Decades Away orThe Day After Tomorrow?: Rhetoric, Film, and the Global Warming Debate

In the summer of 2004, scientists and environmental advocates engaged the film, The Day After Tomorrow, in an effort to raise awareness of global warming as a serious environmental threat. The popular fictional film creates a dilemma for scientists and environmental advocates who highlight the dangers of global warming; while the film's underlying message has scientific merit, the cinematic depictions of such dangers push the boundaries of scientific credibility. This article examines how scientists and skeptics treat the film as a rhetorical resource to articulate claims about global warming science often obscured in existing public discussions of climate change. I argue that the rhetorical strategies used by both sides of the global warming debate demonstrate the opportunities and limitations of popular culture in situated public scientific discourses.