The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 disaster movie centred on climate change. It's about people saving the world versus people destroying the world. The unrealistically frequent anomalous weather events and terrible dialogue serve to sensationalise the genuine threat of global warming at the expense of scientific integrity and good taste. The film also enjoys violating the laws of thermodynamics.

The script was based on The Coming Global Superstorm, co-written by Whitley Strieber (famous for writing books about alien abduction) and Art Bell. And it's a shame, because the composer, Harald Kloser, seemed to be the only one taking his job seriously.

Aftermath of the disasters depicted
After most countries in the northern hemisphere are destroyed by massive storms followed by freezing over along with millions of refugees going south, the movie ends with astronauts saying how clear the skies looked due to pollutants being flushed out by the storms. Here is what the movie fails to address:


 * Food shortages brought by both destruction of farm land, extinction of many plants and too many refugees.
 * Shortage of both medical supplies and medical professionals.
 * Shortage of clean drinking water.
 * Lack of transportation.
 * Fuel shortages.
 * Damage to infrastructure caused by the storms.
 * Massive ethnic tensions.
 * Most communication systems would be catastrophically damaged by storms.
 * Disease outbreaks due to overcrowding and lack of medical supplies.
 * Almost certain economic collapse due to major economic centers being destroyed and most currencies likely becoming worthless.
 * Sharp increases in criminal activity due to overcrowding, lack of essential supplies, crumbling economy and ethnic tensions.
 * Mass extinction due to rapid climate change which would cause further shortages in food supplies.
 * Shortages of raw materials due to many sources of iron, copper among other metals being frozen over.

With any disaster, there will always be shortages of supplies due to infrastructure. A good example of weather disaster causing supply shortages would be Hurricane Katrina. When the storm ended entire towns suffered major damage to infrastructure. Roads were blocked by flood waters and debris. In turn this made getting clean drinking water, food and medical supplies to people much more difficult. The infrastructure issues after disasters can cause breaks in supply chains. That alone can cause serious strain to a nation's economy. Keep in mind that Hurricane Katrina was a single storm in one region. Now with the movie, it shows numerous disasters taking place that culminated in a new ice age. How would any government cope with near complete destruction of infrastructure, farm lands and raw materials?

Various funnies
In an irony meter-smashing move, Patrick Michaels' response to the film was that he "[bristle]s when lies dressed up as 'science' are used to influence political discourse."

William Hyde, a palaeoclimatologist from Duke University, had to be bribed with $100 on Usenet to be persuaded to watch it. Hyde summarized his review of the film by stating: