The Day After Tomorrow
Okay okay I was going to write an entry about my new SLUT BRIGADE (which you should all join) but I have been urged to NOT do so at the moment.
So I am going to write about the film The Day After Tomorrow which I just saw. I won't give the plot away but I do want to point some stuff out!
First of all, it appears that the film is taking a jab at some of the United State's habits. In particular is our love for consumption. I'm not talking about consuming an apple for digestion, nor am I talking about Consumer's Digest. I am talking about our 'wants' for material possessions. Of which, these products result from industry. There is a scene in the movie where the Vice President, attending an international conference on global warming, challenges the lecturing professor that long term policy change for American consumption would not be in the best interest of the nation. America's economy cannot simply put on the breaks is basically what he is saying.
Of course he is completely wrong when the movie shows Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, New Delhi, and Washington D.C. being completely devastated from supernatural weather! I'm starting to think Ralph Nader had a hand in the financing of this film. It does show that America is on an addiction for consumerism. Also might I add that the US has not put itself on the KYOTO PROTOCOL. And why not? Perhaps because once again our economy is too strong and too proud to slow down for the sake of our environment.
But again, the science in this movie isn't accurate. In fact it's mostly bullshit. However, it does not take away from the message the movie is sending. This is a question and answer session by Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News, my comments are in italics:
What role does human activity play in global warming?
The atmosphere of the Earth is like a blanket that traps heat. It keeps the temperature at the surface of the Earth about 50� or 60� [Fahrenheit/28� or 33� Celsius] warmer than it would be otherwise, which is great because it makes the world a pleasant place to live. Awesome.
But humans have been adding to the gases that help trap this heat. Not awesome.
We've been adding to the stock of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by taking coal, oil, and natural gas out of the ground and burning them as fuels. Combined with deforestation, this has added around a third of the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
And what does this do the welfare of the Earth?
If you think of an automobile engine�when you step on the accelerator, the engine speeds up because you're putting more energy into it by increasing the fuel flow, so everything runs harder and hotter and faster. The extremes get more extreme.
That's what's happening with the climate. We're stepping on the accelerator by adding greenhouse gases to the climate and increasing heat energy in the system. Sort of like a carbon dioxide rice rocket?
How does climate change manifest itself?
Ocean levels are rising, because water expands as it heats up. Since there is more energy in the system, storms may become more frequent and more violent. Increased incidents of flooding create heavier runoffs and soil erosion. Indirect effects of climate change can also cause entire species to go extinct. I know you're all thinking, as long as the human specie doesn't go extinct, then we'll all be okay. But what about the little koala bears in Aus?
How realistic is this movie?
It has a kernel of truth, although it has been "Hollywoodized." There is evidence that abrupt climate change has happened a couple of times in the last 13,000 years, but it's never happened in a few days, as it does in the movie. That's completely impossible. The movie is fake? What!!!!???
Okay so back to my comments
The writer's name is Ronald Emmerich. Through his writing you can sense that he isn't American. Well he isn't. He's German. The european conscience is sterotypically believed to be more environmentally conscious than the stubborn American attitude. The vice president of the film is a testament to that stubbornness.
Now before I end this comment here are a few more comments from the msn page that made an impression on me:
Do you think the general public appreciates and fully understands the threats that global warming pose?
I hope they understand that climate change is happening now. It's affecting everyone who is alive on the planet, and it will inevitably affect their children and their children's children. I have a ten-year-old son, and I want to do everything that I can do to ensure that the world he grows up in is as wonderful and pleasant as the world we got now.
So what can people do about this problem?
They can do a great deal. If millions of people turn off the lights when they leave the room, it makes an enormous difference on how much carbon winds up in the air. Most people believe their electricity comes from renewable or nuclear power or hydroelectric power, but more than half of the electricity generated in the United States comes from coal.
When you leave the light on all night long, that one act is directly responsible for putting a couple of more pounds of carbon into the atmosphere.
