Lonely-- Greenland is just part of the overall picture for the North Atlantic Climate history. Check this out....Compare the settlement of Greenland with the Reconstructed Temperature graph(below) in particular, but the big picture, which includes much of North America and Western Europe as well, shows some chilling(no pun intended) possibilities for the near future, particularly as the projections of the possible switching off of the "Global Ocean Conveyor", which keeps modern Europe in a more temperate climate than would otherwise exist. "The little ice age" proved this can happen, which you can read all about in the link at the bottom of this post.
A lot of what most of us think we know about geography is false, and based on impressions and "common" knowledge. An example is the old bar question in the US, which goes like this, "Which is farther West, Los Angeles or Reno, Nevada? Answer: Reno is about 70 miles WEST of L.A. Here's a couple that apply to the question at hand.
Which is further North from the Equator, Saskatoon, or Liverpool(LCM is near there) England? answer: Liverpool, @ 53degrees, 20" N. Saskatoon is 52 degrees, 10" North.
Same question. Cannes, France or London Ontario? Cannes, @ 43degrees 33" N. London Ont. is 43degrees 33" North.
The examples just given show that the local climate, which in the case of Europe, primarily depends upon the warm ocean waters that have passed through the equatorial zone and carry that heat into the North Atlantic, where it warms some pretty Northern countries, which affects our opinion of their typical climate. But......
Research has shown that the massive melting of the ice sheets of Northern Canada and Greenland, dumping millions of tons of fresh water into the ocean at that point, can, in climatological terms, instantly flip a switch and restore the "Little Ice Age" dumping most of Western Europe back to it's colder, more expected, climate, considering it's Lattitude. It is estimated that 10% of the population of Europe starved to death in the last such event. Imagine the political and sociological importance if it happened today. Very sobering to think about. During the last one, in the worst years, the River Thames is said to have never completely thawed in the summer, and that villages in Switzerland were literally wiped off the map by glacial advance.
Do not confuse or conflate this event with global climate change, as it is a regional event, but it is feared that the global situation could trigger another such North Atlantic "big Freeze". It might only last a Century or so, but it would have great effect while it lasted. Here's some more information from Wiki:
"The Little Ice Age(LIA) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period(Medieval Climate Optimum). While it was not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. It has been conventionally defined as a period extending from the 16th to the 19th centuries, or alternatively, from about 1350 to about 1850, though climatologists and historians working with local records no longer expect to agree on either the start or end dates of this period, which varied according to local conditions."
The Little Ice Age brought colder winters to parts of Europe and North America. Farms and villages in the Swiss Alpswere destroyed by encroaching glaciers during the mid-17th century. Canals and rivers in Great Britain and the Netherlands were frequently frozen deeply enough to support ice skating and winter festivals. The firstRiver Thames frost fairwas in 1607 and the last in 1814; changes to the bridges and the addition of an embankmentaffected the river flow and depth, hence diminishing the possibility of freezes. Freezing of the Golden Horn and the southern section of the Bosphorustook place in 1622. In 1658, a Swedish armymarched across the Great Belt to Denmark to invade Copenhagen. The winter of 1794-1795 was particularly harsh, when the French invasion army under Pichegru could march on the frozen rivers of the Netherlands, while the Dutch fleet was fixed in the ice in Den Helder harbour. In the winter of 1780, New York Harbor froze, allowing people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island. Sea ice surrounding Iceland extended for miles in every direction, closing harbors to shipping."
Now I am not predicting nor claiming any special knowledge here. The above are facts of history in recent times. There were other more widely felt events during that period as well, resulting from a "perfect storm" of Vocanic eruptions putting dust into the atmosphere and other events, but the major effect on the region around the North Atlantic was probably caused by changes in the "Great Conveyor" ocean currents being disrupted that bring zillions of calories of heat into the land around the North Atlantic perimeter.
The Little Ice Age(LIA) was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period(Medieval Climate Optimum). While it was not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939.
Here's a link to the Wikipedia page if you'd like to learn more: