REVIEW

Apocalyptically Sudden Climate Change - Looking at The Sixth Winter and The Day After Tomorrow

Written by Ruvy
Published December 03, 2007

The movie, The Day After Tomorrow, produced by Roland Emmerich, and the book, The Sixth Winter, written by Douglas Orgill and John Gribben, both deal with sudden climate change – the sudden onset of an ice age. They are both appropriate for review in an era that could prove apocalyptic, an era that may see sudden changes in the way our planet operates in quite a number of ways, including dramatic climate changes.

The Sixth Winter was written in the late 1970s and reflects the era it was written in. The protagonist, a climatologist named Stovin, uses a portable electric typewriter to do his reports and brings his work to a Cray One super-computer, Razzle Dazzle, the only one of its kind available for meteorological work. He winds up in the Soviet Union where an “outrider of the future”, an isolated tornado of ice where the jet stream takes a dip from the stratosphere to the surface of the planet, brings the cold temperatures of space and death and disaster to the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia. He had been requested by name by Soviet authorities, and he had brought with him a wolf zoologist who is his romantic interest, Diane Hilder, and a half Eskimo from Alaska, a former USAF pilot named Bisby.

He stays at the home of a young Russian climatologist named Soldatov and his wife, Valentina. They are ultimately joined by a Soviet Foreign Ministry employee, also a KGB agent, named Volkov, whose main job is to keep an eye on the Americans, particularly Bisby, who as a former air force pilot is considered a threat. It turns out that they have to make a dangerous journey across snow and ice to America as the snows and winds of the new ice age tear apart the infrastructure of the northern hemisphere. They also tear apart the social structure of eastern Siberia where Chukchi tribesmen decide to leave and go east towards Alaska, deserting towns, cities and cooperatives, killing ethnic Russians and kidnapping their women.

In this dangerous situation, the particular skills of a man trained to be a high altitude Eskimo, Bisby, shine forth as he brings the group to safety a few miles from the island where he was raised and warned by an Eskimo shaman to not return to.

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The writer was born in Brooklyn and lived in Minnesota for a number of years. There he managed restaurants and wrote stories. He moved with his family to Israel where they now reside. He is published by Jewish Indy, as well as by Desicritics.org.
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Apocalyptically Sudden Climate Change - Looking at The Sixth Winter and The Day After Tomorrow
Published: December 03, 2007
Type: Review
Section: Sci/Tech
Filed Under: Books: SF, Culture: Religion, Politics: Policy, Sci/Tech: Energy/Environment, Sci/Tech: Life Sciences, Sci/Tech: Physical Sciences, Sci/Tech: Space, Video: SF
Writer: Ruvy
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Comments

#1 — December 6, 2007 @ 12:06PM — MAOZ

Hag Same'aH, Ruvy!

I stumbled across something that might speak to you, in the Revava.org forum's discussion titled "Weak Dollar". A link is given there to an article.

I didn't have time just now to go through the entire article. But in skimming through it, it struck me that you might be interested in seeing it.

Kol tuv.

#2 — December 6, 2007 @ 13:42PM — duane

Ruvy, you hint around at your belief that there will be an apocalypse. What is the nature of such an apocalypse as you envision it? Something specific? Natural disaster? War? Disease? What does the aftermath look like? I know you don't know, exactly. I'm asking for your speculation.

Realizing with a certain humility that it is not us who cause the wind to blow and the rain to fall.

Nice turn of phrase. But a bit at odds with the belief that humans can cause or prevent a catastrophic climatic change.

#3 — December 6, 2007 @ 14:04PM — Ruvy in Jerusalem [URL]

Thanks, MAOZ!!

A great read! Great reference!!

Have some sufganyot (jelly doughnuts) for me!

Hanukkah SameaH!

#4 — December 6, 2007 @ 14:06PM — Ruvy in Jerusalem [URL]

Duane,

I'll get back to your question in a little while. This is the only computer with internet connection and I promised my wife some time at the computer for an internet version of "Brick Blaster." See you in a bit...

