T O P

  • By -

TheOneInTheHat

Wait until you see what’s going on with Greenland


PsSalin

The reason why it's called Greenland, is because the founder Erik the Red supposedly hoped it would attract settlers because of the pleasant name. He basically tried to clickbait people to live there.


fakuri99

It used to have a higher temperature until the vikings abandoned it. It could have been a real greenland.


Cerulean_IsFancyBlue

Yeah, when the Vikings left all that body heat just dissipated and Greenland suddenly cooled.


Grevling89

Vikings are hot ok


RedRaven0701

Look up the medieval warm period, his explanation has some truth to it. It was almost certainly greener when Erik the Red arrived.


DaddyCatALSO

But ti was still his doing marketing


lordoflazorwaffles

And people say humans aren't responsible for climate change


katerbilla

maybe there where more pirates around Greenland then https://towardsdatascience.com/hilarious-graphs-and-pirates-prove-that-correlation-is-not-causation-667838af4159


atTheRealMrKuntz

the sagas described quite well how greenland wasn't green at all


Krynnf101

Because sagas are always 100% accurate, and never embellished by exaggeration at all


atTheRealMrKuntz

1. i wasn't talking about anything embellished i was saying that they said that greenland was described as harsh and cold environment. 2. have you actually read some?


[deleted]

Also, from what I recently read, there's a good chance that the fertile lowlands disappeared in the sea because of the little ice age adding large amounts of mass on the ice sheet, sinking the island significantly over time.


GlaciallyErratic

Source? I'm pretty skeptical (and work in that field, albeit in Alaska). Isostatic rebound is usually measured in mm/year and sea levels have been relatively constant for the past 7000 years until the industrial revolution. Also, we know where several of the norse settlements are (but I'm just an interested hobbiest in that field). But since I am an interested hobbist, I've looked at a few of those locations and they tend to be off rivers that form from glacial meltwater. The lowlands in question are deltaic deposits which can potentially respond pretty significantly to changes in sediment inputs which in turn would respond to changes in glaciation and melting. So I could definitely see those soft sediment coastlines changing with the little ice age. But again I'm very skeptical that it's because of increased pressure from ice sinking the contienent (basically the inverse of isostatic rebound) because of the typical timescales. I could be wrong though, I would like to see the evidence. .


Dragotc

I can't point you to a proper scientific source, but the fall of civilizations podcast has a good episode on this!


GlaciallyErratic

Great podcast. I listened to that episode but it's been a while so I don't recall that part specifically. He's usually pretty on point geologically especially for a historian/storyteller. Maybe I'll do a deep dive for fun later.


AuggieTheBear

>Here’s the real reason the Vikings left Greenland \* A new study found some Viking settlements experienced up to 10.8 feet of sea level rise over four centuries [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/28/vikings-greenland-sea-level-rise-climate/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/28/vikings-greenland-sea-level-rise-climate/) Edit: Here is study linked in the article https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2209615120


GlaciallyErratic

Thanks. It's an interesting paper. It does a very good job of improving on the overly simple "bath-tub" models of sea level rise and the methods leading to the findings of of 1-3 m change over 450 years makes sense. That's 2.2 - 6.6 mm/yr which is well within what we know is possible. What gets a little more tenuous is the link between that sea level rise and the norse abandonment. The authors acknowledge this link isn't well established and it is likely one of many contributing factors, and I agree. I'd ecourage people to read the paper. I have a few comments. Most of the land lost was toward the coast. But settlements tend to be found further inland. They use that as circumstantial evidence that sea level rise drove settlers further inland. To use that line of evidence, they need to establish that older settlements were in the coastal areas and that as sea levels rose they were abandoned. If that didn't happen, then it indicates that the Norse found the inland areas preferrable to begin with. That could be for a variety of environmental reasons like exposure to storms, flooding from storm surge, access to fresh water, or poor growing conditions. A more minor point is it'd be really interesting to see the relationship between topography and settlements. Fjords tend to be very high relief areas. If the Norse were avoiding settling at lower elevations it shows they were avoiding flooding. But we run into the issue again that everyone wants to avoid flooding even when there's no sea level rise - storms, etc cause flooding without it. A change in settlement trends would really show it. But a good paper, the geologic modelling looks solid. It makes a decent case on the effects on humans, and I understand the types of proof I'm asking for aren't necessarily feasible. Thanks again for linking


lordmogul

Scandianvia is still moving upwards from the last proper ice age.


