The Coming Global Superstorm

The Coming Global Superstorm is a 1999 book by Art Bell & Whitley Strieber which predicts that global warming might produce sudden and catastrophic climatic effects. The 2004 movie, The Day After Tomorrow is based in part on this book.

The book posits the following theory:

• First, that the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic drift generates a cordon of warm water around the north pole, which in turn creates a cordon of warm air that holds in a frozen mass of arctic air.

• Second, that if the Gulf Stream were to shut down, that barrier would fail, releasing a flood of frozen air into the northern hemisphere, effecting a sudden and drastic temperature shift.

The book discusses a possible cause of the failure of the gulf stream: that the melting of the polar ice caps could drastically affect the salinity of the North Atlantic drift by dumping a large quantity of freshwater into the world's oceans.

External links

• What Is A Global Superstorm