#5 — December 6, 2007 @ 17:28PM — Ruvy in Jerusalem [URL]

Duane,

The original closing sentence in the essay was:

We would do well to realize that we have not been good stewards of the planet G-d entrusted us with, and seek to do better, hope for the best, and trim our sails to however the wind blows, realizing with a certain humility that it is G-d and not us Who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall.

The editor, in editing the this piece ever so lightly, edited G-d out....

Be that as it may, the phrase "Who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall" is lifted from the Standing Prayer, the 'Amidá that I recite and that is recited three times daily.

I'll be back with more later, Duane. You have hit at the fundament of my writing and I may write an entire article based on your question.

In the meantime, thanks for the kind words.

Later,
Reuven

#6 — December 15, 2007 @ 13:28PM — Mike Johnston [URL]

Christianity has been waiting for an apocalypse for something like 2000 years now without much in the way of results. Climate change is such a man made event that any apocalypse would be something that we would have to intentionally allow to happen because we have the means to stop it (just not the will).

Science fiction is great because it serves to translate dry, scientific data into a form that the general public can digest. But making it entertaining can often blur reality and fiction.

If we step up to the plate and learn to manage our planet responsibly there will probably never be a climate change apocalypse.

#7 — December 15, 2007 @ 14:14PM — Ruvy in Jerusalem [URL]

Mike,

Jews had been praying to live in and control Jerusalem for 2,000 years without much of anything for results. Check my screen name again if you're having trouble getting the point.

By the way, we are still praying for the re-building of Jerusalem. Until OUR Temple stands on the Temple Mount and this entire land belongs to ALL of the People of Israel, that rebuilding will not be complete.

In the Tana"kh, the Hebrew Bible, it is written that when G-d blinks His Eye, 1,000 years pass. That verse is part of how our sages came up with a 15 billion year age for the universe.

When you deal with an Entity that is outside of time, you need patience - real patience.

I would counsel a bit more humility on your part. Two thousand years is but two blinks of G-d's Eye.

Re-read, please.

We would do well to realize that we have not been good stewards of the planet G-d entrusted us with, and seek to do better, hope for the best, and trim our sails to however the wind blows, realizing with a certain humility that it is G-d and not us Who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall.

Shavua Tov - Have a good week.

#8 — December 16, 2007 @ 04:55AM — Ruvy in Jerusalem [URL]

Duane,

Ruvy, you hint around at your belief that there will be an apocalypse. What is the nature of such an apocalypse as you envision it? Something specific? Natural disaster? War? Disease? What does the aftermath look like? I know you don't know, exactly. I'm asking for your speculation.

Apparently the answer to your question has been rattling around in my head for some weeks and is found at this article in comments #16 and #20.

First of all, though, a small correction in terms. The word "apocalypse" is a Christian term referring to a Christian idea, a final battle between Good and Evil to take place around Har Megiddo (Mt. Megiddo) in Israel. The Greek then messes up the Hebrew and gives you Armageddon, which is the Christian term for the location of this battle, as well as a generic term in English for an apocalyptic battle or confrontation, or in the case of this article, a sudden change in affairs (climate) that causes great upheaval...

The Hebrew term is geulá, meaning Redemption. As mentioned to Irene Wagner, the Redemption can be early, an event caused by massive repentance of Jews and others and a turning away from sin. In this event, the terrors that are prophesied in Biblical Books like Isaiah, Zechariah, Ezekiel, Joel or Jeremiah do not occur, and you go straight to a wonderful world on earth. Or, you get to do it the hard way: the terrors of the coming of the messiah do occur (mishléi hamashíaH in Hebrew) and you get that wonderful world only after lots of blood is shed, and many people die.

Either way, the messiah comes and rights the world, and either way, something like what is in those comments is what I speculate will occur.

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