Tornadoes tearing apart the city of Los Angeles, rain that floods the city of Manhattan and super-cooled air storms that instantly freeze everything in their path; many of us who have seen the fictional movie The Day After Tomorrow laugh at the seemingly ridiculous apocalyptic plot line, but what if we told you that the movie has some scientific basis?

What would happen if the world changed in an instant? What if it is changing right now?

This time last year, Wayland was buried under more than a foot of snow. The winter went down in history as Boston’s third snowiest of all time. This year, temperatures have rarely dropped below freezing.

There is open water on the ponds and almost every lawn is green. It’s only six weeks into 2012, but signs of a changing earth are already starting to crop up. The weather may not be showing itself as prominently as The Day After Tomorrow’s ice age, but don’t be fooled, Earth’s climate is changing faster than you may think.

There is such a thing as abrupt climate change like in the movie, and according to scientists from The National Academy of Sciences, it has happened before, it could happen again and it might be happening right now.

Abrupt climate change is the sudden warming or cooling of the earth as a result of a major change in the global climate system like the melting of ice sheets, strengthening or weakening of ocean currents, or increasing emissions of climate-altering gases.

There is already evidence of these changes. Combined with the recent above average temperatures, it looks like climate change may be occurring as we speak, and it is definitely having an impact on us. Ski resorts are suffering, money is being wasted on skating rink construction and winter supplies, and snowplow companies don’t have any work.

So we’re receiving less snow this year. What does that have to do with the end of the world you ask?

Excuse the pun, but it’s a snowball effect. Abrupt climate change may start with a seemingly insignificant snow-less winter, but it’s all downhill from there. From flooding, to extreme heat, to hurricanes, once the effects of climate change start, they set off a chain reaction.

So maybe the Mayans were right in predicting the end of the world in 2012. No, the world isn’t going to burst into flames, there will be no zombies and there may not be an epidemic that wipes out the population, but our own prior actions might be the cause of the end of the world as we know it.

Right now, the biggest danger of this snow-less winter isn’t in the physical problems it may cause. The danger is that it has disguised itself as a blessing. Heating bills are surely lower as the average temperature has hovered around 40 degrees, and people don’t need to spend money on snow-caused property damage. Without slick ice and massive snow banks, the roads are safer for driving, especially for inexperienced teen drivers.

These benefits lull the average resident into accepting the seemingly harmless changes, making them even more vulnerable when the more dangerous weather inevitably arrives; at a closer glance, the absence of snow merely foreshadows the horrors to come.

If you ask the average Wayland High School student, they’ll probably say they’re enjoying the weather, loving the warm temperatures and not missing snow in the slightest. We are getting soft in this warm weather. Mother Nature has lulled us into a trance, but sooner or later the end of meteorological norms will be upon us.