On May 28th, Twentieth Century Fox will release a new disaster film. But The Day After Tomorrow is not your conventional fear flick. It’s not about biological, nuclear or military attacks. Instead, its harrowing premise is that climate change could destroy planet earth. In the film’s trailers, tsunamis overtake Manhattan, tornadoes threaten Los Angeles, and volcanoes spew lava near the Hollywood sign.
This is a film that uses celluloid to teach and inform–and, yes, inspire–people about a critical and still misunderstood subject. The Day After Tomorrow’s website includes links to environmental groups with information about the dangers of global warming and ways to get involved in combating the crisis. And while the film is an Eco-Armageddon fantasy flick, I hope it will act as a wake-up call to millions of movie-goers nationwide. (Click here to read environmental writer Bill McKibben’s recent piece on The Day After Tomorrow and global warming in Grist magazine.)
Make no mistake: Global warming is a real threat. The majority of policy experts and scientists believe that unless strong action is taken, climate change will lead to widespread environmental destruction with a devastating human toll.
Scientists agree that the earth’s temperature is rising faster than ever before. Since 1990, the planet has experienced the ten hottest years ever recorded. Unless we reduce emissions that produce heat-trapping pollutants soon, the weather will keep getting hotter and hotter. Climate change is already causing droughts and water shortages in the Southwestern US and elsewhere. And since 1970, twenty percent of the North Pole’s ice cap has melted away.
The problem is so severe that David King, Tony Blair’s scientific adviser, calls global warming more of a threat than terrorism. By 2080, hundreds of millions of people will be “exposed to frequent flooding in the river delta areas of the world,” predicts King. Even the Pentagon recently cited climate change as a national security threat that could lead to war, drought and mass starvation.
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Moreover, according to a recent study conducted by the Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, climate change and air pollution are already increasing asthma rates among poor and minority children. Christine Rogers, a scientist at Harvard’s School of Public Health, warns: “This is a real wake-up call for people who think global warming is only going to be a problem off in the future…The problem for these children is only going to get worse.”
The Bush Administration’s track record on global warming is–no surprise here–appalling. While Bush pays lip service to “sound science,” in truth, he shills for his supporters in the oil, gas and coal industries. Congressman Henry Waxman is right when he charges that W. believes that policies and industry contributions should determine America’s environmental policies, not scientific information and research. (Click here to read about Bush’s lies on Waxman’s website.)
Since 2001, Bush has created a little shop of policy horrors. This president turned his back on the Kyoto Treaty, which offered our best opportunity to attack the global warming problem. He also proposed the so-called Clear Skies Act which, like so many Bush Administration policies, does the opposite of what it purports by failing to regulate carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas.
The scary thing is that this Administration warned NASA scientists not to do any interviews “or otherwise comment on anything having to do with the film The Day After Tomorrow.” While the order was later rescinded, the Bushies tipped their hand; they don’t like science, and they certainly don’t want a fact-based discussion on climate change.
Kudos then to Al Gore and MoveOn.org, for their joint effort to encourage a dialogue on climate change, pegged to the release of the film. (The group will distribute flyers at theaters nationwide.)
The infuriating thing, as experts know, is that the threat can be addressed. Bush would just prefer if we all ignored it. Here are some actions a leader committed to building a safer, healthier and cleaner America would endorse.
1) Rely more on new technologies to reduce the emissions from cars, trucks and SUVs that cause global warming. Promote clean energy sources, including wind and solar that will reduce heat-trapping pollutants in the atmosphere.
2) Support the Apollo program for energy independence, a $300 billion, ten-year plan to invest in hybrid cars, renewable energy, efficient buildings and diversified transit. Such a program will generate more jobs than the president’s tax cuts for the rich at a fraction of the cost and, at the same time, it will enable us to reduce our dependence on Middle East oil.
3) Revive the Kyoto protocols, and let the world know that America takes climate change seriously.
But, if the Bush team and their pals in the fossil fuel industries keep thumbing their noses at climate change, then scenes from The Day After Tomorrow could become more than just a sci-fi fantasy dreamed up in Hollywood.
