Ron Johnson on his earlier false claim that Greenland was once green: ‘I have no idea’

by

Her. Ron JohnsonRonald (Ron) Harold Johnson The Hill’s Morning Report – Biden: Back to the future on immigration, Afghanistan, Iran Democrats promise to go bold – with or without GOP Johnson, Grassley indecision freezes major Senate races MORE (R-Wis.) Still seemed to question the origins of Greenland’s name in an interview published Monday, asking him about false claims he had made years ago about the country’s etymology.

In an interview published by The New York Times on Monday, Johnson was asked about comments he made during his 2010 campaign, in which he said Greenland was mentioned because “it was actually green at one point.”

“I could be wrong there, but that’s always been my assumption that those early explorers saw green at some point,” Johnson told the Times. “I have no idea.”

In his 2010 comments, Johnson attempted to refer to an inaccurate portrait of Greenland’s history as a way of rejecting climate change.

“You know, there is a reason why Greenland was called Greenland,” Johnson told local media at the time. “At one point it was actually green. And it’s, you know, since – it’s a lot whiter now, so we’ve been experiencing climate change throughout geologic time. ”

As the Times notes, the country was named Greenland after explorer Erik The Red began calling the island by name in an attempt to bring more settlers to the area.

Johnson reportedly made the incorrect statement, while also claiming that climate change was caused by sunspots rather than human activity.

According to a report published by Scientific American the year before Johnson’s comments, the claim about sunspots in particular came because some of those who denied the idea that humans caused climate change had similarly blamed sunspots for global warming. soil.

While the publication, the nation’s oldest continuously published journal, noted in its coverage that ‘many’ climate scientists agreed that sunspots could also contribute to climate change, it also noted that a ‘large majority consider it very minimal and attributes global warming primarily to emissions from industrial activity – and they have thousands of peer-reviewed studies available to back up that claim. “

Source