Because warm weather isn’t deadly enough
Submitted by Eric Worrall
The Federalist has a hilarious article, which discusses Hollywood’s big problem portraying Global Warming; its hard to make a nice day look deadly.
Citing several recent films as examples, they make a really good point. I mean, can anyone think of a Hollywood global warming film which didn’t end in a snowstorm?
From the article:
A funny thing happens when Hollywood tries to portray the horrific negative consequences of global warming: they tend to end up showing an Earth that has frozen over.
I noticed this the first time in 2004′s The Day After Tomorrow, where global warming supposedly leads to a global atmospheric inversion that buries New York City under a mountain of snow. It was a striking image: a global warming movie whose poster features the hand of the Statue of Liberty poking out of the top of a glacier.
Read it here: http://thefederalist.com/2014/07/01/global-warming-the-movie-starring-freezing/
Snow is scary – it is cold and dangerous weather, which turns friendly and familiar environments into death traps. And that polar vortex thing out of “The Day After Tomorrow” – terrifying, as if the ice was a malevolent presence, reaching out to suck the last breath of life from the heroes.
But hot weather – if it’s really hot, it’s uncomfortable, but it’s hard to imagine dying, because today is perfect weather for a trip to the beach.
It has to do with the cost/availability of CGI. When it was out of reach or simply impossible, deserts were the future (Mad Max and all that).
Someone looking for a Master’s thesis in sociology might want to consider trying to explain the explosion of apocalypticism in recent decades, as evidenced by all the above mentioned films. For my part, I always thought Walker Percy got it right in Lost In the Cosmos: man’s greatest fear is not the Apocalypse will happen, but that it won’t.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. – Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
Reblogged this on makeaneffort and commented:
I’ve been leaving my truck in the driveway idling for the last 13 years… and it still hasn’t got any warmer. I’m almost ready to give up.
Obviously this writer has never lived in a really hot climate. When it hits 40 degC (110 in old money) people don’t go to the beach, they hide. There are plenty of examples where people got stuck in their cars in the outback and made the mistake of trying to walk out. Some were found dead less than 400m from their car. Heat can be just as deadly, you just need lots of it.
The issue is , of course, that 2-4 degrees average warming isn’t about to turn the continental US into a desert and who sells films by making them about somewhere else.
Goldie says:
When it hits 40 degC (110 in old money) people don’t go to the beach, they hide.
One more reason to stay out of the sun.
http://www.aemet.es/es/eltiempo/observacion/radiacion/ultravioleta?l=izana&f=anual
Robertvd, I think the point is in “The Day After Tomorrow” the air temp dropped to -150C at the surface so all of the CO2 would have frosted out because CO2 sublimates at -76C; it was the only thing they got correct.
The original source for “The Day After Tomorrow” was a Pentagon war game to determine what their role would be in a climate upset. 2°C — nothing. 4°C — nothing. 6°C — nothing. 8°C — nothing. Etc. So then the Pentagon gamers looked at a global cooling scenario and found plenty to do, and it made the Press with headlines like Pentagon Study Predicts Global Cooling.
But Hollywood does make movies with global warming. After all, everyone knows global warming creates zombies …
Goldie
Obviously this writer has never lived in a really hot climate. When it hits 40 degC (110 in old money) people don’t go to the beach, they hide. …
This writer lives on the Southern edge of the tropics, in Hervey Bay, Australia – when it hits 40c (110) we say things like “its a bit warm today…”, and have an extra beer before we cut the lawn 🙂
more soylent green!
If it was hot, everybody could wear really skimpy, revealing costumes. While I may seem obsessed with this theme, nothing sells a bad movie better than gratuitous sex and nudity. …
Its difficult to feel depressed when lots of pretty young women are running around wearing very little.