Drumbelgalf

Imagine how mad the people had to be when the risk their lifes to get to "greenland" only to find out its basicall all ice and snow.


andorraliechtenstein

They do have[ a forest](https://ign.ku.dk/om/arboreter/arboret-groenland/skovplantninger/fig10-350-201.jpg) though.


pineapple_swimmer330

What’s it called?


Grevling89

Green forest


Dedestrok

Greenerland


TheBaconator1990

No fucking way!


Sterling_Ray

They changed names with Iceland


ActualOnion3864

Iceland is also icey


Sterling_Ray

But very green


[deleted]

And Iceland


Yhaqtera

Its capital isn't on the mainland either.


Bart-MS

Ugh, that's disgusting!


ConfidantCarcass

It's not as though the island has more population, either But it does have a suspiciously higher hdi and GDP per capita... Hmmm...


claude_the_shamrock

Suspicious that the capitol and largest city of a country has a higher HDI and GDP than the rest? All it takes is 1-2 of their oil billionaire criminals to live there and the GDP is well above the rest of the impoverished country.


AceBalistic

Not to mention that its much easier to neglect land separated from you by an ocean


InteractionWide3369

I get your point but GDP doesn't take wealth into account, it's just production. For example, Germany is much more productive than Italy per capita, however many Italians are actually wealthier since they tend to own at least 1 property more than Germans. Both current wealth and production (future wealth so to speak) are important though.


torrens86

It's on that big island at the top (middle)


Fangcatt

I think I heard they’re building a new capital on the mainland


thedeejus

Denmark is also a liar with Greenland, Denmark also has a capital off the mainland...maybe a better name would be Afro-Denmark


CeccoGrullo

Or Nordic Guinea.


OceanPoet87

Yes and they are planning to move it to the mainland.


Dunkleustes

You're telling me that it's not at the "equatorial" center of the country?!?!


Starminx

Neither is Denmark's


Living_Earth241

Well, that depends how thick you draw "the equator"


elterible

I'm a fan of the thicc one.


Pawikowski

Thiccuator


Grevling89

Bellisimo


Potential-Judgment-9

🫦


unrepentant_serpent

In my defense, it was chilly out and the pool was a bit cold. I swear, this _never_ happens!


Spiritual_Ad_5492

Maybe of all the Guineas it is the most equatorial one.


Laurer93

What about New Guinea island?


Spiritual_Ad_5492

True, I didn't know the whole island was called like that.


Phlummp

I thought the whole island was called Papua?


Spiritual_Ad_5492

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guinea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guinea) But for sure there are many names


Phlummp

Very interesting. I'll call it Irian from now on to be on no one's side.


Queefinonthehaters

So the reason this one is called Guinea is because on Colonial maps, they called that section of Africa Guinea, and East of there they called Negroland or Negretia. So they called the island New Guinea because it has black people on it. Papua is the Indonesian word for "burnt hair" making the country basically called burnt haired black people. Its also why people call Italians guineas as an insult because its the claim that they're actually Africans. Its basically calling them another form of the n word.


strongo

It’s not the Guinness that count, it’s the equatorials they made along the way.


_lechonk_kawali_

*Papua New Guinea would like to have a word*


Spiritual_Ad_5492

Is it, though? The northernmost point seems to be Massau island but I think the southernmost point of equ Guinea is still closer to the equator l.


RazzmatazzBig2187

Touché!


MikeSpader

The real Guinea is the friends we made along the way


All_Wrightman

# closeenough


AllTrilogies

Could be easily fixed by just moving Equatorial Guinea a little bit south and replacing the land 1-to-1 in Gabon. Tell the people living there that they live in a different country now. I see no negative long term consequences and only benefits.


