This is what I put on my internet site:
(
http://www.euronet.nl/users/e_wesker/dat.html )
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"The Day after Tomorrow", spectacular & amusing bull****
These days a new (intended) "blockbuster movie" is released: "The Day
after Tomorrow". In this movie a climate catastrophe is riding
roughshod all over the world. First all kinds of voilent weather is
raking numorous places, and then "the big freeze" follows. In my
opinion it is a load of rubbish, which might give rise to an
opportunity to greenhouse sceptics to ridicule sound climate science
done by e.g. NOAA or the KNMI. Therefore I list some details from the
movie which are plain wrong or highly improbable.
The special affects look good as far as I can see from the trailers
available on the internet. From this point of view I may well go to
the cinema and watch it. But only in the same way that a looked at
James Bond movies: I am looking at unpretentious amusement. Don't take
it seriously.
Some minor details
Tornadoes in Los Angeles
In the movie Los Angeles is levelled by huge F4 to F5 multiple vortex
tornadoes. This is simply impossible. The sea surface temperatures off
the Californian coast are far too low to create the conditions needed
to produce such beasts. If there are places as examples where no
tornadoes (not even a waterspout) are possible these are the
subtropical areas where upwelling of cold water takes place: Marocco,
Namibia & the NW of South Africa, California and Peru & Northern
Chili.
A 300 ft tidal wave generated by a storm
A 300 ft tidal wave generated by a "superstorm" sweeps over lower
Manhattan. (Buildings do not topple - which is highly unlikely.) Also
this is simply impossible. The worst case scenario for New York is a
repeat of 'the New England hurricane of 1938' and the eye making
landfall slightly South-West of the city, thus sending the worst part
of the storm and its accompanying storm surge into the New York
harbor. In such a scenario the storm surge will be 30 ft above the
normal tide. Lower Manhattan will be inundated, and the subway will be
flooded. JFK international airport will be rendered useless due to
flooding. So: Quite major inconveniance and some $20 billion economic
damage, but nothing like in the movie.
The trigger is a big ice shelf breaking off near Antarctica
Quite big ice sheets (sometimes as big as 5000 - 10000 kmē!) have
broken away from the Antarctic pack ice in recent years. Up to now no
appreciable climate effects due to these events have been observed.
They are probably a result of the present warming, so a consequence.
Secondly: The influence of these events on the sea currents in the
Northern Hemisphere is (at most) very indirect.
Climate change
Climate change doesn't occur in one day. So "the big freeze" in the
movie is not credible. The movie is in fact a highly exaggerated
version of the Younger Dryas cold wave which occurred 12700 years ago.
This was caused by a huge fresh water flood from the Laurentide Ice
cap (on Canada) into the Atlantic. Due to this the gulf stream
stopped, causing the tempratures in Europe and North America to drop
dramatically within 50 years. It was a mini ice age which lasted some
1200 years. 11500 years ago the climate flipped back to normal.
Currently the Younger Dryas cold wave scenario is regarded by most
climate scientists as highly improbable. A similar conclusion can be
found in the last IPCC report.
If you want to read some more on the subject of climate change, on
this internet site quite a few small articles on it can be found. As a
start look at
http://www.euronet.nl/users/e_wesker/climate.html
A final remark
Enjoy the movie, but don't take it seriously.
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Mazzel & broge / kind regards, Evert Wesker
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
http://come.to/wesker (redirect URL, no adv's), or
http://www.euronet.nl/users/e_wesker/