I've got some bad news, The Day After Tomorrow is not a work of fiction.   Well, in terms of plot, scale, and timeframe it is definitely fiction, but facts show global climate change is indeed occurring.

The movie itself even begins steeped in fact. The opening scene involving a portion of antarctic ice shelf breaking off did occur a couple of years ago.  As depicted in the movie, the large scale disruption of our climate system itself, the Gulf stream) is a grave scenario many scientists believe to be possible. In fact many of the basic scenarios played out in the movies are looked on as fact in the scientific community. Violent storms, heavier rainfall in areas, flooding and melting glaciers are all displayed in the film. Not displayed in the film but showing signs of occurrence are draughts, spring arriving sooner, oceans warming and coral reefs dying. The final scenario of a new ice age is an outcome many scientists fear.

Of course the good news is The Day After Tomorrow is a movie. The cataclysmic events mentioned above are happening over a slow timeframe, at least in terms of human life. The temperature of the Earth is rising, 1
degree Fahrenheit over the last century. Doesn't sound like much unless you consider between 1000 AD and 1900 the average temperature of the Northern Hemisphere only varied up or down by a tenth of a degree Celsius. For Hollywood to make a movie out of these facts, they need to sensationalize and speed up time. They also took the liberty to invent science as human beings freezing within seconds of exposure to freezing air defy the laws of thermodynamics.

Beyond science, The Day After Tomorrow is standard summer movie fare. If
you have seen Independence Day, also by filmmaker Roland Emmerich, you have
seen this movie. The plot is mundanely similar. Show different parts of
the world being destroyed by a common force, cut to a husband and wife team,
torn apart by careers but reunited by tragedy, focus on a government torn
between sacrificing and saving different parts of the country and finish
with survivors being rescued with the promise to work together for a better
future. For good measure Emmerich included a knock-off of Jurassic Park
with wolves taking the place of Velociraptor in a room to room hunt for Sam
(Jake Gyllenhaal).

For being a standard popcorn film, The Day After Tomorrow isn't bad. If it
were not based on some ecological facts it would be just like most other
standard summer movies, entertaining and forgettable. Emmerich does know
how to film the destruction of our cities with spectacular aplomb.
Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid and Sela Ward star and offer solid if unspectacular
performances. Pretty much what you would expect from a summer film.