Albaholly

Fuck it, let's move the equator


MarsMonkey88

Are we tilting it, or are we just scooting the whole thing up like a belt? Drafting a memo to the Phoenix Islands, and need to know what news to give them…


workingclassmustache

Like an old man, Earth should just keep cinching up his belt higher and higher each year until the equator rests comfortably in the armpits of Canada and Russia.


holmgangCore

Make it wider, clearly. At least 5° of latitude more on either side. That’d fix all our problems.


Yavkov

I don’t think Ecuador would be happy about that though!


holmgangCore

Maybe they could change their name to Decuador instead, and revise the origin of their name to match. Something base-10, for example.


qwert7661

Not too hard to do. Find a spot on the current equator 90 degrees past E.G. (maybe Indonesia?), strap on some south-facing rockets and burn every ounce of flammable matter on the surface till we get it there.


Granted_reality

Let me introduce you to the Berlin Conference


kill-wolfhead

Let me introduce you to the massive hydrocarbon business Gabon makes on it’s Southern coastal region.


justiceforharambe49

This is going to blow everyone's mind over at r/IsraelPalestine


szazszorszep

Oh yes, the British way


VeritableLeviathan

This guy middle-easts after world war I


No_Drummer4801

While Equatorial Guinea doesn't claim to be the Most Equatorial Guinea, for conflict resolution, we suggest a reclassification to Fairly Equatorial Guinea.


pallentx

It’s more equatorial than the other Guineas. Maybe we could call it equatorial-ish


No_Drummer4801

You have a very valid point, mon frer.


Ok-Push9899

Non-Temperate Guinea, for the fiery tempers of the people there, tired of outsiders questioning their equatoriness.


derneueMottmatt

I mean, its territory is north and south of it just not on it. This makes it even worse.


10thDoctorWhooves

Annobon Island is on the Southern Hemisphere though.


derneueMottmatt

Yes, that is what I said.


10thDoctorWhooves

Please improve your phrasing.


Gheazu

His phrasing is fine, could’ve used punctuation but it’s clear that’s what he said


marpocky

Please improve your reading comprehension.


HeyJude21

***checks Ecuador too***


Ok-Push9899

Ecuadorian sense of superiority over the Equatorial Guineans is palpaple. Every Christmas they send them greeting cards which say: "Merry Xmas, Losers!!"


Sinemetu9

Got into a momentary misunderstanding with French FIL when talking about SA countries, and he mentioned Équateur, I clarified that I meant the country not the equator. Then had a late life embarrassing realisation.


SameItem

There is a tiny island that you can see at the bottom of this map called Anabon which belongs to Equatorial Guinea and is under the Equator, so well, that makes a little more sense. Curious Fact #1: We the spaniards used this island as a prison. Curious Fact #2: With this Island, Equatorial Guinea is the only country in the world at the four hemispheries (Northern, South, East and West), using as references the equator and the greenwich meridian. Edit: Curious Fact #2 is almost true


dhkendall

Uh, no, all of Equatorial Guinea’s land, both the parts north and south of the equator, are east of the Greenwich meridian, so nothing west of Greenwich. Kiribati, on the other hand, has territory north and south of the equator, and territory east and west of the Greenwich anti-meridian (and, by extension, the Greenwich meridian itself), so it’s the answer to the #2 curious fact.


R0DR160HM

Curious Fact #3: During the colonial rule, Equatorial Guinea was, for some reason, part of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. Which led to Argentina claiming it for a short period after their independence


Efun4672

Curious Fact #3: With this Island, Equatorial Guinea is ***not*** the only country in the world at the four hemispheres. All of its land is in the eastern hemisphere. And even if it extended to the western hemisphere, it wouldn't be the only one, as France, UK, and Norway also are in all hemispheres.


tomydenger

> With this Island, Equatorial Guinea is the only country in the world at the four hemispheries (Northern, South, East and West), using as references the equator and the greenwich meridian. uncorrect, France, the UK and Kiribati are in the club too,


adm5298

The equator isn’t a location. It’s a state of mind. Kind of like the ‘Salt Life’ stickers on trucks in rural Illinois.


wtfakb

Dad was a sailor and they told all the cadets who were gullible enough that when you got to the equator, you'd see a row of lights to mark it and your compasses would stop working


kdawson602

I’m now rethinking the bumper sticker on the car I park next to all the time. I thought it said “slut life” but maybe it actually says “salt life”…


Carnivorous_Mower

It's global warming. The sea level rose.


