In a few hours I will meet a friend to see "The Day After Tomorrow" at a local theater. Should be a blast, in more than one way. I've read the reviews and surprisingly they are pretty good. Basically critics think it is a decent popcorn flick and as long as you don't mind checking your mind at the door you should enjoy the ride. Not unlike disaster flicks of old, where the plot too a back seat to the actual ride.
I mean lets face it, this story basically has the United States getting freeze dried in days. I'm not scientific expert, but a climatic change like that would probably kill all life on Earth instantly and not just freeze the Empire State Building into the world's largest popsicle.
Regardless of how unrealistic the movie may be in terms of pace and pure science, it is creating a debate on a subject that should be near the top of our political dialogue; environmental damage caused by the undaunted expansion of human beings across the Earth and our unrelenting attempts to change our surroundings anyway we can as fast as we can. As one of those human beings I am as guilty as the next guy. I drive a car. I drink my cans of coke. I spew garbage and toxins into the air and ground. I do all of this, I fully admit, but I do recognize the dangers and I am not so fool hardy to think that one day the Earth will fight back like the human immune system fights a virus.
We are not a virus, although we do act like one at times, but we do have a tendency to think of the hear and now; while giving little thought to future we leave our children and their children. Not just in relation to the environment, but to world as a whole. We argue over the silliest of issues. We disagree with each other based on the flag we stand under, the color of our skin, the religion we subscribe to and the very way each of us simple exists.
We may not be hours away from the day after everything ends, at least not on the human clock; but in the great scheme of life on earth we are minutes away from our own destruction. Should that day come and any of us survive, how will the history books that follow treat every last one of us living today? Will they see us as unsuspecting agents in our own demise, active participants in the destruction of humanity or simply as silly souls to blinded by the light of our todays to see the dark curtain or tomorrow?