Duster
Waterworld
Yeah I should have remembered Waterworld. But after Kevin Costner brutalised “The Postman”, one of my favourite science fiction stories, I try not to think about Costner films…
There is an interesting precedent to these cooling scare movies in the science discourse itself. During the 1950s arctic sea ice was noted to have been decreasing up to the mid-century peak in warming and there was speculation about a return to an ice free arctic. In this context Ewing and Donn published a paper (1956) proposing that an ice-free Arctic could trigger…the next ices age. Thus evidence of warming helped to kick off the global cooling scare. Note this alarmist claim based on highly speculative science received a lot of attention in the press and it preceded the Nuclear Winter scare by 23 years. What is special about the nuclear winter scare is the Sagan and others promoted it to the press and on TV even before the first paper was even published.
See more here: http://enthusiasmscepticismscience.wordpress.com/chronology-of-climate-change-science/
Weekend at Bernies?
“Robertvd, I think the point is in “The Day After Tomorrow” the air temp dropped to -150C at the surface so all of the CO2 would have frosted out because CO2 sublimates at -76C; it was the only thing they got correct.”
Except that the temperature drop was caused by super cold air from the upper atmosphere rapidly pulled down to the surface, but which failed to warm as it descended in response to the requirements of the Ideal Gas Law. I think the scenario came from a book called The Coming Global Superstorm or some such rot.
“Obviously this writer has never lived in a really hot climate. When it hits 40 degC (110 in old money) people don’t go to the beach, they hide.”
Bullsh#t.
They adapt. Humans cope very well with hot weather. Oh and then you reference cases of DEHYDRATION – inadequate water, which can happen as easily in COLD weather. Ice ages saw much less rain and great water scarcity.
Come to Chennai on a 40 degree C day and see people enjoying themselves or at least coping. Are you really claiming people cannot adapt to life in the Outback or desert, just because some folk drive out and get lost with no water? Water is the key, not temperature.
Sweaty people crawling through a desert doesn’t really look as good on screen as snow.
Heat can and does kill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Chicago_heat_wave
But it is slow and not very entertaining. Heat prostration, then stroke.
Oh, and yea, why was 1995 the peak, and not in 20 years has been exceeded…
I don’t think even a 2 degree Celsius increase would make a difference with that.
In around 1985, can’t be precise, the Northern Tableland and slopes (Tamworth) suffered a really heavy snowfall. It shut down roads up to Armidale (3500 ft above sea level and also roads from Armidale to the coast that goes through the New England National park. Armidale was isolated for several days. After this, the Armidale council building inspectors had extra A frames in kit homes. Because they felt that 4 inches of snow would collapse the roofs? Well in 1996 after a bad hail storm in September, 80% of the roofs in Armidale had to be replaced either partially or completely. Non of the kit homes suffered any damage!
tz2026
Heat can and does kill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Chicago_heat_wave
But it is slow and not very entertaining. Heat prostration, then stroke. …
From the first paragraph of your link:-
The 1995 Chicago heat wave was a heat wave which led to approximately 750 heat-related deaths in Chicago over a period of five days.[1] Most of the victims of the heatwave were elderly poor residents of the inner city, who could not afford air conditioning and did not open windows or sleep outside for fear of crime. …
Its like this pretty much every day in Hervey Bay for the whole Summer (OK, its usually a little cooler, around 100 rather than 110), but people aren’t dropping like flies. The reason – if you don’t have air conditioning, when it gets really hot, you drink plenty of beer, take off a few layers of clothes, and open the window.
Compare that to say extreme cold, places like the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, one of the coldest inhabited places on Earth, where Russian Authorities won’t even let you visit, if you can’t demonstrate that a local will take care of you during your stay, and its pretty easy to see which extreme is more dangerous for humans. We are after all a tropical species.
2 days before the day after tomorrow
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AiPUjGNTi24
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xJpvD4YpWaA
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m_btchs_sHA
Re post by: Eric Worrall says: July 1, 2014 at 11:17 pm
I live in the desert SW of the USA. 100 here can actually be pretty decent, comfortable even if you have a little shade, 105 even – ASSUMING you are a healthy active person. After all, “it’s a dry heat” and that does make a big difference – even a few percentage points higher humidity is quite noticeable and uncomfortable at these temps. Not so much for those who are more frail or have health problems that can be exacerbated by heat. 110 or higher, however, is a completely different story, somehow. I’m sure that if no one had AC a lot more people would adapt (and a lot more would die too) – but at 110 touching anything metal or even concrete is VERY uncomfortable and you sure can’t hold onto it, dashboards and steering wheels downright painful, you sure won’t be hanging out around the pool unless you have misters set up to cool the area and a deep pool (shallow pools are far too hot to be comfortable) – and much activity at all gets pretty onerous pretty quickly. There’s a world of difference between 100 and 110+.
