Global
warming, a phrase has already become a world-wide known concern nowadays. As
being described, global warming itself means the observed and projected
increases in the average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans. People
are talking about how the world is getting hotter, unpredictable weather; too
much rain at a time while on the other time there could be a very hot weather
that feels like melting everything up. Thus, not only ends there, these events
are being predicted by some of people as the indications of the end of this
world civilization. Apocalypse, doomsday, and the end of everything they say
through many aspects starting from science, theology, mystic, and many more
points of view.
Despite
these theories people are talking about, global warming is still happening and
the impact can be seen very clearly these days.
Although at the moment people are already complaining about what is
changing from our dying earth, even more terrible predictions that are being made
by scientists caused from global warming must become our concern. Two major
effects are the increasing temperature on the earth about 3° to 5° C and the
rise of sea levels will reach 25 meters by the year 2100. These surely will
cause the increase of the frequency, duration, and intensity of floods while on
some other times will cause the exact opposite which is droughts and heat
waves, not to mention horrifying tornadoes.
There are so
many effects of global warming in real examples. Katrina hurricane that hit United States on 2005 is one of the deadliest U.S.
hurricanes since 1928 and the damage it caused was estimated around $81
billion. More recently example is flood
that hit Poland as it killed at least seven people and caused great devastation
which could cost more than EUR 2 billion in form of losses for hundreds homes
and evacuation process for thousands of people. Not to forget the latest one is
the flood that hit Singapore
on June 2010 that turned one of the famous areas Orchard Road into ‘Orchard River’.
These events
somehow can also be seen through the eye of entertainment, especially in films.
Although not really sure whether the films are inspired by these true calamity
events or like some other believers who said that films are some sort of the
prophecy of what might come in the future, one thing for sure is that there
surely is a connection between catastrophic or post-apocalyptic movies with
disasters that happen in our real world. Moreover, it is surely not a weird
thing if the films cast flooding as one of the main reason that could leash
apocalypse unto the earth we are living since the world itself contains water
as ¾ of its division. As can be seen in “Waterworld”, a post-apocalyptic movie
describes how the world has turned into one huge ocean with only very small
amount of land and living creatures including human beings. This movie that was
published in 1995 shows how the world faces its doomsday through great flooding
caused by global warming and the melting of icebergs in south poles. Another
movie that has similar theme is one with the title, “The Day After Tomorrow”, a
2004 film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming through a
series of extreme weather events started with a very huge tsunami and followed
by a new ice age. The point that can be made from these two films examples is
even though they are merely fiction, but the theories of the doomsday are real
and could just happen to our world.
As real as it
can be, it is understandable that films are being made to chase the reality and
put it into the fiction in order to touch the feeling and emotion of the
audiences even more. However, sometimes the impact of the film itself can be
overwhelming as in “2012”,
a science fiction disaster film released in 2009. The film is about the 2012
phenomenon and its prediction which in that year there will be cataclysmic
events based on Mayanism, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar saying the world
will ended in the year 2012. One of the most fearsome disasters in this movie
is also about huge flooding that will cover the whole earth. By then, the fear
of this calamity does not end there. For some people, they being affected by
the film truly believe that this 2012 phenomenon will happen and this has
caused so many discussions among believers, skeptics, and those who are
on-lookers toward this matter.
Thus,
regardless of these films predictions on what could happen to our earth;
whether it is about the melting of iceberg, the coming of the new ice age, or
even a very huge tsunami that could sweep away everything on this earth’s
surface, what is sure of that they all
being predicted happen as the impact of global warming. These have already
happened in small scale in our real world such as longer and more devastating
floods, heat waves and drought that kill, iceberg is starting to melt in South
poles, very cold winter with terrible blizzards, and also hurricanes. Still no
matter what may come, we all know that global warming can be reduced for it is
in our own hands, our own control.
Therefore, instead of worrying and
being fearful towards the end of days, we should try more in fighting and
preventing against these possibilities by caring our environments even more
than we have done before. As in the ending of the catastrophic films, although
the people in the movie must went through so many challenging problems and
sufferings, they all won the battle against the deadly natural disasters and
they could start to make their own happy ending. The happy ending that we all,
human beings in this lovely world of ours, must become our primary goal in
life, for the sake of ours and for our next generations.
