A crucial ocean circulation is showing signs of instability. Its shutdown would have serious impacts

Raising global warming awarenessNonetheless, scientists are embracing the movie, unusual for those whose stock in trade is fact.

“My first reaction was, ‘Oh my God, this is a disaster because it is such a distortion of the science. It will certainly create a backlash,”’ said Dan Schrag, a Harvard University paleoclimatologist. “I have sobered up somewhat, because the public is probably smart enough to distinguish between Hollywood and the real world.”

He now hopes the movie will do for interest in global warming what “Jurassic Park” did for dinosaurs.

In the new movie, due for release Memorial Day weekend, global warming melts the polar caps, sending torrents of fresh water into the world’s salty oceans. That flood in turn chills a major current in the north Atlantic and tips the planet into a new Ice Age.

Quickly unleashed is every type of violent weather that filmmakers could cram into the movie, directed by Roland Emmerich of “Independence Day” fame. Most were invoked as an excuse to use cutting-edge special effects, Nachmanoff said.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography marine physicist Tim Barnett, who’s seen an extended trailer of the film, said even slower-moving change can wreak massive havoc.