Saren says (July 1, 2014 at 10:53 am): [re: “Snowpiercer” movie] “Other than providing part of the explanation for the cold it is barely discussed as least as far as I remember.”
The film actually (and probably unconsciously) takes a skeptical view of so-called “global warming”. The ice age is caused by geoengineering to offset warming. The simplest explanation for the overshoot is that the predicted warming never occurred. Oops! 🙂
Rational Db8
Re post by: Eric Worrall says: July 1, 2014 at 11:17 pm
… I live in the desert SW of the USA. 100 here can actually be pretty decent, comfortable even if you have a little shade, 105 even – ASSUMING you are a healthy active person. After all, “it’s a dry heat” and that does make a big difference – even a few percentage points higher humidity is quite noticeable and uncomfortable at these temps. Not so much for those who are more frail or have health problems that can be exacerbated by heat. 110 or higher, however, is a completely different story, somehow. … There’s a world of difference between 100 and 110+.
When I wrote this post, I was living in bushland West of Brisbane (I’ve since moved).
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/17/one-benefit-of-the-australian-heat-wave/
That week it hit 110 for about a week, with high humidity (80% +). During this weather, I had to mow the lawn (it was a *big* lawn – 2 acre block, and at the time I only had a hand mower), and make several trips up and down a steep hill, about a mile to the nearest General Store – our car wasn’t working, and business was slow, so I didn’t have the money to fix the car – I had to hoof it.
It was uncomfortable, but I did it, and suffered no ill health effects. Why? Not because I’m a healthy active person. I’m not, I’m a very fat, middle age person. The reason I did it is I dressed sensibly, drank buckets of water, and, most important of all, I’d been living in these conditions for long enough that my body had adapted.
At the moment, tonight, I’m shivering cold, even though I’m wearing a sweater – in 70F. The reason is I’m not used to it, my body has adjusted to hot, tropical weather, and anything below 80F feels cold.
We’re a tropical species. People live comfortably in steaming jungles and baking savannahs, far hotter conditions than even the conditions I live in, because ultimately we’re a tropical species. Our bodies are optimised for extreme heat. In any conditions other than extreme heat, we have to wear clothes, to stay warm.
96 degrees, 80% humidity yesterday afternoon out side here in central Florida. Washed and waxed my car and I’m still alive!!
heat is manageable if youre smart, I and 5 furry hounds managed pretty well in the 44/45c heat this year we do have a fan I use for the late afternoon to move the hot air from the ceiling and out,and directed at the dogs if theyre too hot, and after theyve had a douse in water
apart from that its a matter of sitting outside under a tree during the worst of the peak from 1 to 5pm, never have had and never would bother with aircon.
a warm to hot shower also makes it seem cooler when you get out:-)
and a nice hot cuppa is always cooling.
I doubt we would do very well in icy snowy weather, house isnt set up for that, roof gutters etc wouldnt cope too well for starters.
Paul Jackson says:
July 1, 2014 at 5:06 pm
“Robertvd, I think the point is in “The Day After Tomorrow” the air temp dropped to -150C at the surface so all of the CO2 would have frosted out because CO2 sublimates at -76C; it was the only thing they got correct.”
Not at the low partial pressure we have for CO2. See the infamous WUWT freezer experiment with dry ice blocks. So, if that did occur in the film, they got that wrong as well. That’s reliable.
anengineer wrote
“..After all, everyone knows global warming creates zombies …”
I think it’s the zombies who are creating golobal warming.
“The Day the Earth Caught Fire” & “The Night of the Big Heat” are both English films from the 60’s that show an overheated planet without showing blizzards. The former film must have made a big impression on Phil Jones because it uncannily outlines the AGW scare. The only exception is that the overheating is from dual USA and USSR nuclear bomb tests blowing the Earth off its normal orbit.