Campaigners suggest naming hurricanes after climate change deniers

US-based climate action group 350 Action has proposed that hurricanes should be named after politicians who deny manmade global warming.

The group has launched a petition aimed at the World Meteorological Organisation, which suggests that rather than giving random names to hurricanes and storms, the names of influential people who reject the link between human activity, climate change and the increase of extreme weather events should be used.

“Since 1954, the World Meteorological Organisation has been naming extreme storms after people. But what did these people do to deserve having their name attached to these?”, says the video released by Climate Name Change.

“We propose a new naming system. One that names extreme storms caused by climate change, after the policymakers who deny climate change and obstruct climate policy.”

The petition puts forward a list of names of representatives and senators from various US states, who have denied manmade climate change or voted against climate policies, for instance regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.

The video then shows a series of fake news bulletins where superstorm Marco Rubio (a Republican senator in Florida) has hit the US.

Among the obstructionists and deniers names on the list are Louisiana senator David Vitter, who said, “I do not think the science clearly supports global warming theory”, and Alaskan representative Don Young, who claimed, “I think this is the biggest scam since the Teapot Dome”.

Other politicians even argued that carbon dioxide is “natural”, that greenhouse gases do not trap heat and that manmade carbon emissions do not affect the climate as other emissions do.

“It’s a new day but some songs remain the same”, said Jason Kowlaski, policy director of 350 Action.

“Congress used to have tobacco addiction deniers, now it has far too many climate deniers.”

Further reading:

Al Gore: climate change has reached a tipping point and can be reversed

Fox News and conservative US media blamed for ‘decreasing trust’ in global warming

Climate scientists ‘95% sure’ that global warming is manmade, says leaked IPCC document

Climate sceptics are our generation’s slavery apologists

The Guide to Climate Change 2013