Is there anyone among us who hasn’t seen the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow? I must have watched it at least five times. Starring Dennis William Quaid, the movie tells the story of a climate disaster and humanity’s struggle to survive in its aftermath.

There’s a striking scene in the film. It takes place at the United Nations Global Warming Conference in New Delhi. Dennis Quaid, playing climatologist Professor Jack Hall, explains that the northern hemisphere owes its climate to the North Atlantic Current, which carries heat from the equator northward. However, global warming is melting the ice sheets, disrupting the current, and will eventually stop it — which would mean the end of our warm climate. When delegates ask how long this would take, he says perhaps in a hundred or even a thousand years — but that our grandchildren will pay a heavy price.

Naturally, the politicians ignore Jack, thinking about the economic costs and their political futures, and take no action. But then something unexpected happens: the climate catastrophe, thought to be far off in the future, arrives suddenly. After a series of terrifying weather events, the world enters a new ice age. Millions die. And, as always, the cost of ignoring scientists is paid by vast numbers of innocent people.

Thankfully, it’s just a movie, right? According to an article published in Nature, not exactly… Scientists have warned that the rapid melting of Antarctica’s ice sheet is causing a dramatic slowdown in deep ocean currents, which could have devastating effects on the climate. A report by an Australian scientific team indicates that deep ocean currents could decline by 40% by 2050. These currents are vital for the global circulation of heat, oxygen, carbon, and nutrients that life depends on.

These deep ocean currents get their driving force from the downward movement of cold, dense salty water near Antarctica. Melting glaciers, however, mix in freshwater, reducing the seawater’s density and weakening this driving force.

This situation puts our planet in grave danger.

You might be wondering: Is the warming continuing, or has it stopped somewhere along the way? Unfortunately, it hasn’t stopped. It’s continuing. According to ocean temperature measurements jointly prepared by NOAA and the University of Maine, in April the average sea surface temperatures surpassed the 2016 record of 21°C, reaching 21.1°C.

In fact, humanity is aware of the danger. What needs to be done is also clear: abandon a fossil-fuel-based lifestyle. But we can’t take the necessary steps; we remain in inertia. Perhaps, as we mentioned in our previous article, it’s a case of “after me, the flood!” Want an example? Recently, G7 ministers met to discuss the phase-out of coal-fired power plants, but they failed to agree on a deadline. If it would help, we could give them the deadline ourselves: immediately, right now, without wasting another moment, end fossil fuel consumption and transition to lifestyles in harmony with nature’s rhythm. Otherwise, there are pitch-black clouds on the horizon.

In short, we can say this: The day after tomorrow is today…

Until the next article, stay healthy…

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