Global warming hits this weekend
May 27, 2004 16: 19 EST
Summer Blockbuster season starts this weekend and first up is a message about global warming in the big-budget movie "The Day After Tomorrow".
It's an environmental disaster flik that depicts an abrupt shift in the planet's climate.
In the film, global warming triggers an extreme change in ocean currents and plunges the planet into a new Ice Age, all within 96 hours.
OK, it is Hollywood but some scientists hope audiences will take a step back from the hype and start thinking about real climate change.
"It's not a bunch of baloney," said Henry Pollack, who helped prepare the 2001 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
A report from the Union of Concerned Scientists projects that by the end of the century, temperatures in Michigan will rise 6-10 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter and 7-13 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, affecting everything from lake levels to human health.
About 10,000 years ago much of the polar ice caps melted and poured too much fresh water into the North Atlantic Ocean, disrupting the currents that stabilize the Earth's climate system and causing a "mini Ice Age".
Worldwide, the average temperature has warmed about 1 degree during the last century. Sea levels also have risen about 8 inches due to expansion of warming waters.
Most climate modeling suggests a rise of 1-3 feet in sea levels during the next 100 years. The upper limit is enough to take out most of Southern Florida.
The Union of Concerned Scientists report suggests three strategies to reduce the potential impacts of climate change: Reducing heat-trapping gas emissions, minimizing pressures on the environment by improving air quality and limiting sprawl, and preparing for impacts that cannot be avoided though better planning and emergency preparedness.
Image courtesy of the Sierra Club
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