly ice.
You couldn’t pay me to live in this hellhole. Bad weather year round, nothing to do, nothing to see. I understand why it has such high depression rates.
jeez what did we do to you :(
@@Nukannguaq. Sorry man I just really hate the cold and I’m easily claustrophobic so I would just feel trapped living there. I respect the people who have called it home for such a long time, I don’t have the stones for it tho.
The southernmost tip of Finland (North of the Gulf of Finland with Estonia on its southern side) also appears to lie on the 60N latitude line, which passes north of Stockholm, Sweden, and straight through Oslo, Norway as it heads west to the southern tip of Greenland and then on to Canada. Note, 60N may also go through Sankt Petersburg, Russia, which is placed at the end of the Gulf of Finland
20% Green? I see 0% Green
open your eyes.....you do know why it was named greenland right....
Nice video - informative. My only dig is that the map projection used distorts the size of Greenland to make it look bigger than it actually is.
If only the Greenlandic Norse language could be revived, and then would be taught alongside Inuit Greenlandic language.
Icelandic is not far away …
My city I live in has about double the population of Greenland. Wild.
My local school district has 10x the population of Greenland. It’s very warm for most of the year.
Those who live there (the native Inuit) do not want anyone else to come live there. They have had to accept the Belgian’s but don’t want anymore to come with their modern ideas or disturbing the ecology. Keep to your Inuit ideals. Protect your fishing and hunting areas.
Most people in Alaska and Canda also populate closer to milder climates of the Southern portions..
Like he says the Gulf stream is the reason Greenland is an ice bucket.
Why is Antarctica so incredibly empty?
It's COLD
Thanks for making a video on Greenland.
Advise: decrease the overly repetitive narration
As an inhabitant of Iceland find it rather amusing that a channel purporting to be run by geography enthusiasts, if not experts, seriously makes the boneheaded claim that Iceland has a warmer climate due to volcanic and geothermal activity. Guys, did you do even a tiny amount of research into this? You apparently didn't even research the effects of the Gulf stream either, a significant branch of which flows to the west and north of Iceland. This takes two seconds of googling to find out. Embarrassing.
don’t pop a blood vessel 🤣
@@will-zj5gq If fact-indifferent infotainment gets you off, then go nuts, my dude
Not only learning about Greenland... But that's Jeff with a G 😊👍
This video could be 3 minutes long if he didn't repeat every fact 5 times
So watch 3 minutes and go away.
specially if he did fact checks, a lot of it is inaccurate.
@@91dodgespiritrt I kept hoping he would say something he hasn't already said. But instead he kept saying the same thing over and over.
Thanks. I changed it to 1.5 speed on the setting wheel.
A family from greenland moved to my apartments in the 90's in Texas was friends with the son spent the night and had rolled up pancakes with icing or syrup thought it was the best dinner ever
Ice is not the only reason, ice not melting by gulf stream is another 🙄
Dude! You have orbs floating behind you within the first minute of this video. You may want to check it out. By the way, great video!