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| Group Uses Film to Promote Global Warming |
| 2004-05-28 |
| EFL.They want global warming? Oh, theyâre from Maine. Canât blame them. Ever been in Maine in February? Environmental activists in Maine have latched onto a new summer disaster movie as a way to spread their message about the perils of global warming. Yeah, couldnât see this coming, could we? Volunteers for the Natural Resources Council of Maine will pass out fliers to moviegoers at Portland-area theaters on Friday and Saturday nights after the opening of "The Day After Tomorrow." On Friday, at Hoyts Falmouth Cinema 10, the Sierra Club and the Maine Council of Churches will host a preview of the movie that depicts global disaster caused by climate change. The preview will be followed by a panel discussion featuring a University of New Hampshire scientist, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and others. The Maine Council of Churches? Maybe theyâll fly up Elian in the private jet to sign some autographs. Get Al Gore up there for a couple of sessions in the Stop Global Warming dunk tank. Heâs got the screaming freak act down. Environmentalists admit that many of the special-effects scenarios featured in "The Day After Tomorrow" are far-fetched. The $125 million movieâs pivotal scenes include a snowstorm in New Delhi, tornadoes in Los Angeles and grapefruit-size hail in Tokyo. For scientists, abrupt climate change usually means change that happens over a few decades, not a full-blown ice age that impossibly descends on New York City within just a few days."This movie distorts global warming, obviously," said Maureen Drouin, northeast regional representative of the Sierra Club. "Itâs a disaster movie. But we also feel that the Bush administration is distorting the science on global warming."â Itâs bullshit, but itâs our bullshit. The sheeple will eat it up. Also, Bush is Hitler... Mark Hays, outreach coordinator for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, compared the movie to a "good fable.It essentially seeks to entertain while touching on more basic truths," he said. "The basic truth here is that global warming is real, itâs happening today, and there are going to be impacts that hit close to home here in Maine." Better pay attention to him. Heâs an "outreach coordinator". To Jon Reisman, it is all just so much hype. Reisman, associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Maine at Machias, said environmentalistsâ activities around "The Day After Tomorrow" fit a pattern in the development of climate change policy. "To get it on the agenda," he said, "you have to make people think something terrible is happening." A professor said this!? He obviously didnât get the memo... |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #16 "I'm not a real meteorologist but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night." Roland Emmerich |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2004-05-28 9:01:57 PM |
| #15 I was being sarcastic. Anymouse is right. Climate results from a complex system we don't understand. One of my main beefs about the climate change 'debate' is the implied assumption that without human induced changes, the climate would be stable, which is we know for sure is untrue. The climate is changing all the time. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-05-28 8:33:04 PM |
| #14 Wood's Hole Oceanagraphic Institution has a good summary of the science relating to "abrupt climate change." Link Basically the film like most of the environmental movement is a bad joke promulgated by liberal arts majors who avoided science like the plague and a few scientists in search of grants from said liberal arts majors. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-05-28 8:23:33 PM |
| #13 BigEd, Strieber wrote "Wolfen" which was turned into a respectable pot boiler of a movie. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-05-28 8:09:24 PM |
| #12 Well first it heats up... then it cools. Real fast. So fast that anyone overtaken is just dead, dead, dead. BUT if you manage to get inside and slam the door, you're okay. Uh huh... After you've warned people not to go outside or you'll die... you go outside and WALK from D.C. to New York. And when you get there, the storm is easing up. Phew... but a lot of hassle could have been saved just by waiting it out and taking a helicopter, no? You'll get to see a young woman risk life and limb to save another's purse. Why? Because it has her passport in it! Can you imagine being at the end of the world as we know it and NOT have your passport? This move is about as good as any other big budget summer film, which is to say it is big and loud and somewhat fun to view for the SFX. I predict it will have all the policy impact of, say, Independence Day. Said Richard Roeper of the opening scene in Antarctica - The snow looked like potato flakes and the actors looked about as cold as models at an Eddie Bauer shoot. :) |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-05-28 3:52:25 PM |
| #11 tu3031: Yes, I've been to Maine in February. It's colder than a fart in a dead Eskimo. I read Communion when it first came out and thought the guy took one to many acid trips. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2004-05-28 3:04:43 PM |
| #10 Anybody remember the other film based on a Whitley Strieber book? |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-28 2:06:21 PM |
