Monday, July 14, 2014

New paper finds Chinese deserts became much smaller with global warming 2-3°C warmer than the present

A new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters finds that during the mid-Holocene Climate Optimum [~6,000 years ago], the deserts in northern China became "greatly reduced" in size. According to the authors,
"The deserts in northern China were greatly reduced during the mid-Holocene because of the enhancement of the East Asian summer monsoon in a warmer climate than today."
The mid-Holocene Climate Optimum was 2-3°C warmer than the present, at temperatures the IPCC claims to be catastrophic tipping points to the planet despite a complete lack of supporting paleoclimatic evidence. This new paper finds, opposite to the claims of climate alarmists, that Chinese deserts were "greatly reduced" with significant global warming in the relatively recent past. The paper corroborates others demonstrating that the alarmist meme "wet gets wetter, dry gets drier" is without scientific basis. 

Distribution and vegetation reconstruction of the deserts of northern China during the mid-Holocene

Qin Li et al

Desertification is potentially a serious threat to society, and therefore it is critical to understand how deserts may respond to future climate change. The mid-Holocene [6,000 years ago] was warmer than present and the distribution of deserts at this time may have implications for understanding their response to future warming. Here we reconstruct the distribution of deserts in northern China during the mid-Holocene by combining data on vegetation type and the sedimentary facies of aeolian deposits. The results demonstrate that during the mid-Holocene the deserts retreated northwestwards to the location of the modern 300 mm isohyet. Most of the Eastern Desert was stabilized with steppe or forest-steppe vegetation, whereas the Western Desert exhibited no significant change and remained mobile, occupied by desert vegetation. The deserts in northern China were greatly reduced during the mid-Holocene because of the enhancement of the East Asian summer monsoon in a warmer climate than today.

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