- In an attempt to undermine climate science, GOP’s Ron Johnson falsely claims that Greenland is named after its once green landscapes.
- Johnson admitted to The New York Times last week that he had “no idea” how Greenland got its name.
- Johnson rejected the science that proves that climate change is overwhelmingly caused by human activities.
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In an attempt to undermine climate science, Senator Ron Johnson falsely claimed in 2010 that Greenland – a largely ice-covered island – was named after its once green landscapes.
Johnson, a Republican in Wisconsin, admitted to The New York Times last week that he had “no idea” how Greenland got its name.
“You know, there’s a reason Greenland is called Greenland,” Johnson told WKOW-TV in 2010. “It was actually green at one point. And that was, you know, since it’s a lot whiter now so we’ve experienced climate change throughout the geological period. ‘
In fact, Erik Thorvaldsson, a Viking settler also known as Erik the Red, gave Greenland a deceptive name in the hope of attracting Europeans to the island. The Danish territory has been covered with ice and glaciers for at least 2.5 million years.
“I could have been wrong there, but it was always my assumption that the early explorers saw green at some point,” Johnson told The Times last week. “I have no idea.”
Some of those who deny the scientific consensus on climate change spread the myth that ice ages and warm periods between them prove that the global warming that the earth is currently experiencing is natural. Johnson has repeatedly rejected science proving that climate change is overwhelmingly caused by human activities. He falsely claimed that global warming was caused by sunspots and that humans could do nothing to reverse the phenomenon.
“If you look at the geological time, we had a major climate change,” Johnson said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2010. “I absolutely do not believe that the science of climate change is caused by humans, not by any imagination. I think it is much more likely that it is just sunspot activity or something that is only in the geological periods where we have changes. climate. ‘
He continued: “The Middle Ages were also a very hot period in time, and it was not as if there were many cars on the road.”
Johnson also claimed that the attempt to stop climate change was a ‘foolish mission’ that would destroy the economy.
“I think we can do nothing about controlling the climate,” he said.