| #9 And where did this "science" come from? Well, it's worth noting that "The Day After Tomorrow" was "suggested in part" by a book called "The Coming Global Superstorm," by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber. Art Bell is a UFO buff who hosts a syndicated radio show devoted to the paranormal. Whitley Strieber is the author of a best-selling 1987 book about his many encounters with inquisitive alien beings. The name of the book is "Communion: A True Story." -Kurt Loder MTV Correspondent Serendipity. MTV correspondent criticizes Global Warming disaster film because of association with UFO junkies! Loder's Day After Article Al Gore and Whitley Streiber. Two peas in a pod. We got to go easy on Art Bell. At least he's pro "War in Iraq", as far as I understand. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-28 2:02:43 PM |
| #8 As a meteorologist with a little understanding of climate processes...I can assure you only thing: Anyone/any scientist who states emphatically that they "know for sure" what is happening is a liar. The atmosphere and the ocean have countless modes and harmonics that make them impossible to fully quantify. Tree rings are about our only objective means of capturing recent climate history. The groups using glacier and Antarctic ice cores as well as ocean beds to look at various isotope ratios are guessing. That's the dirty little secret you will never see in Discover or National Geographic. There are a number of assumptions one has to make in order to extrapolate current processes back thousands of years. The worst offenders are the climate modelers. If current numerical weather prediction models blow up after 5 to 7 days (on average) and become useless operationally...then why in the heck would one believe a climate model? Climate models are grossly simplistic. The models are at the complete mercy of the modeler who plugs in the appropriate parameterization (read fudge factor) to emulate atmospheric processes that cannot be explicitly calculated. In other words the worldview of the modeler will absolutely affect the results of the model through the choice of paramterization schemes. I can run an identical climate model and get global Ice Age with one run and a global sauna with another simply by varying certain input parameterizations. How do they get away with it? Most Americans are scientifically and mathematically illiterate...and that goes double for the liberal arts dominated press. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2004-05-28 1:37:24 PM |
| #7 99% Special affects, 1% Science. Kind of like an LA Times field poll. Question for the LLL: Was the directors last movies a correct depiction of how space aliens will try to conquer earth? And will the DNC try to negotiate with the aliens when they come? President to alien: âwhat do you want form us?â Alien: âDiiiiiiiiieeeeee!â Same as Jihadis, little room for negotiations. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-05-28 1:07:07 PM |
| #6 #3 Phil B I think the scenario is that the global warming causes a change in the Gulf Stream, which then brings less warm air to North America, causing an ice age. I don't have any expertise (or opinion) about it, but did I see a TV show about this scenario on Discovery or some such cable channel, and it was disturbing. |
| Posted by: Mike Sylwester 2004-05-28 1:06:45 PM |
| #5 The movie has been universally panned after the prescreenings. Don't think that this dog will earn back the advertising budget. It should have gone straight to DVD. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-05-28 12:59:54 PM |
| #4 No specifics given; no specifics are necessary. Exactly. Why let facts get in the way of a |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-05-28 11:50:39 AM |
| #3 The basic truth here is that global warming is real Err! the movie is about global cooling. Unless global warming is going to make everywhere much colder. Yes thats it! Now Kyoto makes sense! We have to stop global warming because it is going to cause global cooling. So we have to reduce CO2 emissions, until we have to increase them. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-05-28 11:42:25 AM |
| #2 Lilek's notes an interview with the director: But thanks to a commenter in Blairâs blog, I found this interview with Roland Emmerich interesting. Heâs the director of âIndependence Day,â which I liked, and the upcoming eco-shriek âThe Day After Tomorrow.â This is a German interview. I donât think heâll be saying this for American interviewers. I wish he would. After noting that everyone he knows in Hollywood drives electric cars, he weighs in on American politics. Emmerich: The intelligent Americans are so appalled by what their president does, you cannot imagine it. Q: Are these things really communicated in the open? A: Yes, for the first time there are now open discussions. Q: Whereas the infamous Patriot Act has even succeeded in muzzling media. A: That is a giant problem. Priceless. Just priceless. Two clueless twits who actually believe that the Patriot Act â the Infamous Patriot Act â empowered government to âmuzzle media.â No specifics given; no specifics are necessary. But things are looking up; for âthe first time there are now open discussions.â Because we're Americans with short attention spans, and we've forgotten all about the mass graves filled with local TV anchormen, NPR hosts, and newspaper editorial cartoonists. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-28 11:41:07 AM |
| #1 They want global warming? Oh, theyâre from Maine. Canât blame them. Ever been in Maine in February? Heh, I will be loading up my SUV (a 4Runner qualifies, doesn't it?) and driving back and forth between the Bay Area and the Central Valley this upcoming holiday weekend. No need to send thanks; I am more than willing to help out.... ;) |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-05-28 11:34:48 AM |