Recent scientific studies suggest “The Day after Tomorrow” is now. Professor Sybren Drijfhout from the Max-Planck Institute in Hamburg has put the film’s scenario under scrutiny and discovered humanity is very likely to experience Ice Age.
- Professor Sybren Drijfhout’s experiment
- Findings of the new study and how these relate to “The Day after Tomorrow” scenario
- Solutions to prevent “The Day after Tomorrow”
Science fiction scenarios have the gift of making a mountain out of a molehill, or at least this is the general impression that viewers have in mind at the end of a blockbuster movie. And yet, scientists have recently demonstrated that some scenarios are very likely to happen triggering more or less the same effects as the ones depicted in the movies.
It is also the case of the 2004 production, “The Day after Tomorrow” featuring Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid. The plot depicts protagonist Jack Hall’s expedition in Antarctica during which a powerful storm takes place and the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean water gets significantly colder. To put it in other words: the Ice Age has settled in.
Sybren Drijfhout is a professor at the Max-Planck Institute in Hamburg in charge of the Department of Ocean and Earth Science at Southampton. He was curious to see whether the scientific data described in the movie is possible in real life, as well.
For this reason, he has simulated the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) with the help of special computer programs. Much to his surprise, the scientist discovered that this phenomenon could have Ice Age effects on Earth. The effects are even more catastrophic when combined with global warming.
According to Drijfhout, the effects of the collapse of AMOC would not be as devastating as the movie claims they should be. Even when coupled with global warming, temperatures become only 12 degrees colder around the globe. The scientist thinks the most appropriate term for this phenomenon would be the Little Ice Age.
Unlike the scenario of the 2004 movie, the Little Ice Age will not lead to the complete destruction of the Earth. Drijfhout has explained that the global warming could cause temperatures to get back to their normal values in approximately four decades. The British Isles, however, could take a longer period to recover (around one century) because temperature are generally colder in this region.
Little or not, the scientist thinks the effects of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) should not be ignored. Humans should do everything in their power to prevent global warming and more particularly, the melting of the Antarctic ice sheets.
Image source: www.pixabay.com
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.