The Coming Global Superstorm
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The Coming Global Superstorm is a 1999 book by Art Bell & Whitley Strieber which predicts that global warming might produce sudden and catastrophic climatic effects. The 2004 movie, The Day After Tomorrow is based in part on this book.
The book posits the following theory:
- First, that the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic drift generates a cordon of warm water around the north pole, which in turn creates a cordon of warm air that holds in a frozen mass of arctic air.
- Second, that if the Gulf Stream were to shut down, that barrier would fail, releasing a flood of frozen air into the northern hemisphere, effecting a sudden and drastic temperature shift.
The book discusses a possible cause of the failure of the gulf stream: that the melting of the polar ice caps could drastically affect the salinity of the North Atlantic drift by dumping a large quantity of freshwater into the world's oceans.
Bell and Strieber explain the possibility that such current destabilizations have occurred before. Among their citations is the island city of Nan Madol - the claim is made that its construction, with exacting tolerances and extremely heavy basalt materials, necessitates a high degree of technical competancy. Since no such society exists in the modern record - or, even, in legend - this society must have been destroyed by dramatic means. While other explanations beside a global meteorological event are possible, a correlating evidence set is presented in the woolly mammoth. Strieber and Bell assert that, since mammoths have been found preserved with food still in their mouths and undigested in their stomachs, that these animals must have been cut down quickly, in otherwise normal conditions, and been preserved so well by quick freezing. This is taken as evidence of a rapid onset of a global blizzard or similar event.
Interspersed with the analytical parts of the book are a series of interlinked short stories, describing what might transpire today, should a destabilization of the North Atlantic Current occur. These fictional accounts of "current events" as the meteorological situation deteriorates provided background and inspiration for the 2004 science-fiction film The Day After Tomorrow and, indeed, some events from the book are portrayed in the film with little modification.
