Stan and
Cartman are playing in a boat that Cartman claims is his uncle's when Cartman dares Stan to drive the boat, claiming he will take the blame if trouble arises. However, as Stan does not know how to drive a boat, they crash into the world's largest
beaver dam, flooding the town of Beaverton. Cartman reveals that he lied about the boat belonging to his uncle and convinces Stan to try to hide their involvement by maintaining complete silence about the incident. Meanwhile, the flood has a worse outcome than Stan expected. The people of Beaverton are in a state of disaster. Nobody tries to help the situation; instead, everybody would rather figure out who is to blame. At a conference at the
Governor's office with top Colorado scientists and government officials, they all declare that the disaster is the result of
global warming. At first, it is determined the full effects will take place on "the day after tomorrow". However, some scientists suddenly burst in and state that it has been proven that the disaster will take place "two days before the day after tomorrow". The declaration of the scientists causes
mass hysteria, and everybody runs from "global warming". Most of the South Park people crowd in the
community center.
Randy authoritatively states that global warming is causing an
ice age outside that would kill them if they left. Stan admits to
Kyle that he and Cartman were the cause of the Beaverton flood (although Stan takes most of the blame). The trio then set off to rescue the people by boat. The attempt is a disaster in itself, as they wind up crashing into an
oil refinery, compounding the problems of the stranded people, who now must deal with drowning and fire. Meanwhile, Randy,
Gerald, and
Stephen brave the supposed ice age to find their sons. Dressed in heavy arctic mountaineering gear despite the mild weather, the trio quickly collapse in the street due to heat exhaustion and
dehydration, but mistake their symptoms as the "last stages of
hypothermia." The boys nearly escape to the roof of the flooded and burning refinery, but Cartman claims that "all Jews carry gold in a little bag around their necks", and holds Kyle at gunpoint, demanding his "Jew gold," not wanting to be poor in a supposedly changing world. Kyle inexplicably has the gold, along with a fake bag, but he throws it into the destroyed refinery to spite Cartman. After this, boys are rescued by an Army helicopter and fly back to South Park where the Army declares that
Crab People, not global warming, are responsible for breaking the dam. In exasperation, Stan finally admits that he broke the dam, but one of the townspeople incorrectly interprets his admission as a lesson to stop obsessing over who to blame while ignoring the problem. The townspeople all begin to declare, "I broke the dam", with Cartman joining in knowing that he won't get in trouble now, while Stan tries unsuccessfully to explain that he literally did it, with a boat. Stan gets angry and finally just shouts, "Oh, fuck it!" ==Cultural references==