A Penny For My Thoughts

The Day After Tomorrow…Or Right Now?

By Paul Wein

This afternoon, I watched The Day After Tomorrow with my friends Lisa and Kevin. The movie’s plot revolves around a cataclysmic climate change that in only a few weeks’ time – transformed the face of this planet and brought it into another ice age. Through a series of tornadoes, hurricanes, and tsunamis – civilization as we knew it was brought to its knees – and mankind was forced to rebuild from what was left of our once great existence.

Call me crazy – but isn’t that happening right now?

In the last year, I recall hearing worldwide reports of the worst weather on record, and very obvious signs that the planet’s climate is indeed changing. For example, in 2004, Florida reported the worst hurricane season on record when four very powerful hurricanes – Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne – slammed into the Sunshine State in only a month’s time, breaking any records set in previous years. “Overall, this has been a very destructive and costly hurricane season,” said Weather Channel Meteorologist Stu Ostro. “The official totals are not in yet, but this will likely go down as the costliest hurricane season on record in the U.S.”

Besides the devastation in Florida last year, who can forget the horror of the tsunami that hit on December 26, 2004 – and to date – has killed over a quarter of a million people. In only minutes, waves close to fifty feet high engulfed parts of Sumatra, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and East Africa – eradicating anything in its path. Considered one of the seven worst natural disasters in recorded history, last month’s deadly tsunami has left a scar on this Earth that will take months – even years – to heal.

As I watched this movie and saw New York City flooded by a wall of water similar to the actual tsunami that took place last month, I wondered about all of the different natural occurrences that have been happening lately – and if they are connected in some way like they are in the movie. In fact, when the movie ended, I went on Lisa’s computer and logged onto Foxnews.com – where to my surprise and horror – I found the following two articles:

Glaciers Shrinking in a Warming World
(Associated Press: Sunday, January 30, 2005)
CHACALTAYA GLACIER, Bolivia — Up and down the icy spine of South America, the glaciers are melting, the white mantle of the Andes Mountains washing away at an ever faster rate. “Look. You can see. Chacaltaya (‘Cold Road’ in the native Aymara language) has split in two,” scientist Edson Ramirez said as he led a visitor up toward a once-grand ice flow high in the thin air of the Bolivian cordillera. Chacaltaya, a frozen storehouse of such water, will be gone in seven to eight years, said Ramirez, a Bolivian glaciologist, or ice specialist. “Some small glaciers like this have already disappeared,” he said as melting icicles dripped on nearby rock, exposed for the first time in millennia. “In the next 10 years, many more will.”

Georgia Storm Leaves 300,000 in the Dark
(Associated Press: Sunday, January 30, 2005)
ATLANTA — More than 300,000 customers had no electricity Sunday in Georgia as crews worked to repair power lines snapped by an ice storm, and hundreds of people stranded by canceled airline flights spent the night sleeping at the city’s airport. Two traffic deaths in Georgia and one in South Carolina were blamed on the storm that spread sleet and freezing rain across parts of the Southeast on Saturday. Georgia Power said 235,000 homes and businesses it serves were without power Sunday and the Electric Membership Corp. reported 87,000 customers blacked out. Nearly two-thirds of the outages were in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Hundreds of workers toiled through the night to restore power “only to have new pockets of customers go out as the ice collected on the power lines,” said Electric Membership Corporation spokeswoman Terri Brown.

Isn’t is odd that the same day an article comes out about melting glaciers – a Southern town that has not seen snow in years has an ice storm? After seeing the movie and then reading these articles, I fear that there may be some fact to my horrific theory.

Our biggest enemy in the war on Global Warming is ourselves. This country is so focused on our own lives and our own arrogant, materialistic ideals that we forget that we are living on a planet that we are slowly destroying. Through constant development, continuous chemical production and waste – and the ever present fossil fuel – we are poisoning the very world we call home. And after a while, that poison will be lethal…

…and then what?

What happens if “The Day After Tomorrow” actually comes? Would we as a people be able to survive it? Would the human race be able to put aside all its differences and work together to preserve the continuance of our race? Would we, as a people, be able to return to the laws and beliefs we held dear after “The Day After Tomorrow” passed?

Or – should we do whatever it takes right now to prevent it…before it’s too late?