On the myths in hydrology and in other earth sciences

Abstract

Following scientific myths, which are widely spread in hydrology and in other earth sciences, are discussed. (1) The total water mass on land surface statistically significantly diminishes during last century. (2) Many time series of annual river runoff demonstrate nonstationary character. (3) The first-order Markov chain is a dominating model in the stochastic description of the long time series of annual runoff. (4) Because of the global heating, annual discharges of the northern rivers will inevitably grow during the 21st century. (5) The main contribution to uncertainty of the forecast of the runoff through the end of the 21st century is made by uncertainty in scenarios of emission of greenhouse gases and divergences in results of modeling of the climatic system by GCMs. (6) The most shocking myth: the idea of the deterministic positive trend within the mean global temperature during last 100 years.