American Rhetoric: Movie Speech

"The Day After Tomorrow" (2004)

Address to a United Nations Climate Conference in New Delhi

Dr. Jack Hall: What we have found locked in these ice cores is evidence of a cataclysmic climate shift which occurred around 10,000 years ago. The concentration of these natural greenhouse gases in the ice cores indicates that runaway warming pushed the planet into an ice age which lasted two centuries.

Respondent 1: [as translated] I'm confused. I thought you were talking about global warming, not an ice age.

Dr. Jack Hall: Yes, it is a paradox, but global warming can trigger a cooling trend. Let me explain. The northern hemisphere owes its temperate climate to the North Atlantic current. Heat from the sun arrives at the equator and is carried north by the ocean. But global warming is melting the polar ice caps and disrupting this flow. Eventually, it will shut down. And when that occurs, there goes our warm climate.

Respondent 2: Excuse me. When do you think this could happen, Professor?

Dr. Jack Hall: I don’t know. Maybe in a hundred years. Maybe in a thousand. But what I do know is that if we do not act soon, it is our children and our grandchildren who will have to pay the price.

Vice President Becker: And who's going to pay the price of the Kyoto Accord? It would cost the world’s economy hundreds of billions of dollars.

Dr. Jack Hall: With all due respect, Mr. Vice President, the cost of doing nothing could be even higher. Our climate is fragile. At the rate we’re burning fossil fuels and polluting the environment, the ice caps will soon disappear.

Vice President Becker: Professor Hall, our economy is every bit as fragile as the environment. Perhaps you should keep that in mind before making sensationalist claims.

Dr. Jack Hall: Well, the last chunk of ice that broke off was about the size of the state of Rhode Island. Some people might call that pretty sensational.

See also: This analysis of the movie's dramatizations/descriptions of climate change