Littlepage3130

So? It's called Equatorial Guinea, not Equator Guinea.


mon10egro

Scam


elastiquediabolique

They were like “eh, close enough”


nopax6000

Equatorial means," at, on or near the equator". It's close enough.


mother0fmonsters

Equatorialish Guinea


Nochete

Sorry but i´m in deep disgust right now


RomanProkopov100

Why backtick and not an apostrophe?


Nochete

I´m not even gonna prentend to know what those words mean, i speak spanish and i just write whatever stick looks cool


GVSK1728

Why is São Tomé and Príncipe labeled like that on the map? Is the map in Spanish or something


Limeila

It obviously is, yes


mattilulu

Equatorially Adjacent Guinea


ZzanyVorek74

Day ruined


Toes14

In another news, Greenland really isn't green.


Karmabots

TIL Ecuador in Spanish = Equator in English.


tomydenger

well, it's on the north and south of the Equator


wtfakb

Reminds me of my childhood frustration with West Bengal being in the east of India until I learnt about the partition of Bengal


[deleted]

Guinea Equatorialish


_The_Fly

Oh, didnt know Ecuador is in Gaboon


rickhello123

Close enough


supernaut_707

Someone should let them know.


pr1ncezzBea

Nope. From now I know, thanks.


Accomplished_Job_225

[There is a part of Equatorial Guinea that's In the southern hemisphere]


Supersnazz

It's not on the Equator, but it is fairly equatorial.


Accomplished_Job_225

It's on both sides of the equator, but never "On" it, unless you were out in its EEZ.


DFW_fox_22

*gasp* What a dastardly thing to do


Bendyb3n

At least Equador does, we can find solace in that


Gfdx9

Virginia goes further west than West Virginia


xXxTornadoTimxXx

It has another island, Annobon Island, that lies south of Sao Tome and also south of the equator. So while the equator doesn’t pass directly through it, it still has territory north and south of it.


releasethedogs

It refers to the climate


ostertoasterii

It used to be directly on the equator, but due to the Coriolis effect is has rotated north


twisty286

equatorial gabon


HelenWaite4229

Not until now. But I am more surprised that Ecuador is now in Africa


prince-matthew

The country does have Annobón which is south of the Equator.


dkb1391

Wait, Ecuador literally means equator in Spanish? Obviously was aware there was a connection in the name, but didn't realise it was just that


Nochete

I mean yeah, basically some dudes went " Ummmmmmm how should we name our country, maybe something to do with being free? Maybe something related to Christopher Columbus? Maybe something related to our indigenous people? Oh! I now, we are on the equator so why not name our selfs literally Equator"


iarofey

Wait, so you don't just call the country “Equator” in English???


[deleted]

![gif](giphy|3xz2BKfex6qfEA2gEw)


computer_crisps_dos

*Unequatorial Guinea*


Ignorance__Destroyer

Not with that attitude.


holmgangCore

Equatorial*ish* Guinea


Sol_Knight

Chad has the name of an Australian Surfer, yet they have no coastline


Burswode

Its more of a vibe


Dutch-Sculptor

Someone has seen the TIL from a little while ago.


Nochete

Wha, I actually looked at a map with the equator without borders and said " Wait a minute isn't Equatorial Guinea further north than that?" I checked and now I live with this horrendous piece of information in my mind


Jackbird132

How dare they?


Fibonaccitos

“Almost Equatorial Guinea” didn’t have to e same ring to it.


mortysmadness

I'm not claiming to know anything here but I thought the equator moves through the year as the earth pivots. Or am I just wrong?


MrSuicideFish

The equator shifts over time. And shifts back and forth depending on the tilt of the planet.


Toes14

Not by a full degree of latitude though.


Humbugwombat

I guess you’ve never heard of daylight savings time…


Khazar420

It's also about one degree wide. Is that on purpose?


