In nearly every presentation on global warming, we hear that floods and droughts will be more severe as the temperature rises. Believe it or not, and who would not believe it given thousands of websites on the issue, there are many scientists who believe the opposite. We have covered these topics in many previous essays, and a recent article in Quaternary Science Reviews reinforces our skeptical viewpoint.

The research was conducted by Chun Chang Huang and five associates from China’s Shaanxi Normal University. Their goal was to reconstruct major flooding events of the Sushui River (Figure 1) during the Holocene period (the Holocene began approximately 12,000 years ago when the last great glacial period ended).

Huang et al. explain “In semiarid zones, the piedmont alluvial plains are episodically inundated by overbank floodwater during heavy rainstorms.” They also state “However, in the semiarid loess region in the middle reaches of the Yellow River drainage basin, the elevation of alluvial plains also increases through dust accumulation, which is commonly followed by soil formation that together separate fluvial deposits produced during episodes of overbank flooding. Fine-grained slackwater deposits of the floods are therefore preserved between the architecture of loess and soils which also protect these flood deposit from subsequent erosion by overland water flows, wind erosion, and human activities.” Basically, they found a geomorphic sequence that beautifully preserves datable information about major floods over the past 12,000 years. They write “Thus, these loess–soil sequences provide unique information for investigation of Holocene climatic change, flood hydrology, geomorphic and pedogenic changes, and human impact in semiarid zones. This stratigraphic data can provide valuable hydrologic information to those working in engineering hydrology, flood hazard prevention and mitigation, geomorphology, Quaternary sciences and global change.”

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