Greenland: Not Much Green There

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Greenland is a land of snow and ice. Not much green grows there. It's so cold all the time that only the hardest trees there. Some of those trees are green. But the snow and ice that are on the ground all the time don't show a whole lot of grass.

How Greenland got its name isn't entirely clear. Erik the Red, the great explorer, might have been the first European to land in Greenland. Did he name it Greenland? Maybe. He might have found it greener than his homeland of Iceland.

We do know that Greenland was warmer (by a few degrees) a thousand years ago, when Erik the Red would have landed there.

This large island was claimed by Denmark for many years. It is now a self-governing territory but technically still part of Denmark. In fact, it isn't even called Greenland anymore. The correct name of the now independent country is Kalaalit Nunaat.

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