Climate change as social drama : global warming in the public sphere Scientists agree that anthropogenic climate change is real and that it is a very serious threat on multiple levels for the entire planet (IPCC 2013). Economic social political and biological systems are all said to be in trouble. Moreover there is a limited window of opportunity for dealing with the problem. At the same time the public around the globe is mostly apathetic. Even in countries such as Norway where high levels of environmental concern and political involvement are the norm climate change often seems more like background noise than a problem demanding radical collective action (Norgaard 2011). Contrary to what one might think a similar situation pertains in the United States. Here despite an effective right wing campaign to discredit climate science (Oreskes and Conway 2010) surveys now show that a majority of people believe that climate change is happening and needs to be addressed including now a majority of Republicans (Maibach et al 2013). Yet many of these same surveys indicate most Americans are unwilling to make meaningful sacrifices to deal with the problem Climate change is not just a scientific fact nor merely a social and political problem. It is also a set of stories and characters that amount to a social drama.This drama as much as hard scientific or political realities shapes perception of the problem. Drs. Smith and Howe use the perspective of cultural sociology and Aristotles timeless theories about narrative and rhetoric to explore this meaningful and visible surface of climate change in the public sphere. Whereas most research wants to explain barriers to awareness here we switch the agenda to look at the moments when global warming actually gets attention. Chapters consider struggles over apocalyptic scenarios explain the success of Al Gore and An Inconvenient Truth unpack the deeper social meanings of the climate conference and Climategate critique failed advertising campaigns and climate art and question the much touted transformative potential of natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy