Storm naming competition raises idea to remind public of link between fossil fuels and extreme weather

The Met Office should name storms after fossil fuel companies, campaigners have said, after the weather forecasting service opened a storm naming competition.

Climate campaigners have recommended the Met Office names its storms after various oil and gas corporations to remind the public of the link between burning fossil fuels and extreme weather.

They are hoping to spark a craze similar to “Boaty McBoatface”, when in 2016 the National Environment Research Council opened a competition to name a £200m polar research ship. Nationwide hilarity ensued when the public voted Boaty McBoatface as the top choice for the ship’s name. However, the name was not chosen by the government, who opted to name it the Sir David Attenborough instead.

    • Goodeye8@piefed.socialEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      I think corporations are better. Nobody connects execs with corporations and if someone does and it starts costing them money it’s a minor imconvenience they can deal with.

      But if you target their company name you target their brand and that’s going to be more than a slight inconvenience. Rebranding is crazy expensive and there’s no rubbing off that stink without rebranding.

      I imagine we’re going to get more storms than we have oil companies so eventually we can go after the execs as well.

  • bloup@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    11·
    2 days ago

    I feel like instead of naming the storm after ExxonMobil, it would play better if the storm was brought to you by ExxonMobil

    • jaybone@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Yeah somehow they would spin this as advertising and find a way to benefit from it. So maybe naming them after execs is better. But like with Boaty McBoatface, why bother asking the public what they think if you’re just going to do what you want anyway?

    • then_three_more@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      2 days ago

      I think the point is to try to get people talking about it in the way people did about the Boaty McBoatface thing.

    • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      I don’t think you understand how widely familiar people are with [noun]y Mc[noun]face as a name. The name of a storm has literally no effect whatsoever on the atmosphere and climate, so it doesn’t matter what the Met Office ends up deciding to call them, what matters is the awareness raised by the campaign, which can actually be turned into action.