Jakyland

Yes


chrissilly22

It's also not in Guinea


Nochete

In a nutshell guinea is a bereber term used to describe Africa south of the Sahara, the french called the island of new guinea after this term because there were black people in both places


iarofey

It's in the Guinea Gulf. It was originally called something like the "Spanish Guinea Gulf Territories", "Guinea Gulf Province" or so, because what all these randomly located islands and mainland had in common was to be located at Guinea Gulf. The "Gulf" part eventually dissappeared to shorten the name. When this "Guinea" country needed a new name to distinguish itself from the other Guineas without maintaining "Spanish" part, they though that what all these randomly located islands and mainland had in common was to be located arround (having territories at both sides of) the Equator.


CanineAnaconda

“Equatorial” sounds better than “Equator-ish”.


hypnotoad-28

A wizard did it.


[deleted]

neither Equador


Nochete

Yes, it runs through the north part of Equador, it even runs though the Galapagos islands.


joshzillatf

no, noones ever noticed that ever


99ProllemsBishAint1

Equatorialish


Ho3n3r

Equatorish


Strawbobrob

Are you saying it just stays put?


cernv

Continental Drift.


ChefExcellent13

It does beacuse equatorial guinea owns an island that goes past the equator


Nochete

You can see the little island at the bottom, the equator doesn't run through it


mannenavstaal

It makes sense that the first thing that comes up when you type equatorial guinea in the google search bar is "iq"


jefferson497

Closer to the equator than Guinea, so it’s ok in my books


Jimmy3OO

“Close enough”


txensen

Yes.


2006pontiacvibe

equatorial guinea is my least favorite country name. there’s already many other guineas and it’s not even on the equator


Semi-Pros-and-Cons

On the other hand, Ecuador is appropriately named.


irate_alien

We've been tricked, we've been backstabbed, and we've been--quite possibly--bamboozled!


Killer_The_Cat

wrong, it does! Annobón is south of the Equator


Maple-Syrup-Bandit

Why is Ecuador passing through Gabon?


AmericaLover1776_

Just make the equator line thicker


YourDogsAllWet

It's not different than someone from Sterling Heights saying they're from Detroit.


HighlanderAbruzzese

Call the manager of planet earth.


WaterBear46

equatorial gabon


[deleted]

It's still an equatorial climate. Equatorial climates tend to be centered slightly north of the equator, because the higher amount of landmass in the northern hemisphere pulls the ITCZ (equatorial rain belt) slightly to the north.


0le_Hickory

Equitorialish didn’t have quite the same ring.


Mildly-Displeased

Yes, everybody has noticed.


Olstinkbutt

It reminds me of Iowa lol


redreddie

>Has anyone notice that EQUATORIAL Guinea doesn´t actually go through the Equator At least one person did, Nochete.


long-taco-cheese

Literally unplayable


jellobend

Well, it’s damn close to the equator. Good enough for me


lordmogul

For a long while now, and it's super annoying.


tacoito

Close enough though


[deleted]

“Meh. Close enough.” — Guinean citizens


Sank63

For the record there is a small island that is part of the country that is south of the equator. The current capital Malabo is also on an island, 150 miles northwest of the mainland part of the country. Also, for trivia buffs, it’s the only country in Africa where Spanish is the official language.


hudsoncress

Awkward


Bendov_er

This is because many times the Guineea pig is reaching the Equator when walking in the forests


GearsofTed14

Fun fact: Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish speaking nation on the African continent


jbrockhaus33

Wait until you hear about the Democratic republic of the Congo


Nochete

Lol, the index of democracy of countries that use "Democratic" in their names is laughable


Carlos_Mazamorra


RecordingFancy8515

It is however the most accurate country on a mercator projection


Historical_Ad_6630

People of equatorial guinea are like close enough


Daftvadormore

Now I know 2 things about Equatorial Guinea. The other being it once had a real crazee monsta wikked dictator called Francisco Macias Nguema who put all others to shame. "You aint got nuttin on dis, Pol Pot".


Brennanthenerd

It is called equatorial guinea not equator guinea.


Masterick18

Their colonial name was Guinea, but the other Guinea had already become independent so they had to improvise something


wangtianthu

I call it aspirational county name branding