Movie and the Environment
2004-06-04
Category: philosophiesI was in the mood to get out of the house for a while so I decided to take in a matinee. Going through the listings in the paper revealed only one movie worth seeing. It was an interesting little comedy called The Day After Tomorrow.
The movie wasn't too bad and it had its funny moments. I just didn't see what all the environmental hullabaloo was about. People said it warned about the dangers of global warming. I couldn't attach the complaints to the end result.
In the movie, global warming causes a shift in the ocean's currents and that sparks off huge storms and an ice age. If that were the extent of the damage, the alarm about global warming would fit fine. But that's not the final effect.
It was fun to watch the water rise over New York City. "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" did a wonderful bit where they played the scene but ran the song "Surf City" instead of the regular score. Brilliantly done! You have to see the movie just for the flood scenes.
Then everything freezes. They seemed to make a big deal of all that. I don't get it. The look of Iowa, from a space station, was identical to its look from December to March every year. Almost all of us have closets full of cold weather gear. Sure, in a month from now we will be sweating at nearly 100°F, but we still have all our winter stuff.
The only real environmental damage I saw was when the flood hit New York. I can only picture that city as a very unclean place. If all that city-ness got washed into the ocean, it would take quite a while before the ocean healed. Still, I don't recall ever hearing an environmental activist mention that particular point.
Based on all this, I decided to ignore the environmental hubbub and just enjoy the destruction of the east coast. For that, this movie is a real hoot.
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