Extreme bad weather in Manila can bring one home earlier than usual. It gives one the luxury of watching two Netflix movies in one sitting till one's eyelids drop.
It is interesting to note that as early as (2004) "Day After Tomorrow" till (2017) "Geostorms,” Hollywood was already making "disaster movies" resulting from themes on the horrors of Climate Change.
The emission of gases and chemicals from fossil oil (mostly from transportation) and industrial waste rises into the air and contributes to global warming. Glacier ice polar caps melt, ocean levels rise and become warmer, and ecosystems are destroyed. Together they result in extreme weather changes like stronger storm surges and droughts in inexplicable patterns.
In "Day After Tomorrow" (starring Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal), a new Ice Age begins in some places as storm surges slam the Northern Hemisphere countries. People in North America are advised to stay in and be warm, while the southern area is moved down into Mexico to escape the freezing weather.
Terrific tornadoes slammed the Los Angeles area while 3 helicopters that brought the Royal Family in England to safer grounds- crashed due to bad weather. Tokyo was hit by a hailstorm and towering tidal waves flooded the Manhattan area. A space station, meantime, spotted a gigantic superstorm about to hit Canada, Europe, and Siberia.
Global temperature plummets, "burying everything under an impenetrable blanket of ice." How did Earth survive?
In "Geostorms" mad-made climate-weather control satellites malfunctioned (sabotaged) under "Project Dutch Boy" resulting in frozen villages in the deserts of Afghanistan while elsewhere- rising temperatures caused fire whirls that burned Hongkong and caused buildings there to collapse.
A cold snap had just taken out a portion of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and next in line was a storm surge to hit Orlando, Florida (sounds familiar?).
The race against time was to spot the saboteur and retrieve the code word ("Zeus") to be able to reboot the sabotaged weather control system and lead it to self-destruct.
Just as our second bowl of popcorn was to be consumed, news from CNN and BBC news relayed the news of a superstorm "Milton"-slamming Florida only a week after another monster storm "Helene" had devastated the area a week earlier. Both were classified as Category 4 major storm surges since both packed between 131-150 mph winds. Helene was 140 mph and Milton which was expected to be the "storm of all storms" thankfully receded to just 120 mph.
The August 2023 storm Idaho was recorded at 123 mph while the September 2022 surge Ian at a stronger 145 mph. It is becoming a regular environmental punishment, yearly.
Given its original trajectory, "Milton" was earlier expected to be the storm surge of the century. Some 3.5 million people in Florida were- for days- rendered without power. Some 17 deaths have been reported and the storm inflicted US$50-B damages. (Helene had a storm surge of 15 feet high and Milton lower at 8 feet high).
Dangerous hurricanes
Hurricanes like "Helene" and "Milton" reportedly carry an energy level equivalent to 10 megatons of nuclear bombs every 20 minutes, more than all the energy used by humans at any given time. It is the height of folly and perhaps arrogance for man to think that he (as the culprit in extreme weather changes) can control the consequences of hurricanes and tornados.
Man has tried and failed. In 1947, efforts of the American Air Force to drop dry ice on an incoming hurricane failed dismally. In the '60s, '70s, and '' 80s- "Operation Stormfury"- humankind tried to influence storms to make them bigger but less intense and failed as they did more damage than good.
Using a nuclear bomb over a hurricane is a medicine whose result is worse than the cure- as it can result in radioactive fallouts and damage more of humanity than the storms.
Some attempts at Geoengineering have been made to mitigate global warming which is the cause of all these abnormal weather patterns. Aerosol particles have been planted into the earth's upper atmosphere to bounce off some heat back and cool the planet slightly.
But the only viable long-term solution is still to reduce mankind's use of carbon, fossils, and chemicals to reduce the Global warming rate as envisioned in the Paris Agreement through reduction in activities and use of alternative fuels.
Until we do, Hollywood will continue to produce "disaster movies" for Netflix- to bring horror to our living rooms reflective of the oncoming nightmares that are yet to ravage the planet Earth.
(Bingo Dejaresco, a former banker, is a financial consultant, media practitioner, and author. He is a Life and Media member of Finex. His views here, however, are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of FINEX. [email protected])