Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Big Freeze

Imagine our world in the not-too-distant future? In parts of the northern hemisphere, the temperature plummets to -90 F. At 130 below, public transportation fails. Those caught outside freeze to death.




Buildings collapse under the weight of snow and ice. The power goes out, society collapses, and anarchy takes its place. Could this be a vision of our future? In this documentary, Naked Science examines what may cause temperatures to plummet and how this could spell disaster for our planet.





More documentaries like this...

Visions of the Future

Strange Days on Planet Earth

A World Without Water


Get the DVD today...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm from Montreal, and in no way is the Montreal ice storm an example of a big freeze. The reason for the ice was because it was unusually warm! The biggest issue we had was with really old electrical towers that need to be replaced anyways, and the ice storm was a driving force to getting these electrical towers changed and updated.
We have since experienced similar weather, however, the city and government is less lazy and more prepared.

Anonymous said...

Watching only the first few minutes of this documentary, made me shake my head in disbelief. Does the writer/narrator live in a bubble and not realize that life can exist north of the equator??? The opening line itself: "In parts of the northern hemisphere, the temperature plummets to -9 F. At 13 below, public transportation fails." WHAT A JOKE!!!! Plummets ????? You call -13F a deep freeze?!!?!?

I live in Winnipeg, Mb, right in the centre of Canada, and contrary to popular southern belief, we do not ride snowmobiles down our streets in a snowstorm, nor do we have to "burn our furniture" to stay alive. Our winters frequently get as cold as -40F or colder with the windchill. And LIFE STILL GOES ON. I still wake up in a warm bed, have running water and electricity, drive my kids to daycare, take the bus to work, all of the other normal day to day stuff that you can do in "warmer climates". In contrast, our summers also get as hot as 35 Celcius (95F) and we are able to adapt to that as well.

The example provided about the great ice storm in Montreal, while true that it caused power outages and resulted in deaths, that was an isolated severe incident, no different than any other form of natural disaster than can be experienced ANYwhere in the world.

People should really educate themselves before making/believing a documentary such as this

Scott said...

@Lisa

The information for this doco was from the production company. After checking my source, I can confirm that the temperatures should have been -90 & -130 F.

This in no way absolves the producers of this film from the other many incorrect facts.

I nonetheless found the film to be quite entertaining...even if it is factually incorrect.

As always, we must exercise our own faculties in deciding if the information we are taking in is correct.

Thanks for the splash of reality from my two Canadian viewers above!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for replying Scott, however I'm puzzled about the -90 & -130F claim... The coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada was in 1947 at -81F in the Yukon Territory. A temperature of -130F has never been recorded anywhere in the world. The coldest world temperature recorded is -128.6F in Antarctica - a far cry from being comparable to Canada.
(Source: Wikipedia)

Sorry, I just had to look it up once you mentioned what the temps "should have been".

But you're right, we all must use our own common sense and discretion when it comes to what to believe.