Hockey Sticks and Tricks - Creation Moments

Genesis 8:22

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Why is Greenland called Greenland?

Most people are familiar with the reasons for the name. During the Medieval period, there is a lot of historical evidence to show that global temperatures were higher than they are today. Therefore, Greenland had quite a lot of green during the time when Vikings were colonizing it. As the Medieval period ended, however, the planet became a lot colder, sinking into the famous “little ice age”, which was at its depth during Victorian times, when it was common for the Thames River in London, England, to freeze over, and for annual ice fairs to be accommodated by London Bridge. From Victorian times onward, average world temperatures have been on the rise again.

But this dome-and dip-shaped graph did not fit with the upcoming paradigm of the 1990s onward which suggested that the Earth’s average temperature must be getting warmer due to industrial emission of so-called greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide.

So researchers produced the infamous hockey stick graph. The right hand side of this temperature-time graph showed a sharp rise in temperature from about 1910 onward. The “handle” of this hockey stick shape was flat, not showing a Medieval warm period; the warmth of northern climes, like Greenland, or even England being attributed to a misleading local effect.

Listeners should remember that the earlier dome graph still has more evidence to support it. Besides, God has told us that our seasonal temperature variations will remain while the earth endures.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that Your promises are true, and we can rely on them totally. Amen.

Author: Paul Taylor

Ref: Montford, A.W., The Hockey Stick Illusion (London: Anglosphere). Image: CC BY-SA 4.0 International.