The calamities and harshness of weather in this winter shows that something is happening wrong in the climate patterns of the world. Canada, the US and many European countries are experiencing the worst and freezing weather not experienced in many years. The worst polar winds that blew in these countries are showing the extreme imbalance in the climatic pattern of the world. At the same time, increasing number and intensity of storms and typhoons in different parts of the world, accompanied with the increasing rains and flooding is also alarming.
The documentary film ‘An inconvenient truth’ was released in 2006 and received very warm welcome from the audience around the world. This documentary shows former Vice-President of America, Al Gore, giving lectures and visiting different places to convince the people of the danger of increasing global warming. The film received positive response from majority of critics while some criticized it as a way of earning political fame and personal reputation. However, the film has aroused increased concern around the world about the worsening situation of global warming and its impacts on life on earth. The movie has been included in the curriculum of different schools and colleges in different countries of the world and many governments have distributed the free copies of the movie to the students and parents.
Global warming is not a new issue. The issue has repeatedly been raised by different scientists and political and social figures in past as well, but fast-paced changes in the world climate in recent years has made it one of the most debated issues these days. The increased industrial growth and activity since 70’s and even earlier had made scientist concerned about the increasing pollution on earth and their long-run impacts on the environment. It was feared that the increasing pollution might imbalance the natural elements responsible for keeping the world a suitable place for living and might give birth to disastrous consequences that might result in the complete extinction of human race on earth and we might start with a new ice age. But large industries and corporations became very much afraid of these ideas as they required decreasing the industrial activities so that dangerous emissions should be decreased. They started lobbying against such thoughts to prove them to be wrong and baseless. The controversy continues and both the sides come up with new evidences and facts after regular intervals.
The discussion is heated by the release of new documentaries and films and publication of new books on the issue. Hollywood movies like ‘2012’ and ‘The day after tomorrow’ and many other books increased the public interest about the issue but there still remains a lot to be done in this regard.
The first and most critical point is to accept global warming a serious problem. When this problem was first raised, it was not considered reasonable enough to be discussed and accepted as a problem and unless an issue is accepted as serious and worth-describing, nothing constructive can be done in this regard. On most parts, big and influential industrialists were responsible to belittle this issue. They hired the services of scientists who tried their best to make this problem appear baseless. They agreed with the fact that climatic conditions were experiencing brisk changes but instead of blaming global warming and industrial emissions responsible for that, they came up with numerous other reasons like natural climatic changes, deforestation and others responsible for these drastic changes and not the global warming. No doubt, many other factors may also be responsible for these unexpected climatic changes but global warming stands at the front line.
The documentary claims that majority of the scientists believe that world temperature is rising and global warming is the root cause of all the problems being faced by mother earth. At the same time, they show numerous charts, statistical analysis and other relevant data showing how the world temperature has increased very recently. The rise in world temperature is directly proportional to the increase in the industrial activities and heat emissions from these industries. With the advancement of world in different industries and especially the increasing industrial activities in countries like China, India, Brazil and many others, the problem is getting intensified.
After the global warming is accepted as the prime reason of all the climatic calamities and imbalances in the world, the question arises; what might be the possible outcomes of this increasing world temperature? The documentary also shows with solid evidences that increasing world temperature or global warming has given birth to so many problems that were never witnessed in the past, or let’s say near past (of at least hundreds and thousands of years).Increasing world temperature might cause the melting of ice in the north and south poles of the world, raising the level of seas. When the sea level would rise, many cities and towns located on the sea-sides may sink and millions of people might be displaced from their homes. At the same time, many other catastrophic outcomes like increased storms, typhoons, extreme and harsh weather, unexpected rains and flooding and many other elements may combine together to eliminate the human race altogether from the surface of the earth. Only coastal flooding might never be the cause of complete extinction of humans but numerous other consequences like crop failures, storms with too high waves, and draught and famine might bring an end to the human existence. There are so many other factors and reasons which might result in all these that can be better understood and explained by a relevant scientists but it is a frightening fact that things seem to be moving in the same direction.
According to the proofs shown in the movie, polar ice is melting briskly, rays of sun that were reflected back by these ice beds are now absorbed by the sea and earth, adding more to the heat of the earth, number and intensity of storms and typhoons have also abnormally increased in different parts of the world, sea level is rising sharply, ice on different peaks and mountains and places of high altitude is quickly melting and overall, we are witnessing different abnormal climatic activities in different parts of the world. The places that had never experienced any snowfall in their whole history, are experiencing snowfall and world seems to be slowly drifting towards another ice age. The frightening picture of the world shown in the movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ is, more or less, turning into a reality.
The warnings shown in the movie are good enough to shake our conscience and make us more responsible in this regard. Global warming is a reality and sooner we accept this, sooner we would be able to start our work for the remedy. As Al Gore said while receiving the Academy Award for the best documentary, ‘This is not a political issue and this is not the problem of a country or region. It is a moral issue and all the human beings are equally responsible to reverse the situation so that our future generations might live in a world, if not better than ours but should be at least as good as we have today.’
The solution for the problem is also suggested at the end of the movie. We are not in position to force the governments to pass laws for stopping hazardous industrial emissions but we must not forget that we are the end users of every industrial product. If we try our best to consume less and less energy, we may be able to change the scenario because world temperature is the aggregate of individual energy consumption. If we use hybrid cars, use solar energy, waste less water while taking shower or even turn OFF the extra lights in our house or office, we may be putting our share in saving our future generations. This is the only and most sustainable way of reversing the direction of global warming.