Actor renames himself for climate change awareness

Rainn Wilson, who starred in the US version of the sitcom The Office, declared in a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday that he had changed his name to Rainnfall Heat Wave Extreme Winter Wilson “as a cheap little stunt to help save planet Earth.” 

“I changed my name..to help tell the world leaders and influencers that we need to act now,” Wilson said, urging his fellow celebrities to do the same because “what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.”

While the actor initially said he had changed his name on “Twitter, Instagram and even on my fancy writing paper,” he later tweeted that he hadn’t changed his name on Twitter, blaming the platform’s new owner Elon Musk for the roadblock.

Wilson, famous for playing the “power-hungry sycophant” Dwight Schrute, encouraged viewers to visit a website run by the “science communications platform” Arctic Basecamp, which he advises. There, he said, they could “create a name that will bring attention to this problem,” then “change your social media profile or display name to match.”

The comedian urged other entertainers to follow suit, offering names such as “Samuel Earth’s Getting Hot as L. Jackson” and “Leonardo Di-Polar Ice Caprio Are Melting”.

“If enough of us do this, then maybe Cop27 will be where our world leaders sit up and notice Arctic risks and introduce a solution,” he tweeted.

The annual UN climate conference began this week in Egypt and is set to feature discussion of “climate reparations” – developed nations paying for environmental damages done to their less wealthy neighbors – for the first time in its quarter-century history. While some have hailed the notion as a triumph for the Global South, others argue it will only further divide the world on how to respond to the climate crisis and ensure no meaningful action is taken before it’s too late.