A Pretty Good Movie Based On An Outlandish Scenario

Rating: 7/10 (22 December 2006)

After viewing "Independence Day," which was brought to you by the same directors, I was expecting a total piece of crap, and as I don't believe most of the claims coming from the "global warming" crowd, I was pleasantly surprised to find that "The Day After Tomorrow" was a fairly well-crafted movie. The cinematography and the effects were quite good, the writing not bad, and the acting reasonably convincing, with an emotional ending that was better than might be expected. Of course, the premise is strictly science fiction, and not very good science fiction, so for people to take this story seriously is absurd. Frankly, I still don't get how "global warming" is supposed to trigger an ice age, but I have yet to figure out how sketchy and contradictory data regarding an alleged slight increase in ocean temperature can be plugged into flawed computer models of a climate we barely understand, extrapolated for a century, and then somehow used to "prove" the hypothesis of "global warming." I also don't understand how apparent regional warming automatically indicates "global warming," or how a bunch of hurricanes one year are a direct result of it, while almost no hurricanes the next year is simply ignored. That several "peer reviewed" scientific journals seem to accept this research and routinely suppress all evidence and opinion to the contrary is another matter altogether. I can accept that the increase in human population, coupled with expanded industrialization in Asia and the Third World is going to have some negative environmental effects, but not enough to produce any significant "global warming." After all, CO2 is not the primary greenhouse gas. Water vapor is, and that is produced naturally. Further, we are in an interglacial period, the last ice age having occurred about 11,000 years ago and the next one expected in a few thousand more years. Finally, the earth's temperature has varied considerably over geologic time. It has been cooler than it is now and much warmer, too. I just can't buy this "global warming" crap and I have yet to hear any convincing arguments to the contrary by anyone whose opinion I respect. A far more pressing question, biologically speaking, is how soon we are going to reach the carrying capacity of the biosphere to support human life. In this regard, there are many ways that nature could work to substantially reduce the human population, "global warming" being one of the least likely. A series of pandemics or droughts followed by mass starvation are but two examples.
Unfortunately, that "global warming" advocates continue to push this sort of fantasy is one reason why the environmental movement is given so little credibility by too many people these days. Guys like Rush Limbaugh, who may understand politics and economics fairly well but who is a total boob when it comes to Biology, gets away with calling serious intellectuals "environmentalist whackos" and nobody is able to refute his ignorant bigotry effectively. When so many other people seriously believe the outlandish claims made in movies such as this one, it is no wonder.