Although it's summer, I was chilly in the theatre. It had nothing to do with the strong air-conditioning; it was a reaction to the new movie "The Day After Tomorrow."

The Hollywood blockbuster takes a big-budget, special effects-filled look at what the world would look like if the greenhouse effect and global warming elevate to such levels that they trigger worldwide catastrophe, including hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal waves, floods and the beginning of a new Ice Age.

At the centre of the story is a poleoclimatologist Professor Adrian Hall (portrayed by actor Dennis Quaid), who studies the way weather patterns changed in the past in an effort to save the world from the effects of global warming. He's also trying to rescue his son from New York City, which is entombed in a deep-freeze of ice and snow.

The movie is a vivid portrayal of a leaked Pentagon report published by the British weekly The Observer.

The report predicts "abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies."

Some examples given in the dramatic report include:

Britain will experience winters similar to those in current-day Siberia as European temperatures drop off radically by 2020.

By 2007 violent storms will make large parts of the Netherlands uninhabitable and lead to a breach in the aqueduct system in California that supplies all water to densely populated southern California.

"Catastrophic" shortages of potable water and energy will lead to widespread war by 2020.

China will be ravaged by colder winters and hotter summers, triggering widespread famine.

Experts have pointed out the Pentagon report is a "worst case" scenario, in the sense that most climatologists say such impacts are highly improbable.

But highly improbable does not mean impossible. The scenes in the movie perfectly depict what the report predicts, which should sound an alarm for everyone living on a globe which is braving increasing natural disasters.

This year Beijingers had to shed their warm winter clothes and switch to skirts and short-sleeved shirts in early April. Statistics show Beijing's average temperature from April 7 to April 16 was 18.8 C - 5.2 degrees higher than the figure for the same period last year and the highest since 1951.

Climate change has already impacted people's lives and is becoming more and more a matter of public concern.

Climate change is mainly seen as global warming of the earth's atmosphere. And industrialization is a direct cause of the greenhouse effect.

Industrial production is now a global phenomenon, with fossil fuels being exploited and burned on a massive scale. Industrial waste products are not being properly treated before release.

Tons of greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Carbon dioxide alone accounts for 63 per cent of factors contributing to the rise in temperature of the earth's atmosphere.

The issue of atmospheric warming is attracting worldwide attention, and the international community is now making efforts to control the emission of greenhouse gases.

In 1992, the United Nations Frame Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted. It was the first international convention, aimed at stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the world's climate system.

The convention also requires developed countries to pay all developing countries' costs in cutting emissions and adapting to climate changes; and developed countries should support the strengthening of developing countries' ability to deal with environmental problems, including the transfer of related technology.

In 1997, more than 160 countries met in Japan to negotiate binding limitations on greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries. The outcome of the meeting was the Kyoto Protocol, in which developed countries agreed to cut back their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. But because of the refusal of the United States to sign, the protocol is still not in effect.

With full realization of its environmental problems, China has done much to improve its environment and avoid repeating the Western countries' perversion of priorities, expressed in the phrase, "pollute first, control later."

China actively participated in the discussion and signing of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol, committing itself to the fulfilment of its responsibilities.

It should be noted that the public now has more awareness of the importance and urgency of environmental protection and has started to take effective actions.

We cannot afford to give up the efforts to take good care of the globe since none of us want the catastrophe in the movie to come true. And none of us hope to become the next specimen like the mammoth frozen in a flash still with food in its mouth, preserved in the American Museum of Natural History.

At the end of the movie, although the professor saves his son, many more people are killed in the abrupt change and the entire Northern Hemisphere is plunged into a new Ice Age.

The movie provides food for thought.

Walking out of the theatre, I was left pondering what we can do to make our planet a better place to live in. For individual citizens, even small acts - such as leaving our car in the garage and taking a bus or subway to work - can make a big difference.

Source: China Daily