question about the movie The Day After Tomarrow?

Question

When the eye of the storm is right over new york city evrything freezes, i no the movies all fictional, but why would the global warming make evrything freeze i only really need a basic answer. thanks

Answer 1

The warm water the Gulf Steam carries into the North Atlantic is generally credited with making Europe warmer than places at similar latitudes in North America. (This might not be as clear cut as we often hear. See "A new look at the Gulf Stream" at the bottom of this page.)

The Gulf Stream is part of a global system of ocean currents, which the generally accepted theory says, is driven at least in part by salty, cold water sinking in the northern Atlantic. As the water sinks, more water flows north to replace it, which means if anything slows down the sinking, the Gulf Stream would slow down and maybe other currents would slow down.

This "thermohaline (from the Greek words for heat and salt) circulation" is an important part of the Earth's climate that includes not only currents at the tops of the oceans, such as the Gulf Stream, but also currents deep under the water. The system is global and includes water that sinks around Antarctica.

The idea that a warmer world could slow the thermohaline circulation is based on the fact that anything that made the water of the North Atlantic less salty or warmer would slow down the circulation.

This is because the colder water becomes, or the more salty it becomes, the more dense (heavy) it is. Warmer or less dense water wouldn't sink as fast.

Warming could make the North Atlantic less salty by increasing the rain that falls on the ocean and also by adding more fresh water from melting arctic ice. If the water that flows into the North Atlantic from the Arctic Ocean became warmer, this would warm the Atlantic, possibly slowing the circulation. (Related story: Scientists struggle to learn Arctic Ocean's secrets)

Based on evidence from ice cores from Greenland's Ice Sheet and other sources, scientists have good reason to think that the climate made some abrupt climate changes in the past and that changes in the thermohaline circulation could have been involved. (Related document: National Science Foundation press release)

By the way, when climate scientists talk about "abrupt climate change," they are not talking about a glacier covering New York City in a matter of days or weeks.

Here's an example of what scientists mean by "abrupt climate change: The evidence "increasingly suggests that about 11,500 years ago, global temperatures fell by up to 16 degrees (F) within a decade and rainfall halved," says Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University, a leading expert in abrupt climate change.

What would this mean? Imagine a climate switch that would make temperatures in, say, Wilmington, N.C., more like those in Boston a decade from now. To make the change really extreme, imagine the East Coast becoming as dry as western Nebraska. No one's saying this is likely to happen, but it's the kind of change the Earth has seen in the past.

The movie The Day After Tomorrow uses what scientists know about the abrupt climate changes of the past to build a story about a future abrupt climate change that starts a new ice age. (Related:Movie's 'science' is mostly fiction)

In addition to ignoring what scientists mean by "abrupt climate change" and getting some very basic science wrong, the movie misses a couple of other important points about the change 10,000 years ago

Answer 2

This action picture takes a brilliant-budget, particular-consequences-crammed seem at what the international might appear as if if the greenhouse consequence and international warming continued at such tiers that they resulted in international disaster and disaster, alongside with multiple hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal waves, floods and the start of the subsequent Ice Age. on the middle of the story is a paleoclimatologist (a scientist who analyze the techniques climate varieties replaced interior the previous), Professor Jack corridor (Quaid), who tries to keep the international from the end results of international warming at the same time as additionally attempting to get to his son, Sam (Gyllenhaal), who grew to become into in manhattan city as element of a scholastic opposition, while the city grew to become into overwhelmed by making use of the chilling beginnings of the recent Ice Age. as properly to all of the different annoying circumstances Dr. corridor faces, he's likewise going against the pass as humanity races south to warmer climes, and he's almost the only one going north...

Answer 3

The (ficticious) answer given by the movie is that the huge storm is pulled extremely cold air down "from the ionosphere."

On a broader and more realistic note, increasing the planet's average temp a few degrees will make some areas colder, because weather patterns will change.

Answer 4

global warming changes ocean currents - such as the Gulf Current which brings warmth to the north. In addition, an eye of the storm always brings air from the top to the ground. Since this was such a powerful storm, the eye was able to tap into the really cold air from the high atomosphere - bringing it down to the city.

Answer 5

Kunta Kinte's answer demonstrates the inherent confusion between "global warming" and "local cooling". When people talk about global warming, they are talking about the GLOBE (duh). Some areas may get colder but other areas get much warmer, cancelling it out. The overall average effect is for it to get warmer worldwide.

NYC will not get much colder so the movie is wrong in that aspect. Areas that will get colder are Western Europe, Greenland and Newfoundland. But other areas (Western North America, polar regions) will get MUCH warmer.

Answer 6

hmmmm now..let me see.
Your question then is : Why would 'Global Warming' make everything freeze?
The inverse of this question would be: Why would 'Global Cooling' make everything burn?
Neither one make any sense, do they?
I guess thats why the movie, 'The Day After Tomorrow' is called fiction and why none of the 3 items above are likely to ever happen.