A Green Greenland

Imagine a green Greenland -- spruce forests, ferns, the works. A recent study (published in Science) shows things were quite different, as noted at Canada.com:

FROM FORESTS TO ICE
Climate change obliterated Greenland's leafy cover, turning it into an icy island, a new study says
Margaret Munro, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, June 19, 2008

Extensive spruce forests used to cover the southern half of Greenland, according to a Canadian study that gives a remarkable glimpse of the icy island's green past and possible future.

Then try to figure out what caused all that ice to melt 125,000 and 400,000 years ago:

The pollen shows Greenland was much greener than it is today during several warm periods over the million-year span, with extensive fernlike vegetation 125,000 [years] ago and widespread spruce forests 400,000 years ago.