1

In a time where the earth was changing for the worse and the changes in climate were largely

being ignored, the film The Day After Tomorrow was greatly needed to persuade, and even

inform, the audience what was happening around them. While scientists were critical about the

movie showing climate change as overly dramatic, it impacted audiences in a way that made

them more aware of climate disasters happening around them.

The environmental disasters in The Day After Tomorrow are greatly exaggerated, which was

done purposely to make it clear that it was a disaster film and not a documentary, but the

message behind the film was very real for the time. 1 During the early 2000s, scientists were

reporting changes in the Earth that were concerning. It was recorded that the period from 2002 to

2003 was the hottest the Earth had been for land and water temperatures. 2 Seeing these changes

on the Earth understandably scared many scientists and pushed them into looking for a solution

to keep the Earth from getting worse. However, according to the Yale study by Leiserowitz,

many people thought that climate change did not need any urgent action because its effects were

not being felt or seen. Many Americans even shared the opinion that climate change was not

even real. 3 While this may seem ignorant or unsympathetic this sentiment was common for the

early 2000s when it was believed that climate change was slowing down around this time.

Scientists found that this pause was just a hiccup in the data, but the public perception grew more

skeptical after this. Unfortunately, public perception shapes what science gets done and using

facts to change their mind is difficult. 4 An effective way to convince them, while not absolutely
1
www.ncei.noaa.gov. “Annual 2004 Global Climate Report | National Centers for Environmental Information
(NCEI),” n.d. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/200413#:~:text=Land
%20temperatures%20in%202004%20were.
2
Alexandra Witze. “A Global Warming Pause That Didn’t Happen Hampered Climate Science.” Science News, April
1, 2022. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/global-warming-pause-climate-change-science-early-2000s.
3
Burlaza, Angelica Denise. “‘The Day after Tomorrow’ Changed How We See This Key Issue.” Collider, August 29,
2023. https://collider.com/the-day-after-tomorrow-climate-change/#:~:text=The%20Day%20After%20Tomorrow
%20sparked.
4
Burlaza, Angelica Denise. “‘The Day after Tomorrow’ Changed How We See This Key Issue.” Collider, August 29,
2023. https://collider.com/the-day-after-tomorrow-climate-change/#:~:text=The%20Day%20After%20Tomorrow
 2

guaranteed, is to use movies. The director, Roland Emmerich, wanted this film to not just be

entertaining, but to raise awareness about climate change and global warming. When it came out

many criticized the film for being too dramatic that it made climate change look like a fantasy,

but it ultimately worked. People who saw the movie were more likely to be concerned about

climate change than those who did not see it. 5

While controversial for its over-the-top depiction of climate change, The Day After

Tomorrow created conversations about global warming that was happening to the Earth and

raised awareness for climate change.

%20sparked.
5
Rahmstorf, Stefan. “The Film ‘the Day after Tomorrow’ - Comments by Climatologist Stefan Rahmstorf.” www.pik-
potsdam.de, n.d. https://www.pik-potsdam.de/~stefan/tdat_review.html.
 3

References

Alexandra Witze. “A Global Warming Pause That Didn’t Happen Hampered Climate Science.”
Science News, April 1, 2022. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/global-warming-
pause-climate-change-science-early-2000s.

Burlaza, Angelica Denise. “‘The Day after Tomorrow’ Changed How We See This Key Issue.”
Collider, August 29, 2023.
https://collider.com/the-day-after-tomorrow-climate-change/#:~:text=The%20Day
%20After%20Tomorrow%20sparked.

Rahmstorf, Stefan. “The Film ‘the Day after Tomorrow’ - Comments by Climatologist Stefan
Rahmstorf.” www.pik-potsdam.de, n.d.
https://www.pik-potsdam.de/~stefan/tdat_review.html.

www.ncei.noaa.gov. “Annual 2004 Global Climate Report | National Centers for Environmental
Information (NCEI),” January 2005.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/
200413#:~:text=Land%20temperatures%20in%202004%20were.