A researcher has warned that the 2004 blockbuster movie “The day after tomorrow” is no longer just a part of science fiction but is already happening in reality. In movies, abrupt climate change effects can show up overnight, but in reality most climate change appears over decades of change.

The movie “The Day after Tomorrow” is generally based on the theory of “abrupt climate change”. As a consequence of global warming, the currents that circulate the ocean water around the world shut down, boiling up the tropics and freezing the North Atlantic.

Research suggests that the Atlantic Ocean’s Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) which also produces the Gulf Stream, is getting close to the dropping point, causing a wide area of North America and Europe to experience freezing temperatures for many years to come.

Running Atlantic’s Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC):

As of a recently published report, environment researcher Niklas Boers discovered that it’s turning out to be increasingly more likely that the AMOC could shut down unexpectedly.

The framework is responsible for moving warm surface streams from the tropical regions to Europe and Greenland through the Atlantic, where it freezes and sinks to the seafloor. Without this realistic transport line system, a huge part of North America’s east coast and Europe would be diving into freezing temperatures. The last ice age was caused by a huge ice lake cracking with a surge of freshwater upsetting the Atlantic Ocean, and was probably the last time when AMOC collapsed.

Was it destroyed?

While most of the movie is safely in the domain of science fiction, there is some practical scientific reasons  to support the concerns about potentially irreversible alterations in our climate within a couple of decades that would influence our communities, infrastructure, health, and ecosystems.

In the movie, the weathercaster Jack Hill, whose character was played by Dennis Quad, who already warned that climate change could create an ice age. Just after the warning, marine zoologists noticed a sudden chilling in the Atlantic Ocean, activating hurricanes off New York City.

According to Boers, it’s all an over-exaggeration because the effects would take hundreds of years, and also North America won’t get as chilly as the movie suggests. However, it is still a matter for concern. If the AMOC ever subsides; the long term effects could be catastrophic.